When you look at the charts and see who is selling out shows and are succeeding at most downloads and sales of their albums, you’ll see an interesting thing.  Most of these artists have record deals and representation.  You’d say that it’s a no brainer.  They have the support and commitment to get their music heard with the help of the labels.  That doesn’t sound much different from the way things were in the past.  Yes, there is a new model in the way labels do business and make a profit.  The most common is the 360 deals where they take a percentage of profits from the artist’s live performances and merchandising not to mention downloads and sales of their albums.  The numbers from sales and downloads are minimal compared to the past and that’s the way they can make a living.  In return, the labels are instrumental in getting the artists promoted and distributed worldwide.  They are also involved in helping in getting the artists out to perform shows and have the merchandise and their music available at the shows and on line.  They may be also instrumental in getting the artist’s music into films ant TV.  These are all good things for the artist but the most important thing that labels can do for their artists is to help them in talent development and focus as an artist.  In other words, they can help in getting an artist with the right producer, or alike, to help them define who they are. Of course, every artist believes they already know this and are ready for the big league.  The truth is that most artists are not ready.  It is hard for a creative person such as an artist to say, I know I have talent, I’m a good performer, I have good songs but what is going to break me through and stand out from other artists.  This is where talent development comes in.  I’m not saying that labels are the only way to get connected to the right people that can help artists with development but they can be.  There are many successful artists that worked with a good, talented producer or mentor to develop their skills before and after getting signed.  Those artists have a better chance at success than the ones that believe that they can succeed strictly on their own.

Talent development is just as important today as it was in the past.   This is an area that I enjoy working in as a producer.  I always look for and look forward to working with new and established talented artists that are willing to put in the work to make their dreams come true.

In the past, an artist was discovered by the A&R person (artist and repertoire) who represented the record label. If the record label executives liked the artist, the artist would get signed to the label. After much wrangling between artist and label lawyers (who made the real money), there would be a signing party and the recording process would begin. The label then assigned the artist a producer (either independent or a label producer at the labels discretion). The A&R person and producer would then choose the “appropriate” songs for the artist to record. The producer would choose the recording musicians for the sessions, recording engineers, the studio (with the label’s approval), the musical arrangers/orchestrations and. the mastering engineer. The whole album recording process (usually 10 songs) would take about two to six weeks from tracking to mixing. The job of the artist was to be ready and show up to the session to perform. That’s all. After the recording process, the label would decide on the type of distribution and marketing the artist needs for success. Sometimes the label would give the artist tour support money to promote the album and artist. At times, the label even provided budgets for performing backup musicians’ retainers and salaries, stage clothes and choreographers.

All that started to change in the late seventies and eighties. The big budgets from the labels came to a halt. The artists were more involved in either writing their own songs or picking out other songwriters’ songs for the album. The artists also had the opportunity to select their own producers and studios. There was more responsibility put on the artist but the labels still had final say. The label could accept or reject what the artist did on their record. Sometimes (like what happened to a band called The Tubes) the label sued the artist for the moneys they put into the recordings. The moneys the labels provided the artist were an advance or a loan to be paid back from the revenue proceeds to the labels before the artist saw one penny in their pockets. Depending what side of the scale you were on, that was good or bad. Many artists that were if fact great artists got dropped from the labels or were never signed. Others got the support of the labels. They got to benefit from the labels might in distribution and marketing throughout the world.

In the nineties, the Internet started to make a strong presence in consumerism. It was the beginning of the time when you could just download a song and pay nothing for it. For example, Napster was a well-known site that eventually got sued by the big labels for infringing on their profits. Artists and songwriters started to see their income dwindling as well. What the public did not know was that people in the music industry, artists, songwriters, producers, studios, publishers, etc. were starting to feel the pinch in their incomes. Most of these folks and entities were not rich but they were trying to survive in a very challenging business to begin with. Many people got the idea that music they obtained should cost nothing and people providing it do not need to be compensated for it. After all they do it just for the fun of it. Consequently, we lost many great people in music because they just could not make a living in music anymore.

