Little Fish Research Paper

Mrs. Whitehead

Com 140

Final Paper

Little Fish, Big Pond; Can Independent Musicians Make A Living?

Whether you’re playing songs at a greasy spoon truck stop for 65 bucks and a

cheeseburger or you’re in a Greyhound bus trucking down to North Carolina to meet

some hodgepodge director of a documentary film about children that breast feed until age

10. Chances are you’re an independent musician. Sure, making music is great and it’s

loads of fun, but is it reasonable to think that we can actually sustain a living by saying

fuck you to the man and doing it all on our own?

According to Talking Heads frontman David Byrnes, it’s totally plausible.

“Artists used to need the labels to bankroll
Marissa’s a very soft- spoken women who goes to Dutchess for liberal arts she Marissa took this class because

she is fascinated by the media and it’s interaction with society. “I feel bad for the

independent artists. It has to be a very hard lifestyle working all the time and not seeing

any reward. Although I think it can work, there’s lots of hard work involved and

obviously you need a really good product” (Weisfelener, 2012)”

Most likely my favorite interview was with a gentleman by the name of Daniel

Torelli. Daniel is the kind of guy that leads by example. He’s a Com student and is into

film production. “I definitely think independent artists can sustain a living. Independent

artists have complete control over their intellectual property. Nobody’s getting into their

art, nobody’s constantly hassling them for money. If they have a good product, they’re

going to build their fan base and eventually majors are going to try and grab them up.

Like with any industry, If you’re talented, people are going to try and use you”. Oh so

true. (Torelli,
I’d like to think that independent artists can survive,

but I don’t think it’s a comfortable living” (Lecain, 2012)

My opinion is mixed. I’ve been an independent artist and I’ve been signed to

labels. Both are interesting. On one hand, being independent gives you the freedom and

total control of your work.

You’re doing everything yourself, you have nobody to answer to, you get no sleep

because you’re constantly on the phone, you’re buried in emails, constantly updating all

the social networking sites, after awhile it feels as if you’re a slave to your art, scratch

that, you are. It’s your music; it’s your message; it’s your life. Add on top of all the

financial headaches and bills that go along with managing a business.

Being on a major label gives you breathing room. There’s money coming in,

they’re taking care of promoting, they have people running your social networking sites,

they have people putting your face in magazines and on all those teeny