Gatekeepers are gone, but the work remains

We have it SO good now.

The ability for anyone to make music, upload it, and in a matter of days it be available on every major platform around the world is nothing short of miraculous. For some it’s just enough that it’s out there, and those tend to be the happiest people. When people get their eyes on the greasy pole of success however, things change.

A lot of frustration comes from the sense of entitlement that musicians that have not done the work to build a fanbase often feel when nobody listens, and I get it. You made something, you love it, it’s there, right next to the huge artists. Of course, just because it exists doesn’t mean anyone is going to listen to it. Especially if they have never heard of you!

The Hard Reality of the Past: How Music Used to Work

Not so long ago, the path was very different and even harder. You made your first demos solely to get shows, and gig by miserable gig you built a following, or didn’t - and went away. Once you had a following you’d probably spend more money to make a fancier demo to try to get some better gigs, and even sell a few copies to the fanbase. At some point after a few harsh lessons, you might make an even fancier demo, something that more resembled a record as you wanted to try college and local radio, or approach that music lawyer guy that has the label contacts.

What about if you weren’t a live band and just made records? Well then you really had a struggle, maybe you broke on radio courtesy of a huge promo budget, some high profile benefactor, or tie in with advertising…but much harder, almost impossible at a grass roots level.

Some bands even managed to eventually press their demo on an actual record, long before elastic stage made one-offs possible which was an investment of thousands. It was a dangerous place, getting to the self financed indie record stage and most never made more than one album, as it almost never broke even, and the people that likely helped fund you...since most bands were relatively broke - probably won’t again!

It was pretty unrealistic that outside LA, or a major music market your music was going to make it onto any kind of big radio station. College radio was a very important thing, and was largely responsible for the entire “indie music” scene. The Pixies weren’t getting played on national radio and the video was on that public TV channel with that janky video show, surely not MTV.

There were also a few nationally syndicated radio networks, like Z-rock based in Dallas, a wildly successful AM hard rock station that sometimes had local segments playing local music. The only way to get your song to radio in a professional format they’d accept was to supply it on 1/4” tape, and you kissed that copy, and reel goodbye forever. That’s about $30 a go in modern money, and the only place that could MAKE the copy for you was a recording studio, so tack on that hourly rate on as well as you got your copies made. Now, you send a streamable link, or an MP3!

The Three Pillars of Music Success

Now, if you have even modest means, and the ability for a few hundred dollars you can make something that sounds like an actual record. Maybe even better than a lot of old records! Whether that lives or dies depends on the few things that it always has:

• Is it any good

• The size of your fanbase

• Your promotional activity

  
  

The first is subjective, so hard to nail down and ranges from the glaringly obvious to the ephemeral, the size of your fanbase is the product of your promotional efforts so far and (ideally) grows with each release, and your promotional activity is where 99% of people fall short due to lack of interest, time, or money.

The New Fox in the Henhouse: AI and Quality Control

Clearly we can’t compete with massive promo budgets, the streamers ( playlisting somewhat being the new radio) seem heavily biased towards the majors, plus we have a new fox in the henhouse - AI. It may be slop, but it sometimes sounds more together than a lot of releases. The reality is a lot of DIY music falls short, and it’s our responsibility to double down on both artistic effort and quality.

Curiously, many musicians are even coming around to the idea of gatekeeping all of a sudden as AI music floods the streaming platforms and social media. So maybe not ALL music ever created needs to be out there available to the public, after all?

Personally, I think AI should be tagged as such, and filters offered to bypass it. If you haven’t noticed by now, in the evolution of music the genie never goes back into the bottle - the business just finds a way to monetize the genie. Deals are being brokered with the slop factories, and it’s here to stay in one way or another.

The thing is, it’s far more likely that there will be a million AI-using new “producers” making AI remixes of the latest legally licensed Drake track rather than something based on our work. That’s where the money will go, as ever concentrated at the top.

The Path Forward: Human-Powered Art

All we can do is keep doing what we have always done, make human-powered art for ourselves and our audience. It feels like there’s an undercurrent of people understanding the value of that, like there’s that little bit of worth creeping back into the picture after a long period of decline and devaluation. Perhaps there is a positive side to all this after all? Be as real and as human as possible. Do all the things that AI can't. If you’re a band, you’re still going to need to get in the van. AI "artists" can't. If you’re an artist that just makes recordings, as ever it’s a very hard uphill battle, but you can be present, show up, do interviews, have a personality, an opinion beyond just trying to get playlisted. The music alone has rarely been enough - at the very least you need to be heard, seen, and read about.

If you’re not prepared to do that, that’s ok, too. Go back to being one of those happy people who just loves that their music exists out there in the world. There’s genuine beauty in that.

If you're chasing success, remember this: accessibility is a gift, but engagement is still earned. The gatekeepers might be gone, but the work will always remain hard, and thankless.

Thanks again for reading, and if you happen to be an artist that would like to team up with a world class mixing engineer to make that next release amazing - I know a guy. Here's the offer.