New Post: Artists on the challenges of 2023 and hopes for 2024: “I just want to see us getting paid for selling records” - https://lnkd.in/gfwWiZcY - As a new year begins, artists have revealed the biggest challenges that they faced in 2023, and the changes they want to see made to the musical landscape in the 12 months ahead.
READ MORE: 2023 was “worst year for venue closures” while “no one in music industry seems to care”, say MVT
The NME recently supported the Featured Artist Coalition’s 2023 End of Year Party and AGM at Walthamstow’s Signature Brew in London. Following on from 2021 and 2022, NME returned to support the event as well as chairing an artist-led ‘Year in Music’ panel discussion featuring Murray Matravers of the band formerly known as Easy Life, Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, along with rising and acclaimed singer-songwriters LVRA and Cherise.
As well as tackling subjects such as streaming royalties reform, the application of AI in music, the 100 Per Cent Venues campaign to end punitive commissions on merchandise sales, and the #LetTheMusicMove campaign to encourage friction-free international touring, the event also saw artists explain how issues of race, education, politics, fair payment and venue closures needed tackling.
The panel was introduced by a speech from FAC CEO David Martin and the group’s Artist in Residence, Blur drummer Dave Rowntree.
Martin pointed out the success of their campaign for venues to take a smaller cut of musicians’ merch revenue, while arguing that that “being an artist has never represented the easy path, but today’s musical landscape is especially complex”. This, he explained, was due to matters relating to “making touring financially viable, achieving cut-through on streaming services, or simply finding the space and environment to create.”
“It was already a battle for attention, and now we have the prospect of AI increasing the rate of content creation,” he added. “In the words of the late, great Andrew Weatherall, ‘While technology has left us at the apex of a punk rock dream where anyone can make art, in practice that’s becoming a double-edged sword – it’s becoming hard to see the trees for the woods’. However, while technology presents new challenges, it has undoubtedly opened up new paths for artists to explore.”
Rowntree agreed, adding: “It has been quite a year for me. With Blur I released our ninth major label album alongside a world tour, including two sold out nights at Wembley Stadium. At the same time, I launched my solo career – releasing my debut album on an indie label alongside a more modest tour that included one sold-out night at The Joiners in Southampton. Which did I enjoy more? That’s the question.”
Graham Coxon, Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree of Blur perform at Wembley Stadium (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
Admitting that “one event arguably overshadowed the other”, Rowntr
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2wWhat a great pinnacle of Warner Music’s achievements 👏