If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it -- Albert Einstein
It all starts with the idea. I imagine this is where most people fail. They either don't have a clear idea of what they want to do or don't do enough to turn the idea into a vision. Or maybe it's that the idea scares them. Regardless, the idea is the toughest part. An idea can be born out of frustration, imagination, innovation or any combination of those.
I had an idea to create a record label that would help local artists achieve their goal of recording a CD for a reasonable price. This idea came from personal frustration as much as watching others experience the same frustration. I know several people that are incredibly talented, yet do nothing with that talent. The music industry is notoriously hard to break into. I think this should not be the case. I understand the need for big labels to restrict the submission of demos and remain relatively closed, but that shouldn't keep others from creating product and working in the music industry. The industry should be bigger than a handful of labels.
In any industry there are multiple markets. There is a local market, a regional market, a national market and a global market. The "music industry" today focuses on the national and global market and leaves the local and regional markets untouched. Indie labels try to fill in that void, but most of them try using the business model of the big labels. Probably because they want to be big labels themselves one day. There's not really anything filling the empty space there.
Within the music industry, we are all further classified in genres. This is actually something I wholeheartedly agree with. While most artistic people bristle at being classified, it is important to the consumer to have an idea of what they are buying. From time to time, there have been artists that have bridged genres and defied classification, but the vast majority of artists fit nicely in the existing categories. Truthfully, few possess the gifting required to perform equally as well in multiple genres.
For me, I operate within the Christian music classification. There are several genres within Christian music. As an artist, I'm most comfortable in the CCM (contemporary christian music) grouping. I can sing Southern Gospel, some Gospel, P&W and even some Rock, but none better than CCM. That said, I was frustrated with the lack of opportunity to create a product without following the big label business model. That is, you pay an exorbitant amount of money to record a demo and hope and pray you meet the right person that can open doors for you. Meanwhile, we have local churches that would love to host local artists but can't find any. It's a bad cycle.
So the idea to create a vehicle was born. Something that would allow artists to create and share their creativity locally and maybe regionally. Next week I'll talk about the progression of the idea to vision.
