CD Baby founder Derek Sivers on musicians of the future

"Before, say, ’94 or ’95,
before the Internet came around, there seemed to be a sharper divide
between those who create and those who consume: It seemed like you were
supposed to be either one or the other. I love to see this kind
of American rebellion, fueled by extreme hate for the record label, not
just from the fans but from the people like Prince, Ani DiFranco, Aimee
Mann, that have loudly said how they hate their label and they’re never
going to work for a label again. I have the feeling that a new
generation of musicians will grow up not having to be converted to that
way of thinking.

Like right now, I meet lots of 30-something
musicians, who maybe spent their teens and 20s wanting to be a rock
star, and now are kind of starting to think, “Well, maybe I can make a
good living just putting out my music directly and doing it on my own.”
But they kind of had to fall over to that way of thinking. What I think
will be really interesting is, imagine being a 13-year-old musician
right now, growing up surrounded by this mentality of “Fuck the label,
the label sucks, indie is cool, go direct, never sign over your rights
to somebody else”! Imagine growing up in that mentality, and what
that’s going to look like in 10 years!"

Read the LA Weekly interview here.

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