DON'T FORGET - ACTION - July 10, 2009

TheHolodigm.com

ACTION

DON'T FORGET: There is no template for building careers in The Music Renaissance. For decades the postmodern record business has imposed its systems and protocols on the music industry. The Internet and all things digital have reversed the process. Plummeting CD sales have gutted the infrastructure of the once mighty record business. The big four have always relied on an elaborate and expensive A&R mechanism to sift through the brass needles to find the golden.

The discovery of new talent is now conducted through an elaborate combination of artists performing live, social networking, Internet marketing and niche groups searching for a great song on the web. Instead of record executives choosing an act and pushing it at the fan base through radio and brick and mortar stores, the fans show support for an artist on line and as the clicks accrue the record companies follow the sweet smell of success and throw money at the act.

Instead of choosing from a small list of contenders offered by the labels, music lovers can select from the extant global catalog. This vast library has diluted the market place, spreading gross sales over a greater number of genres. Subsequently, the records at the top of the charts sell far fewer units to get there. That is why the major record companies will not survive in their current form. Buying is an option, not a necessity, and artists don't need a machine to offer free downloads.

The digital doorway is wide open to all comers, and everybody is lost in the fog of showbiz. The first step in creating a business from music is to accept the fact that no record company is going to jump start your career. Even if every song you write is a crystal tear from the eye of Zeus, a profitable business is not going to fall off the truck. Success will be achieved at the end of a war.

Ninety percent of the millions of artists, offering their music and merch on the web, will get sucked down the black hole of broken dreams. The first battle is to build an act that can get into the ten percent of artists who will turn a profit. One hundred percent of the money will be made by those acts. Ninety percent of that money will be earned by one percent of the artists. Until you build a profitable business in the real world, you are not even in contention for The Big Top.

ACTION is the operative word in all career pursuits. Forget about a record deal and stop looking for the big manager in the sky to bless you and move your mountain. He's not coming and you are going to have to save yourself. That is the good news. Competing for attention in the postmodern system is futile. No artist who believes in himself and his talent should consider a record deal.

Careers will NOT be built from the corporate penthouse down, they will be generated from the grass roots of the Internet, UP. This puts the control in the hands of the creative community. The Holodigm system offers a new paradigm for proactive singers, song writers and musicians to join forces with creative entrepreneurs to invent a new business model for the music industry.

Artists do not need to have an experienced manager. What they require is a partner with business acumen. The degree of difficulty is extremely high, and making a career in music is not a part time job, not for the artist and not for the manager. All business activity is the responsibility of the artist, until he finds his partner, then all jobs belong to the new manager of the corporation.

The CEO of a Holodigm cell now has full control of the company. He and the artist own the equity in the entity. Both are under contract for exclusive personal services. The manager's personal survival depends on the success of the act; and the artist has a partner whose only job is to turn his music into a profitable enterprise. Only ten percent of the most talented artists will reach this plateau. The ones that do will survive and compete for the national and global audience.

The new music industry functions under an evolving business model, it will also be populated by a different breed of artist. They will not be signed to a record company, they will have their own label and publishing entities and all income streams will be controlled by the corporation. The asset built will sustain all the partners in their old age. Most deals to acquire or exploit the artist's music should be licensing agreements where the masters and publishing revert to the act when the term expires. Bands should avoid paying commissions and royalties whereever possible by doing the jobs in house. A good booking agent is the first ally in the game.

An artist in his chrysalis period has no artificial time frame. The most important creative pursuit is to build a repertoire and think about the package. Step two is to develop an entertaining live show to be the delivery system for the company's product line. An effective booking mechanism is imperative and the CEO must create and maintain a system that keeps the act working live. The team must know how to play, play well, have talent and get lucky. ACTION makes the difference.

Hartmann