Hi keithdressel,
These channels play the "Top 40" because those are the top 40-- the
songs that are getting the most airplay, the most requests, etc.
Presumably, they're what people want to hear the most, and therefore
the channel stands to gain the biggest audience from playing those
artists. One of these stations is even called "MTV Hits," so you can
see what is important to the cable music channels.
It's a Catch-22 because if you are not already well-known, how do you
become known? Usually, that involved banking on your record company's
promotion budget to help you become known. This is why independent
artists have a rough time breaking into these traditional markets.
The one exception to this is probably Ani DiFranco. Recently, she has
been played on VH1 and has performed live on the channel. She
releases her albums on her own label, Righteous Babe Records. Her
artist page for VH1 is here:
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/difranco_ani/bio.jhtml
and for MTV:
http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/difranco_ani/artist.jhtml#/music/artist/difranco_ani/artist.jhtml
She garnered the attention of the mainstream by constant touring, and
now she is in many ways a mainstream artist herself.
This points to the biggest reason that independents are given the
shaft by the major music networks--- they just don't have the name
recognition that other artists do. They don't have the resources to
make videos and get on every talk show without the backing of a major
record label. If an artist can get that name recognition, like Ani
Difranco, there is no reason that MTV and VH1 wouldn't be interested
in them. These channels want to play what people like, and if an
artist has a following and a proven audience, they'll help MTV's
ratings and MTV will not hesitate to put them on the air. This can be
seen when artists who were previously on major labels decide to go
independent or jump to a smaller record label-- they still have fans,
so it makes no difference whether MTV plays them or not. Ice Cube is
an example-- his latest album is an independent release and that will
probably not affect his sales or MTV airplay too greatly.
In 1999, MTV had a special entitled "Flying Indie," in which they
played videos from unsigned bands and held a competition as to which
was the best. There have been a few shows since then that have
featured independent artists, such as a show currently on Mondays,
part of "Sucker Free," called "Straight from the Streets." The
description from mtv.com boasts of "rare looks into the independent
artist scene."
It's not MTV's primary concern to provide a venue for emerging
artists, and the answer lies in the fact that viewers know the record
labels' artists already, want to see those videos, and MTV responds.
The appearance of the Internet may have even exacerbated this, because
MTV figures that independent artists who are good will be recognized
on websites and be signed by a record label and THEN MTV can reap the
benefits of them.
However, all-music channels like MTV2 have been much more receptive to
independent videos, from many different genres. Overall, the music
channels have gotten more receptive to playing independent artists
(especially those who have gained large Internet followings) over
time. MTV Latin America holds its "MTV Video Music Awards Latin
America? (VMALAs) every year since 2002, which includes a Best
Independent Artist award. In 2004, MTV2 hosted the Dew Circuit
Breakout, basically a Battle of the Bands-type competition for
unsigned acts. There are many, many of these unsigned acts
competitions on MTV, actually, dating back to the '90s with the "Beach
House Band Search." It seems that MTV/MTV2 is really keen on finding
talent, but they don't really play that talent later on a regular
basis unless it's highly marketable and successful. BET got in on the
game, too, on its show "106 and Park," which included a weekly
freestyle showdown which produced a few rappers going on to get record
deals, including Jin.
There are also other ways to appear on MTV, etc. without a record
label. One way is through signing up with Pump Audio
(http://www.pumpaudio.com/), which takes music that an independent
artist provides and licenses it to channels like MTV for use in the
background of their shows. Since each MTV show requires 25 to 65 bits
of music, and it's expensive for MTV to license the music from record
companies, this has proven to be beneficial to both sides and is a
great way for independent artists to appear on MTV.
But if someone truly wants to be successful in the music industry,
their ultimate goal would probably include signing with a record
label-- it provides the fastest and easiest path to success (easier
than trying to achieve success on your own via non-traditional
methods). An independent singer-songwriter whose work has appeared in
movies and TV shows, Tor Hyams (http://www.tor.net/), said this:
"It is almost impossible to achieve success anyplace as an independent
artist. What I truly think about the Indy scene is that it is
important and crucial to the evolution of music. Though I become less
jaded every day, I must be a realist and insist there is truly no
future at this point for independent artists except for the rare
occasion when all the stars align and luck is a lady tonight.
"Even if you just look at raw figures (Sound Scan numbers, ad dollars
spent each year on records, etc), you would literally have to be a
millionaire to make it right now. It is simply impossible to have
anyone know who you are without mega-bucks. You are competing against
the major labels and Indies with a lot of money."
Sources:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1521154/01192006/ice_cube.jhtml
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dfx/interview.jhtml?id=1534277
http://www.get-it-all.net/indie18-How_You_Achieve_Success_as_an_Independent_Artist.htm
http://www.peermusic.com/news/newsitem.cfm?announcement_id=410
http://www.mtv.com/onair/mtv2/dew_circuit_breakout/vote/finalist.jhtml
http://www.nitrorecords.com/news.php?id=20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/106_&_Park
~~~~~~~~~~~
Search terms:
"independent music mtv"
"pump audio"
"independent label mtv"
"flying indie mtv"
"ani difranco independent artist"
"mtv.com independent artist"
"mtv2 independent artist"
" best independent artist"
"dew circuit breakout"
If you need any other help with this subject or clarifications, let me
know and I'll be glad to assist you.
--keystroke-ga |
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