I saw Tawiah at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards last week at Cargo in London. She completely blew me away. She has everything. A great band, well crafted songs, an amazing presence on stage, confidence unlimited (for a second performance no less!) and a voice that drifts from Carmun Lundy to reggae, back to Jill Scott and then to dubstep with Radiohead thrown in. This girl is London Town, but deserves to go global.

Rereading those quotes from Rolling Stone, made me think of a recent article in the excellent Word magazine. In David Hepworth's "And Another Thing" column he attacked the musicians who look to blame someone else when their music doesn't sell. As Hepworth clearly points out "Those artists who used to think they could float on a puffy cloud far moved from the brute realities of commerce are about to come down to earth. The last 30 years have been a bit of a holiday from the truth. You think you've worked hard in the past ? You've barely began." Even Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood claimed in the February 2008 issue of Mojo magazine that the band have no desire to go it alone and run their own record company. "The experiment was good, but we don't wanna be spending the rest of our careers in meetings discussing Portuguese shop displays." They promptly inked a deal with Richard Russell's excellent XL Recordings, home of the White Stripes, M.I.A.and Basement Jaxx.

citizensound says:

The DIY approach may not be for everyone. Artists and their management will need to employ skilled 'specialists' to do many of the jobs that the record company once did, and if it all goes wrong who's to blame? However, the DIY route can cut down on the overheads, should help increase profits (as long as your sales still hold up) and certainly offers the artist more control - at least you'll always be the priority act!

DIY is also becoming an increasingly viable option due to the increasing number of VC's and brands playing in the music space. While VC's can offer the finance you might need, can they bring marketing or distribution expertise? It should be no surprise then that when a brand like Starbucks comes along offering the 'holy trinity' of 'finance, marketing and distribution', that artists from Joni Mitchell to Sonic Youth, are keen to see what this route can offer.

Ian Grenfell, founder of Silentway Management, was also on the panel that citizensound ran at In The City this year. Representing such artists as Simply Red, Ian has distanced the artist from a major record label, with the artist having greater control (and responsibility) for their future success and development. So, with a little glint in his eye, he asked his fellow panellist Jazz Summers why his acts (such as The Verve) are still with labels, if he thinks record labels offer little for the artist. He suggested to Jazz that, rather than talk about how bad the labels are, Jazz should do as Ian has already done and build an alternative. Seems that Jazz has plans, so he might be following Ian’s lead on this one.

citizensound says:

Ian is a great example of the opportunity that exists in music right now. If the business model doesn’t fit, then go and work one out that does. Don’t wait for a book to be written or the government to legislate for it…DIY is more than making music it is making your own destiny. That is what Ian did. Just don't think it is easy. Also don't assume that all record labels offer little. For many artists and managers, labels offer immense service and support. It's not black and white.

Saint Jazzie of B was a highlight at In The City. He was interviewed by Lloyd Bradley (more in him later!) and talked about how Soul2Soul started out.

Two things struck me whilst he was talking. Firstly, that Soul2Soul was very much music of the community - created, produced, refined and promoted by the community. It was rooted in the live experience, not the product form of vinyl or CD. Very similar to folk music where musicians would test their songs in bars and social gatherings in the community. Music as social commentary, not music as product.

In itself, the roots of Soul2Soul came out of the sound systems where musician/music/listener were joined. The sound systems created their ’specials’ - a tune that for all connected to the sound system would define that sound system against others. In effect is was their sonic branding. Everyone would know that tune belonged to that sound system.

Yet Soul2Soul understood the power of branding in more ways than the power of the sonic logo. Their visual emblem is still one of the most recognised logos in music, whilst the collective delivered not just the music but also their merchandise (with their own retail outlet too).

Very much a music collective ahead of their times, balancing smart branding techniques with the need to keeping close to their community roots…and making great music too.

In these times of 360 business models, Soul2Soul is a model that others can learn from.

A great Keynote Panel at In the City, with Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records. He was asked for his views on the future of the record industry given the recent news about Radiohead asking their fans to pay what they wish for their music and Madonna doing a deal with Live Nation. For Daniel, it felt like a return to the days of 30 years ago, when indie distribution was starting, giving an opportunity to those who had no industry background to put stuff out…be they artists or people like Tony Wilson (Factory) or Geoff Travis (Rough Trade). He stated that there has always been the opportunity for artists to do it themselves. For some reason though, he has seen many that decide not to go down the DIY route partly because

they want to have some money, have some support…international backup…they don’t want to run their own business.

With regards the record company, he stated that there will always be a role for some expertise such as A&R and marketing and promotion, whether it takes the form of a record company is another matter. Finally, he noted that the two key people in all of this are the artists making great music and the people who listen. This is the most important thing to focus on. Everything else is up for discussion.

At In The City, the DIY Music panel that Nick and I ran centred around young artists trying to break through, rather than the established artists that the press write about all the time. As a focus for the panel, we invited the talented young musician Rob McCulloch (apologies for the red eye look Rob, but it was that time of night!). The Bolton musician put his CD up on his site and asked his fans to pay what they want for it (pre-dating Radiohead by some way). An average of £11 per album was the result. He has constructed an interesting team around him and his manager, including a company who advises them on marketing and promotion. He is passionately independent, having turned down the advances of the majors in 2005 at SXSW. He controls everything but he is also aware that as things grow for him, the pressures on him will increase, so the topic of the panel interested him more than anyone. Going DIY is not for everyone. Some artists need the comfort of a label. Some believe a more traditional route is best for them. Some have no choice. Some have been rejected by the labels, or have agreed to part company with a label after some time. Ultimately, whilst one could say it is easier than ever to get music out there, it is more difficult to get heard and noticed. So any musician, be they established or new talent, who goes the DIY route is a brave one.

We are witnessing so many young people finding their own path in creating, distributing and marketing their own music. The Punk ethic gone global so to speak. Meanwhile established artists are also finding their own way, be it Simply Red, Paul McCartney or Prince. Some are of the opinion that such artists are past their prime, so have no choice but to find alternatives to the record label support. As Naresh Ramchandani suggested:

Prince is doing what every artist formerly known as good has had to do. He's selling out, and it's never pretty.

However, I think he misses the point. Prince is not formally good. Joni Mitchell is not formally good. Music is about sharing with a community, about story-telling, about sharing life experiences, about representing the community. That is what these artists still do in their own way. These artists are exploring new directions of communicating with their community. They are glorious in their bravery, and should be heralded for trying. Anyone in the music world, be they label, manager or artist, should be cheered for trying new things. If no-one takes risks, the music industry will continue to struggle. Critical to risk-taking is understanding your audience. John Sinclair might not have had all the answers in the 60s, but his view that music binds communities together was bang on. By better understanding the community that the artist connects with will help the artist and their representatives. Some artists take risks and benefit, others are less brave. Part of the bravery of trying something different and exploring their relationship with their community is understanding HOW the artist connects. Over the last few decades, this connection has been driven by the recorded song. As my friend (and honorary citizen) Gauti Sigthorssen pointed out, are we not merely reverting back to a time when the live experience was more important, before vinyl transferred the communal experience of music into a commodity? Many people are looking for a greater emotional connection with artists, not just a throwaway flirtation. The sense of community is stronger than ever. Artists (and brands) that understand their community are the brave ones.