New year, new bands, new music

As we kick off 2009, I thought I’d share a post I read from UK music blog.  The author vents some frustrations about big record labels, commercial radio, and the monotonous sounding music that they promote.  He laments for the unique artists who will never get their big break, but he also strongly encourages them to keep creating new music and not to let anyone change them.

I definitely agree with his encouragement to keep recording new music, but I do not share in his frustration and lament.  Mainstream music promoted by big companies will always tend to lack in variety.  These companies are marketing music to the masses, so it pays to stick with what they know is acceptable to most music listeners.  As the kids like to say these days, “it is what it is.”  There’s still lots of good music being promoted by big labels. 

The term “big break” can also have different meanings for everybody.  Maybe yours is playing a sold-out show at the premier venue in your hometown.  Maybe it’s selling out the first 1000 copies of your album.  Or maybe it’s hitting a milestone number of friends/fans on MySpace.  If you promote yourself well and rack up a million hits on your band’s web page, then that could get the attention of a record label.

I’m sure lots of musicians would love to become big rock stars, but I believe they mostly want their music to be heard and enjoyed.  With social networking sites, you are able to reach millions of music fans with your computer.  As long as there’s a huge audience out there who is willing and open to listening to new music, there will always be that inspiration to write more songs, record more albums, and play more shows. 

That is what keeps us replicating CDs and DVDs here at COPYCATS Media.  So to wrap up this post, we’d like to thank all the dedicated musicians who keep on churning out new music and albums.  And thank you to all the eager fans out there who support these musicians by going to their shows, buying their CDs, and for being willing to listen to something new.

Here’s to the New Year!