Auto-Tune, the fate of Compact Discs and “selling out” were all discussed by students and professors from Northeastern University’s music industry department at the George Sherman Union on Thursday.
Physical albums are not selling like they did in the past, with 58 percent of all albums in 2004 selling less than 100 units, said NU professor of music Leon Janikian.
The panelists unanimously agreed that artists today earn little money through record sales. Revenue comes from the merchandise, concert tickets and the membership subscriptions to their online websites.
Some people still make the effort to go out to the store to buy records, said NU senior Caitlyn Margulis.
“Everyone knows how simple it is to get music for free online,” Margulis said. “True fans will want to pay for the music from an artist they love and respect.”
“I know I could have gotten Radiohead’s album for free, but I paid nine bucks for it.”
In 2007, the band Radiohead offered their album “In Rainbows” to fans for free, allowing them to pay as much as they wanted. “In Rainbows” outsold the band’s previous two albums.
“Still, though, 68 percent of fans who purchased the album got away without paying for it,” Margulis said. “I don’t think that strategy would have worked if they tried a second time.”
Although some fans will still pay for online music, the quality of a computer download is sacrificing the sound quality of songs, Janikian said.
“Getting together and listening with friends around a computer is not the same as listening to your favorite Fleetwood Mac album on high quality speakers as a group,” Janikian said.
Other panel members did not see the benefit in recording high quality music anymore.
“But what is the incentive of recording high quality tracks today when people listen to them on an iPod or on computer speakers?” asked Connor McKnight, a music industry major at NU.
Either way, music production is revolutionizing itself in terms of recording, producing and marketing, Anderson said.
“This is like Dickins said, ‘the worst of times the best of times,’” he said. “Depending on your point of view, the industry is in dire straits, or the industry could possibly be more appealing to people like us.”
Though a lower quality recording may be the answer for some artists to make money, the panel spoke about how record labels are still necessary for artists with a complex pop sound.
“You can’t create a Lady Gaga album on a $5,000 budget,” McKnight said.
Other panel members said that artists do not necessarily define success as monetary value.
“You don’t have to sell out to make a living, you just have to define what your level of success is,” Anderson said. “On the surface, the people whose faces are on magazines and who sell a million records are successful, but that’s not success for everyone.”
Some bands with an alternate idea of success can get by on a lower budget and have control of their own music, and the panel suggested that they do so.
“These independent bands have a really strong following, and they’ve put out three or four solid albums this year,” Miller said. “For them, it’s all about building that notoriety and building that fan base.”
While these independent bands record in private studios, some musicians take an even less costly route to recording by completing the process at home with their computer, avoiding having to pay a percentage of sales to a record company.
While the Internet may be hurting record sales, it has proven to be a fantastic outlet for amateur musicians, said NU senior Jim Cipollini.
“Fledgling bands can put music on the Internet as a marketing tool,” Cipollini said. “This builds a fan base and gets people to come to shows and buy merchandise.”
Applications such as GarageBand and Logic Studio allow musicians to edit their music to a professional level, though the music produced is not always an accurate representation of the band’s sound, Anderson said.
A raw recording is no longer acceptable like it would have been with the popular jazz and folk of the 20th century, he added.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to cut little corners so you can live up to what people think is perfection on the radio like Nickelback or Katy Perry,” Cipollini said.
The panel went on to discuss Auto-Tune, a pitch corrector, which has become extremely popular in contemporary music.
Various members of the panel said that Auto-Tune could be compared to airbrushing in print media, though others openly disagreed.
“If you can’t hit a broad side of a barn with your singing, then you shouldn’t have a record deal,” Miller said.
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