Ringtones Reveal New Model for the Music Business

Erroll Louis, reporting for the NY Daily News, recently interviewed Nona Hendryx from the 1970s group Labelle, who had this to say about the new music business: "The old model is broken, the creativity portion of it is there - but how it's manufactured, distributed and sold is completely different and very liquid. It's a sea change, like tectonic plates moving."

Perhaps the strongest example of this today is distributing Ringtones, a secondary market for digital downloads, but a market just as strong and growing, if not more so. This is all part of the changes happening in the music business and it is propelling a way for artists to tap into new areas, even independently.

Hendrxy went on to dish out some much needed advice for artists of today; in short, take some business 101. This will prepare artists to navigate today's complex minefield of an industry. The upside to all this change is it allows artists to take control of their ambitions in the music business. No one is going to survive in today's music business on creative merit alone; the record industry as we know it is a fading dinosaur that consumed artists whole. Once the old industry ways are long gone, only the strong will have survived. It's up to the artist to define what the music business can do for them, instead of conforming to the industry to succeed. This isn't tired old suit-tie and briefcase business either, it's a more interactive world of web-geeks, individualization and music with substance.

Hendryx mentions artists have to "control their images, lyrics, publishing and distribution rights to avoid being pushed into creating the degrading, minstrel-show garbage that big labels like to promote." Nothing like a bona fide diva speaking truth to power and Hendrxy is touching upon exactly what the Indie Artist Inner Circle embodies: a community of artists that can protect each other, through things like the United Label Coalition, or even just basic business tactics in the Music Industry.