By Jake Corbin
As an independent musician, you do what it takes to get your music out there.
This usually translates into taking petty jobs for cash by day and playing every art house, coffee shop and small venue that will let you plug in by night.
Those days may soon be over.
CMJ.com reported over the summer that Best Buy—in tandem with RegionalCD.net—has launched a new program aimed at stocking its shelves and online stores with local, unsigned artists.
Approved musicians are considered based on their fan base, local performances and MySpace and Facebook pages (because, as we all know, the mark of a true professional is how many internet friends they have). Radio play is nice, but not required.
Although there is no mention of it on RegionalCD.net, one would hope “quality of music” would be a deciding factor as well.
After the proper paperwork is filled out and three copies of a professionally produced CD are submitted (UPC codes must be present), the waiting game for a decision begins.
The “chosen ones” are billed an initial set-up cost of $250. Bands are paid for every CD sold—$5.15 for full-length albums and $3.65 for EPs.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Don’t be so quick to say “yes.”
If Best Buy starts carrying albums from independent musicians in its stores, what long-term effects will it have on local record shops?
Part of the thrill of combing through dusty records and stacks of CDs at independent stores is the hope of discovering one of these “hard to find” artists; that’s the indie record shop’s niche.
Now Best Buy could take away from that.
Nearly 900 independent record stores have shut their doors according to the New York Times—and that figure is from 2003. With the economy the way it is and downloading at an all-time high, those numbers probably aren’t getting any better.
Simply put, Best Buy’s new program may spell disaster for independent record stores.
An emphasis should be placed on “may spell disaster,” though.
In order for a program like this to have a negative affect on indie music stores, people will have to start turning to Best Buy for all of their music needs.
Best Buy may see a swing in sales as audiophiles peruse the music aisle (probably in between picking up blank CDs to illegally burn music at home), find a local artist’s album and decide to make the purchase.
Those same people, however, are not going to rely on Best Buy to find an original press of the Velvet Underground record they’ve been looking for or the live Green Day import from 1998. Music fans like this will always rely on independent record shops.
The catch to all of this is, supporting the artists with CDs at Best Buy may be the best thing for those independent musicians. At $5 a pop, if sales are strong, the money coming back to the bands could add up quickly.
Still, what amounts to a good decision for the artist may ultimately be bad for music fans. As if the music industry needed another quandary.
For those not already struggling with the moral dilemma of “should I download or not,” now you can worry about the consequences of where you buy your music.
Ah… decisions, decisions.
[Photo courtesy of Swansea Photographer on Flickr]
3 comments:
i admit i shop at best buy from time to time. it's a good place to get electronic ish or blank cassettes or whatever, but i have not purchased an album there in YEARS, and will never ever buy an album there again, because of the things you mention.
yeah, i can get such and such a cd for $9.99 at best buy, and i'll have to pay $14.99 to get it at the last record store in santa rosa. but the thing is, that $9.99 is going into the pockets of someone i'll never meet or see or whatever, some big corporate guy with a consumer agenda. when i pay $14.99, i know that money is going to a) the actual distro or label and b) the local record store, which only throws that money back into the community.
i know you've written about indie record stores through the hornet, and in particular, indie record store day. the thing that is most awesome about these places is what they DO for the community. i can't name anything best buy has done for santa rosa. but i know that the last record store has free live shows every month, sometimes more than once a month. they serve beer and food at these things (also for free). they give away tickets. the employees have radio shows where they play local and non-local music alike. they send out a weekly newsletter talking about new releases, upcoming events, what's going on in the community and more. ohh yeah, and they KNOW me. i go in and everyone says hello and knows my face, if not my name. they order albums i want and have them in a couple days and call me to let me know. or, a few times i can recall when albums have been out of print and one employee has made it his/her personal mission to call as many places as possible and track down this album.
the advantages of supporting an indie store are much more clear. and while it's cool that best buy wants to put local artists on its shelves, the fact of that matter is that the whole inspiration behind it is not to "get the music out there" but to generate more money. duh. and why would i buy an album from best buy, when i know i can find every local release i could ever want at the indie store?
The deal sounded good until the $250 fee came around.. That's pretty steep. Cdbaby is only 35 and they do itunes, rhapsody and even will shop your music to Bestbuy also. $5 a cd is pretty good, but that also means that the first 50 you sell is ate up by the fee. Well-established artists can benefit from this, but i'm still not sure if they are better than city hall. City Hall gets the CDs in target bestbuy amazon itunes and more and thats pretty much been the standard for bay area rap distribution.
Interesting read... Plus the whole indie music making money sounds familiar.. haha
Dude, shopping for music the way we knew it when we were younger is long gone anyway
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