That brings us to today. There are still ways to make music and make a living doing it. The challenge is that we now have to market our creativity differently than the past. Many artists are able attain recognition through their presence in videos on You Tube, networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My Space to name a few. What makes things different these days is that artists now have to be their own A&R person, determine what type of distribution they want or can afford (Downloads, CDs, LPs and so on), How to market themselves effectively and do successful commerce from their efforts. That is after the artist figures out what songs represent them best, where to record them (at home or in a studio), how to produce and record, what type of image the artist wants to portray, what type of artwork and photography to represent them. It has become a do it yourself world for the artist. This is a good thing for the resourceful artist but for artists that lack in some of these skills, this can become a major challenge. Much income comes from live performances, merchandising, and song placements in TV, film and other video formats. Downloads can bring in profits but you have to have a lot more downloads than say CD sales to make a living.

I believe that the future for the artist is going to evolve into something of a combination of new opportunities and some of the better components of the past. There are already new business models being drawn up and even practiced today by new label entities. Hopefully, they have learned from past mistakes and realized the opportunities that lay ahead for the artist and the music business. I believe that artists do need some level of guidance through the creative and business maze of music if they want to succeed. We all need to learn from the past and keep an open mind with a positive attitude towards the future. Thanks and I welcome your thoughts. Gabe

I moved to Tennessee in the mid nineties on a recommendation from a good friend that was busy building his studio.  I started building my studio immediately after arriving in Tennessee.  I did not have a life other that building my second studio for six months.  When I finished, I had a hybrid analog and digital studio.  That is the studio I have to this day.  It’s called the Rock Quarry.  I have been involved in many projects including my second CD, Rumors have it.  Some of the clients I worked with include Rick Springfield, Mike Rosen, Building G, Arvo Nuvo, Jim Gibson, Sitel, Scene Three, Patty Russo, Lampwick, Randy Withrow, Dwayna Litz, Mad For Mannequins, Peter Moon, Tony Camus, Sarah Olson, Debra Lyn, Luci Lampe, Ronn Price, Patrick Bolen, Devin Payne, Steve Gartner, Rio Pose, Elena Garcia, Vik Chandler and Katy Seale.

After moving to Los Angeles with my parents, I started playing local gigs with bands at the age of fifteen.   I didn’t have a keyboard (could not afford it) so I played a sax that I got from school.  It wasn’t a very good sax and my dad bought me a sax that was somewhat better.  I finally got my first keyboard after saving up from gigs.  It was a used Wurlitzer electric piano with cigarette burns on it.  It looked terrible but sounded cool.  It had a mean growl that I loved.  My uncle, who was a retired engineer for NBC, gave me a Magnatone tube amp.  I had a custom speaker cabinet built with a fifteen inch Jensen speaker.  That was a great sounding combination especially for rock and soul music.  I also sang and played tenor sax, harmonica and melodica.  At one point, I was in about six different bands.  I was a very busy kid.  A personal manager got a hold of some of my songs and wanted to manage me.  He got me on some TV shows and other live gigs.  I had long hair and had problems with not complying with the dress code in my high school.  I was a decent student but didn’t sleep too much.  I had school by day and gigs by night.  After graduating high school, I decided to go on the road and see what that was all about.  I got a gig that summer playing on tour with an R&B band that backed The Platters.  I was gone for nearly three months.  While on tour, I got to see Ike and Tina Turner Revue, Ray Charles Revue, James Brown and Little Richard in concert.  That was a life changing experience.  I was a different person when I got back from that tour.

Over the years, I got to perform concerts with many great bands and artists.  I was with Rick Springfield on two tours.  There were two reincarnations of his band then. (I also recorded on four of Rick’s albums).  I performed concerts (recorded and wrote for) with Rare Earth as well as Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco), Redbone and Jefferson Starship.

I still go out and play live with bands with many different styles of music.  I play with a rock band called Stereo Hype.  I have played live gigs with the Latin San Rafael band and Luci Lampe.  I also played live shows with indie artist Peter Moon including the musical play “Fix”. I still play shows with Blues, Americana artist, Jim Gibson.  I am a member of the jazzy, Latin, R&B pop band Arvo Nuvo.  I am looking forward to performing shows with the band in the near future.