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"The Power To Release" is a series of columns I wrote to encourage artists to write, record and release their own CDs. There are 19 columns in the series, and along with a dozen or so other columns on the music business available the site, the information serves as a valuable resource for those artists just starting out.
At first, it might seem out of place to have music business and self-release columns on a site dedicated to Instrumental Guitar. But the reality for 99.9% of guitarists today is that there aren't any record companies waiting for your demo tape with a bucket full of cash ready to help you record, press and promote your debut CD.
I've already mentioned how small the market is for instrumental music. Couple that with the fact that the demo tape (or the demo CD) is dead. D-E-A-D. Dead.
The music business had changed quite a bit over the last 10 years. It used to be if you had a self-released CD, that was really something special. Now look around at the tens of thousands of self-released CDs available, just on the Internet. A self-released CD in the year 2000 is nothing more than a good start.
In spite of that, there are still young and/or inexperienced guitarists out there working on their chops and creating demos, thinking that the world hasn't changed and that someone from a record label will actually listen to their demo and offer them a bucket full of cash to record a full-length CD.
"The Power To Release" is a wake-up call, and a recognition of reality for artists. The world doesn't need demos anymore. Do you know there are hundreds of artists who are writing and recording new, complete songs every week and uploading them to mp3 sites? If you can't write and record a complete song, that already puts you well behind the expanding group of musicians who are getting up every morning with the goal of putting new music out on the Internet. And if you think recording and releasing your own CD is "impossible" or "too expensive", then that perception puts you well behind the 200 or so artists just on this site who have already done it.
If you are a guitarist, and want to create original instrumental material, you have to release your own CD. You have to. It's not an option. Demo tapes are dead. Artist development is dead. Either learn how to write great songs and get your best music on a CD, or go to the back of a very, very long line of hungry musicians.
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