WRESTLING WITH THE MUSIC GIANTS

Here is an excerpt from my new book coming out soon!

Chapter 4

WRESTLING WITH THE GIANTS

You're 160 pounds, and you're in the ring with a 480 pound sumo wrestler; what you gonna do?  He’s thrown you to the mat, and getting ready to pounce on you, and turn you into a pancake; what you gonna do?  All you can do at this point is get some syrup, because you're lunch.  Sometimes that’s just the way it feels when you’re tackling the monster competition that’s out there.   Those days are gone.  The Sumo is beginning to look like an underweight hog on slaughter day.

In this chapter we’re going to focus on changing our paradigm on the way we think about our competition.  What if I were to tell you there is no competition?  You would probably say, he’s lost his last marble; and that may, or may not be true.  The reality is, there is plenty of healthy competition out there; you just have to change the way you view it; and that’s exactly what we plan on helping you do.  We are going to give you a new pair of glasses to view your competition through.

Let’s first take a look at what you use to see when you were looking at this giant.  Here is a blog I posted on evolutionofasong.blogspot.com

Major record labels versus Independent

Posted by Grady Shuman

Record Label Share

Old Man, take a look at my life.

Let's digress for a moment.  Looking back at 2004, the global value of the record industry was 16.5 billion dollars.  Today it is 6.4 billion.   Were the labels on airplane mode, was their thinking on mute?  How did this happen?  I bet they know now what they wish they had seen then.  It's got to hurt.  The amazing thing is they still believe their own junk; or do they?  It's hard to tell.  They seem to continue to ride their dinosaurs. Oh well!

We at AMP believe their loss is our gain.  Who is "our"?  All of us independents! We are going to Rally together and become a major label, the likes of which no one has ever seen.  As we pool our network of information together, and unite to bring our music to the world, the dinosaur will become nothing more than a fossil and a distant memory.  Come join us at AMP, as we create this new business model.

Click on join to become a part of the AMP TEAM 

Comparison of Record Label Share within the Market between 2006 and 2008
	2006	2008
Universal	31.5	37.1
Sony	21.2	20.1
EMI	17.9	13.7
Warner	11.9	11.4
Ministry of Sound	2.2	3.6
Demon	1.2	1.7
Domino	1	0.4

Worldwide there are two different types of record labels majors and independents. There are only four majors: Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner Music, the majors operate worldwide in all/most territories. Independents operate in all different ways depending on their size, money (investible) and repertoire. Below is a detailed  analysis to show the difference between the to types of labels.

	Strength	Weakness	Opportunities	Threats
Major	Own distribution and publishing companies. Access to international distribution. Can influence radio play lists and provide a diverse range of genres. Business and musical. Able to add value to products and finance with no struggles	Unable to adapt as quickly as an interdependent. Declining sales result in low ones. Arrogance Lack of vision	Had the ability to take control of the online distribution industry. Lost. Identity in their position in the market. Living in the past. Not willing to change	The web Digital distribution Stuck in old school business model. Independents
Independent	Can adapt to changes in the industry quickly developing new business models to work well in the present industry. Flexible in decision-making.	Limited power to sign acts. Lack of resources. Need added value to make radio play lists. Less money to invest in acts and marketing. Distributed by the majors. Most indies cater for a certain genre or market.	Bands more inclined to sign to Indies as they allow artists to develop. Increase demand for music on behalf of the consumer.	A major often buys independents that dominate a market. The economic down turn and the state of the music industry is having an effect upon the birth of new and existing labels.