Dave Allen of Pampelmoose recently posted something that I find particularly interesting, in reference to Lyle Lovett claiming that he’s never made a dime from record sales. Read Dave’s post here:

+ Lyle Lovett: I never made a dime off record sales

This very notion certainly opens quite a big can of worms and one can variably take this story and run with it in so many different directions that my head is already starting to spin…. However, in context of the current state of the record business and how independent musicians may (or may not) financially succeed in this industry, I find Lyle Lovett’s story to have deep and significant meaning.

While I consider “records” in one form or another to still hold value and be artistically significant – especially as a means of making an artistic, musical statement and, moreover, using a familiar vehicle to do so – I think the exchange rate for which the musical economy is founded on has changed so dramatically and now looks and operates more like an amoeba than anything else. Okay…that statement lacked surprise or brilliance…but what I’m really trying to say here is that we must completely rethink and reestablish our expectation of the function and financial value of a record, if we stand any chance of figuring things out.

What if….outside of the bounds of artistic statement and meaning, a record (or a record sale for that matter) was nothing more than a promotional tool? What if the music itself – in a living and breathing form – is where the true value is held? I’m seeing a big, colorful pie chart (be it hypothetical) representing the financial makeup of a successful full-time independent artist. Maybe the biggest and brightest color represents live performance…and another big piece represents commercial business opportunities, including licensing and sonic branding…and yet another decent chunk of the pie represents royalties for every time your favorite satellite radio station plays a song and every time Laguna Beach or Heroes includes a song in their latest episode…and yes – somewhere, probably one of the smaller pieces, represent the fine and respectable (and probably old) people who still value a recording enough to actually pay for it legally. I’m sure there are other opportunities/pieces of the pie I’m leaving out – hopefully even some that we don’t really know about yet…

What if?

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