by DeVon Harris

I’ve produced many top artists and won a Grammy, so I like to think I’m somewhat accomplished in the area of music production. I also just graduated from business school, and if I had a nickel for every time a B-School student asked me why I was going to school, instead of rocking and rolling in the music biz, I’d have shiny Aston Martin sitting outside my apartment. This is the answer to their question:

Because of technology, the music industry is changing from all sides. It’s easier than ever to create content. Any teen can download a free production app and start making beats within minutes. Pre-recorded loops, at times, make production almost trivial (see Rihanna’s “Umbrella,”Usher’s “Love on the Dance Floor,” etc.).

Conversely, there are far fewer major label albums, (i.e. albums with recording budgets), released these days. There are reports called “Who’s Looking” lists, which represent all of the budget-allocated projects that labels have open and what kind of music they’re looking for from producers and writers. It says stuff like, “The Swagjackers – From the UK. Backstreet Boys meets Skrillex… Looking for big polysymphonic songs with rhythmic edge” or “MC Beezelbub – 3rd album, needs song like a hip-hop ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’.” Eight years ago, this was a 12 to 15-page affair. Now it’s about 3 pages.

In a recent meeting, a record label head discussed giving me a recording budget to executive produce an entire album with a known artist that was less than what many top producers make for one song. He said, ”Producers are hard-up right now. You can get them for really good prices.” And he’s right. Piracy and increasingly fragmented listenership have resulted in albums having smaller recording budgets on average and releasing fewer promo singles.

So we have a decrease in demand, an increase in supply, within an overall shrinking industry… Not good. Many argue that any proliferation of music, even if unpaid, is good for the industry because more opportunities open up for artists. While no one has seen the $7 billion that’s disappeared in U.S. record sales since 1999 reappear as increased ticket sales, merchandise, etc., let’s assume there are a plethora of new opportunities. Shows, merchandise, endorsement opportunities, etc. do fortunately result in revenue opportunities for lawyers, agents, managers, staff, etc. The 360 deal, where labels participate in many of these streams, is their way of justifying the expense of financing and promoting the content and artists. Songwriters, who make the content, do not participate in these streams.

"We want in too!" – Songwriters

While artists, their support teams, and record labels are participating in the wide world of opportunities that go along with a record’s ubiquity, along with the whole ‘more people are listening to more music than ever’ argument, writers don’t benefit from that concept. It doesn’t take a Harvard Business School grad to realize that, under the current framework, music content makers are screwed.

If you want to retain the best talent you have to compensate them, if not well, at least fairly. Fairly implies equal treatment as others within a transaction. While the music business is changing daily, those creating the songs, the lifeblood of the model, must participating to some extent in the total circumference of reward. Otherwise you have great talent leaving the industry to do crazy things… like selling drugs… or getting finance degrees.

Coming up: Trickle Down Economics (Or the Lack Thereof) Part II

DeVon Harris (aka Devo Springsteen) is a Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and entrepreneur. DeVon is also a former consultant and founder of interactive video company, Ochre. You can follow him on Twitter @springsteezy

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