Posted: Jun 22, 08 9:33pm
I came to wonder a couple of years ago how there could ever be a song again with the cultural impact of "American Pie". We all have so many different media sources that we won't likely ever have such a large portion of people listening to the same channel or podcast as the case may be.
Then it occured to me that it might just be a matter of bypassing traditional publishers on the internet -- not to get recordings out, but to connect songwriters directly to performers. Instead of sending demo tapes to publishers and studios, songwriters can just post them online, and market the rights directly to bands.
As I considered the idea, the next culturally defining super hit might very well never hit the charts because everyone is listening to it by difeerent artists, from different genres, and in different regions. Instead of being of national cultural significance, it could become of global cultural significance.
In addition, song creators would make more than from one artist having a big hit, because the publisher gets most of that. Individual performers or bands would keep more of their share of the profits, because they don;t have to pay the publisher.
It wouldn't eliminate traditional music publishing, but instead make it a sort of upper tier market for material that has already become culturally iconic, which would best assure long range profits for shareholders, which is a corporation's true bread and butter -- so it even works for them. No more specualtion necessary. They could corner the market on material after they know everyone likes it.
I began planning a website for myself with that approach in mind, when it occurred to me that if I'd thought of it, someone else must have to. That's when I found Reverb Nation ( http://www.reverbnation.com ) among others.
To my delight I also found a lot of great music by some awesome performers mixed in with those of barely tolerable voices, such as mine. Most are excellent -- nad tow of my current favorite performers are artists I might never have heard of otherwise.
I don't expect any of my songs to define a generation, but I reamin convinced that the next songwriter who does will do it through some similar method.
Having explained the concept, I'd like to know about other such sites, and what others think of the general concept.
