Major Labels & Top 10 Charts R.I.P. Authenticity Is King.

Today‘s popular music faces big challenges: while file sharing still grows in popularity and CD sales are declining, digital sales cannot recover the losses. Being under pressure, the music industry is still hoping for their old recipes: sue file sharers and fans on youtube and try produce music that take the charts by storm.

But the world has changed.

Having a previously unimaginable choice of wonderful art to choose from, consumers more and more discover their own musical taste. A today‘s top 10 hit is down to a fifth of what it was 20 years before. What is a truth for all consumer goods is obvious for music listeners: we don‘t buy simply because others buy the same thing. Consuming is an expression of individuality.

The music industry completely fails in satisfying this new market. Young musicians are still forced to mainstream their art, negate their personality and avoid what people ache for: a personal touch, touching music.

What is missing: new concepts for funding performing arts, assisting artists instead of patronizing them, help to produce quality without polishing, marketing on the basis of a direct artist-consumer relationship.