When everybody can be an artist

Stefan Goldmann, an electronic musician, reviews the evolution of electronic music since the 1970s, with special attention to how the lowering of barriers (actually, their elimination) to entry has transformed the business model. Boiling down the thoughtful essay (translated from German) to its essential message, new artists can't emulate their predecessors' path to success: the world has changed too much. Whereas in the past it was possible to mimic the sound of a popular artist and earn a decent return on investment (from the label's perspective, anyway), it's simply not possible to succeed that way today because low-cost technology lets literally anyone be a copycat. Although not everyone will try their hand, enough will, and already have, to flood distribution channels, i.e., the Internet. Faced with a million choices, how does one choose?

Thirty years ago, "a couple of hundred artists and bands gained access to an audience of millions." Today?

Today a couple millions [sic] artists try to reach a few hundred people. Or like the contemporary pun puts it, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 people.”

The only way to succeed is to be different, Goldmann says, to stand out from the crowd. Of course, that's not really news: it has been the characteristic principle of those considered great artists throughout history. Goldmann merely points out that this truth is not merely the key to one's artistic reputation these days, but the key to making a living.