Indie success: fairy tale?
This article in Forbes magazine got me thinking. The ups and downs of being an independent musical artist have been weighing heavily on my mind lately, and it seems like I’m not the only one. What frustrates me, though, is to read articles like this that tout “independent” as the wave of the future. Well, in a way, yes it is. For artists like Prince or Pearl Jam, it makes sense. The thing that never gets mentioned in these “up with indie” articles is that these people already had large fanbases before they started up their own self-funded labels. Even Aimee Mann, the indie success story of a few years back, had a moderate number of people buying her records before the journalists caught on to her “overnight” non-label-based success. We unsigned artists read these articles, and feel like we have a level of success to shoot for, forgetting that we’ve never had the name recognition or press coverage that a Prince or a Hanson have.
The success stories are only part of what happens. Like I mentioned in a previous post, for every Ani DiFranco, who through sheer drive and relentless touring builds up their fan base and record sales to an unbelievable point, there are thousands of others who still have unopened boxes of their CDs languishing in their basement. This is the ultimate failure of the “buy my shiny new CD” model.
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