Kevin thinks the world would be right if it would buy truth from him
There has been a surprising amount of interest in when the Avalanche manifesto will be updated. Truth is things change so quickly now that in the same way it would be ridiculous to announce a 5 year plan (step forward the SMIA) the only sensible plan is to keep changing your plan as situations develop. However after much thought there is an “Avalanche Vision” of how things might be if the music industry at all levels stopped just repetitively fucking things up and learned from their mistakes.
What is left of the music industry is made up to a large extent of record company people just trying to keep their jobs as long as possible, a huge number of “amateurs” who don’t make their living from music, a few dinosaurs who despite not having been “at the sharp end” for sometimes decades seriously think they have an opinion that matters and then a smattering of folk who really do spend every day at the coalface whether that be shops, labels, promoters etc.
Things now change so quickly that at best somebody can only really keep on top of the part of the music industry they are involved in. However a shop really is at the sharp end of what is happening and if it listens to its customers as well as others involved in the industry it has the most accurate picture of how things stand at any given time.
From this comes the “Avalanche Vision” of how things could be. In the same way that record companies are always looking for new ways to promote an album not realising that even more so these days “the kids” want badges and posters the old model of bands signing to labels and labels being distributed worked for very good reasons that haven’t disappeared. Absolutely things will never work the way they used to but a new way needs to be found to make the old ways work.
Bands are mostly rubbish at having their own labels as it is a completely different skill set and labels are often rubbish at being labels even but even good labels have no reason to have the wherewithal to get their releases distributed to as wide an audience as possible. Don’t get me wrong there would need to be a major rejigging of the “old ways” but I don’t see the current release launch followed by a bit of press and a few internet sales followed by the release being dead in the water 3 months down the line working just now which is a common scenario bands come to me with.
The acid test is are people prepared to pay for an artist’s music or pay to see them perform. For many the answer is clearly no but they hide behind ridiculously limited releases and tiny gigs. Those well connected get radio play and appear at festivals but generally it makes no difference. There are a lot of good bands not reaching the audience they deserve and I honestly think it is realistically possible for that to change.
Please note the use of the word MOSTLY earlier on. There are of course bands that do have all the skills needed to run a label but just not many. The dinosaurs won’t be happy but “the amateurs” would do well not to jump to conclusions. So the “Avalanche Vision” will follow and of course there is absolutely no reason for those who want to carry on as they do now not to do so but there is another way and if enough people believe in it it might just work.
Julie says he changes his mind ………………