Empowering Artists – Digital Utopia
Having just read a brilliant article on the new ‘landscape’ emerging in the music industry, it got us thinking about our last blog… ‘what do record companies actually do?’
Our theory – with the collapse in cost and access to production and promotion facilities, record companies are basically Venture Capital firms with a bit of marketing prowess.
Where does that leave us (Music Balloon)? To nurture the Artist <–> Fan relationship and give fans a way of exploring and following music they love. True fans that is. Those that prefer not to accept the content thrown at them by radio stations; people who love music. Sit back at home and actually listen to an album. All the way through. And then want to stay connected to that artist and that type of music. And then find new stuff all over again.
That’s what technology can give us these days. Not just leaving us to walk into a warehouse full of music, whether it’s online or on the high street, and start searching at ‘A’.
Through 5 million artists.
Your music collection starts to gravitate around artists beginning with ‘A’. And Aerosmith gets boring after a while. As a fan and as an artists, technology can give a sort of relevance to music. A bit like it was when you picked up an LP or a CD. But that LP finds you.
Shit, it’s exciting.
Do record companies need to be involved? Who cares? I guess so if they’re gonna support and invest in artists’ careers. We’d prefer it if, instead, artists had good managers and didn’t give away 85%+ royalties.
What we can do at Music Balloon is actually empower artists in ways that iTunes, Spotify and the like, don’t. In the way that Amie Street, Topspin and MySpace do.
And we can stop using words like ‘monetising’, ‘content’ and ‘platforms’. We can start with a utopia of love, passion and music. It feels like the 60’s all over again.

