Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood? (Part 1)

I. The Front End

Seven years ago, I set up an independent record label I aptly called Independent Culture Records (ICR) registered and licensed under a single proprietorship. That label was supplemented with a website initially launched as indieculturerecords.net and about a couple of years later, the online counterpart evolved into a more sophisticated format under a new domain indiecultureonline.com.

The label didn’t really do well financially and otherwise but this article is not about the faults and failures nor the occasional successes that I have experienced and enjoyed in this little dream I’ve tried to accomplish. This is about the things that I’ve learned in the process particularly the key players in the music industry.

ICR’s birth pains were very significant to me because I have managed to understand things in this business that I only knew so little about at the beginning. My understanding then of how the music business should run was once grounded on the belief that an artist should have a record label’s help to lead them to success.

To some extent this is true but as I write my way into this chapter of the Indieology series, I will try to uncover some concepts and definitions of who are involved in this business, and that record companies are just part of a bigger picture. In fact, I’ve learned that you don’t really need a label at all (take this point with the success of Paolo Santos to support my theory).

Contrary to what I thought before, labels are not really the key players (if they were, Radiohead wouldn’t be selling their songs themselves today). My perception is that the music scene is divided into three main components - (1) the front-end; (2) middle men; and (3) the back-end. Since this will be a long Indieology chapter, I chopped it into these three main parts and I would like to start off with the front liners of this business.

1) The Artists

By definition, an artist is not the same as a songwriter and vice versa. Although in most cases, even if artists write their own songs, the contracts of record companies usually refer them as talents, performers, musicians, bands, and singers or solo acts. In other words, artists don’t necessarily need to write their own songs.

In the earliest days of the business in American music history, there were no labels yet and the artists perform songs written by other songwriters represented by their respective music publishers (I will discuss the significance of a music publisher later). Perfect examples here would be Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.

The success of Elvis’ singing career was made possible with a team of songwriters Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber with immortal hits like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” to their credit. Frank Sinatra had big all time hits that he didn’t write as well.

2) Media (radio, tv, internet)

Although technology is changing the face and value of media so fast these days, it is still a powerful tool for artists to reach out to their fans regardless of its current format or what the next wave may bring. Today, the physical radios may not be getting the same attention as compared to ten years ago (if at all they’re getting any attention).

You and I know that the modern music fan sources out music mostly if not all from the internet being the perpetual supplier of everyday music. This new avenue (downloads, internet radio, satellite radio, and podcast) is still media. In fact, in today’s copyright laws, the variations of this technology are referred to as the “new media”.

Without it, it is almost difficult to conceive how your music can reach out to a huge and significant volume of listeners that hopefully will eventually become fans and eventually become buyers of your music and concert tickets.

3) The Venues

Promotion is always in every manager’s plan formulated for his/her band. That is a given. But even with the most advanced technology in place and bands can practically sell their music in any format they like on the internet, the human behavior hasn’t changed. People still watch concerts because they want to feel the music with their eyes. YouTube cannot ever substitute a good live gig experience.

This first hand experience of a fan or audience increases the probability of music sales whether it’s done via download or any other means (which is the bottomline anyway).

I recall that time when the Eraserheads was promoting their Aloha Milkyway album, I was in front of the stage about 7 meters away from Ely. The experience breathes nostalgia and I bought the album a couple of days after. Months after that, I started collecting their past records.

Whether it’s a club, a stadium, or a gym, a concert is a different experience and it holds that mystery of making that music reside in you. It’s magical. It’s strange how this beautiful effect eats you up and before you know it, you’re in a record store looking for that band’s CD.

In Cebu, there was Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in the 80’s; there was Sacred Heart School for Boys Gym, SIH Alumni Center, Artist Dais, and Rib-O’s in the 90’s; there was Handuraw and Kahayag in the early half of this decade. Today, the best local musicians find their home at The Outpost.

4) Record Stores

The physical record stores had been the music library for ages. Not anymore. The brick-and-mortar concept of music distribution is fast fading simply because CDs are not raking enough dough these days – or at least not enough cash for the major record companies to fill up their bank bins.

Again, technology is the artist’s virtual best friend today. It doesn’t only serve as the new media, it also introduced opportunities allowing artists to set up their own stores online. All of a sudden, the D.I.Y. approach has gotten better and more credible. It’s probably ten times cheaper with a much better mileage.

Even with the phased out physical record stores as a result of the internet’s options-free-for-all ideals that lead to a negatively huge impact on the music industry, particularly in the distribution department of record companies, the essentials in music buying hasn’t really changed. The stores are still there, only that it has morphed from the analog, person-to-person transaction to digital tools and software applications and it’s up to the artist to choose what options to take.


In the next Indieology article, I would like to discuss the middle men and how they work inside the business.