Funky Pearls #Since 1990: Fatback : The Payout / Gotta Change

This year is really starting out exciting, for one thing I feel great. The band is beginning to find its own new fresh sound. I’ m a strong believer of staying ahead of the curve, but it’s very hard to move out the shadows of your past, especially when the future is being driven by the past. What we’re trying to do is find that balance; to be identified with the past, but with a fresher look musically in the future. This is our covenant to our fans.

I want to take this time to answer a few questions that a lot of young musicians ask me. 1. Where is the music business going? 2. Will we be able to make money again in this business? My answer is always the same, I don’t know. I can only tell you what I have experienced and seen in this new world. None of it works well for the everyday working musicians out here. It won’t work until we get music people back running things, People who are doing it for the love of music. All this new high tech stuff was not made to make you rich, not even to better your life musically. We are there food source, we feed them, and they get fat. Who am I talking about; You Tube, Spotify, and Pandora. They say streaming is our salvation; it is just another platform to make you think they want to help you sell your music. The hold money payout has to change and it not going to happen any time soon. Why, because the major labels are taking 70% off the top for the use of their music and millions of dollars up front money for salaries and other things. What is left for artists? That’s why they pay us pennies. Whenever we wake up and stop feeding them, that’s when the change will come.

No, music can’t be free. Given music away for promotion is one thing, they have been doing that since the beginning of the music business. But to have a whole generation feeling that music should be free is not good, this kind of thinking has to change. I know people are willing to pay, it’s not the people. It is that 1% that doesn’t give a dam about the creative artists. Greed is killing the industry and the people in the position to change things just sitting back getting fatter and fatter than ever doing nothing, the Record labels. To me, the way I see it, they are saying, we are getting ours, in this new digital world, you had better learn how get yours, everyman for himself. They are a part of that 1%, believe me, they are not your friends, stop making money for them. To be cont.

I’m out of here, trying to stay under 500 words. Maybe if I knew how to write I could. I should have paid attention in composition class, just wasn’t feeling it.

"I Love You So"