Page 36 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2019

KP: We have seen many changes in the music
Photo credit: Daniel Craye
industry over the years. The introduction of the
internet has been both friend and foe to the artist,
depending on your point of view. Can you talk about
the business of music today versus 20-30 years ago;
pro and cons?
DM: I would love to, Kiki. Personally, I personally like
the internet. A band and/or artist can these days
showcase their musical creations to the world in
sometimes a matter of minutes by using the internet
and all of its tools and social media -- rather than like
in the old days…having to get signed to a super major
label, spend months in the studio writing and
recording, and then finally releasing an album that
would take weeks and months to make its way
around the globe. And to get one’s music out to
everyone around the world in the old days by touring,
well, by the time most bands made it to one particular
country and introduced their new album to that
country, their songs were already fizzling out in some
other country where the band had already showcased
them. It was just a long, long, drawn-out affair.
Obviously, the more money and backing a band
and/or artist had been allotted by their label, the
faster they could achieve worldwide success on their
particular album. But most weren’t privy to this kind
of money or backing. In fact, most bands and artists
didn’t even have a label to bankroll and back
worldwide albums and tours and had to settle for
(hopefully) being known just around the small region
where the band was from. Sure, there were some
very good songs that many of the DJs with the radio
stations would pick up and the song would travel
across the U.S. But they rarely make it overseas and
many times not even in all parts of the U.S. -- mainly
just the major cities with heavily listened to radio
stations. If you were then lucky enough to then get
picked up by a label, you would usually be given some
up-front money and told to hit the road to promote
the song. If it did well on the radio with requests for
airplay and with the concert crowds, it was then
better. We had nothing to compare it to and I
pressed and put into brick and mortar record stores.
It may sound really bad, but none of us knew any
suppose we just figured that it would always be that
way. And we certainly had no internet. We had never
even heard of the word. LOL!