[Michael Blue Williams The Music Industry Today]

I think that the major change in the music industry has come from just the way the labels are approaching the game today. I think in the ‘90s, the ‘90s were – especially in the mid to late ‘90s were a great year for the music industry. We were selling a lot of records. Big sales. Music was driving everything. We were all making a lot of money. It was great. And then the millennium changed and people started downloading and stuff like that. And I think the industry was slow to adapt and we ended up behind the curve. And I think that’s what everyone’s been trying to recover from since then.

I also think that in the ‘90s, seeing rappers with big cars and doing everything was new and it was exciting. We had shows like Cribs and all those type of shows. And I think there may have been too much TV and too much MTV and too much access, that now in 2006, it seems easy to kids. Kids see you on TV and they think, “I can be an instant success or I can be if I win American Idol, I could be a star quickly.” And they don’t see the hard work. Even if you watch American Idol, they don’t show what these kids have to do every day of the week up until that Wednesday and Thursday. They don’t see the press. They don’t see the hard work. They don’t see the recording. People don’t see that. TV cuts it so they can keep your attention and people don’t see the hard work that it takes to make things happen.

And I think that what it’s done is it’s made today’s society, especially the younger society, think that things come easily. And I find that when I meet interns or when I meet young people out there that they want to do it, they want to jump in and be me, me where I am now, as opposed to me where I was at their age where I had to get in. And I think that’s the major change that I see in the industry is that people don’t really understand that it’s still a lot of work that goes into making an artist a success or to having a successful management company or running a successful label, that it takes elbow grease. You got to get in there and grind. And people don’t appreciate the grind anymore.

I think there’s a difference between generations. I come from a generation of Puffy and all of those that came up in the early ‘90s where that’s what we did. Hustle was what we did. If you weren’t hustling on the streets, you got into this music industry. But you kept the same hustle mentality and you become successful. You’re a Mark Pitt, who is a VPA and all who came up who is Biggie’s manager, or you’re Puff, or you’re Damon, or you’re me, or you’re all these people. You’re Chris Lighty. We come from a generation where you do it, and you hustle, and you grind, and you make it happen yourself. You don’t rely on anybody to do it for you. So I think it was just inbred. All of us came out of the streets of New York. And that’s how it was growing up in the streets. You just got in there.

These kids, they hear Tony Yayo gets caught and he goes to jail. And Yayo gets out of jail and then he has a million dollar record deal. And that’s what it is. “I’m gonna be fly like that. I ain’t got to grind.” And so they think it’s easy. They don’t know what Yayo’s whole story is. They don’t know what Yayo had to go through and stuff like that. So I think it’s a difference in the generations, I think. I think it’s a real difference. I find that peers and friends that I have in different industries, they find the exact same thing. So I really think it’s how kids were raised after my generation that came up.

I think it’s less of an argument between going the major route or the indy route. The majors have a model. They’re gonna do it a certain way. It’s pretty much they throw it up against the wall and see what sticks. They got a cookie cutter formula on how they’re gonna break an artist. It’s very, “We’re throwing it up to see if it works.”

Independent labels are more personal. They can float. If you’re on an independent label and your artist is hot in Milwaukee, then you get that artist to Milwaukee and you grind them out in Milwaukee for six weeks. And you get a buzz in Saint Louis, you shoot to Saint Louis. Independent labels are more fluid.

Majors are definitely a big machine that you got to turn. Now when the machine gets hot and gets a hit, the major’s gonna move a lot more units than an independent will because they’re gonna be able to jump on and move the whole machine behind that. But you’ll make more money on an independent label, but you’re not gonna get as much marketing. It’s harder to create a brand independently. I tell people that for marketing dollars and what labels will spend on building a brand that major may be a better choice.

It really depends on your threshold of paying with your money. If you’re doing independent and you got money that you can put into it, yeo, run that route. Take a shot. Swing at it. If you create enough of a buzz, a major may come buy you. If you’re not sure, you don’t have the money to do it yourself, and you’re, “I just need a deal. I got music I want to get out there. I know I’m good.” Well, you may go to a label route. Go the major route and let them do it, and market you, and get it out there, and take advantage of that opportunity.