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This week’s article is taken from the really cool fanzIne FAKE PLASTIC. Support your local fanzine publication here. Artwork by Christopher Scott and Raphael Campbell

In the future online websites could be highly influential in promoting artists. The recently successful campaign by users of Facebook to put Rage Against the Machine’s hit, ‘Killing in the Name’ on the Christmas No. 1 spot is evidence of the power of word-of-mouth potential on social networking sites.

The campaign started by married couple Jon and Tracy Morter was in protest over X Factor’s continual Christmas chart success. The public have spoken and Rage’s victory could prove to be a small turning point in a greater change. X Factor’s enduring presence over the past decade of chart music can be attributed to the fact that it is well produced, promoted, advertised and good Saturday night television for many people. But is it reaching the end? The money spent on Joe McElderry’s Christmas No.1 campaign became insignificant compared with the no budget campaign by the Morter’s on Facebook. Simon Cowell even went as far as offering the pair jobs at his company in light of their success. I suspect that their success was made easier due to huge public animosity towards X Factor. But with the huge profits X Factor generates it is obvious that it is still hugely popular. The campaign should not be viewed as a witch-hunt against Simon Cowell as he or anyone is entitled to create such programmes and they will only continue to run as long as people tune in.

The industry currently lacks any major alternative artists like whose music defined the early 90’s. For every commercial band there was an indie group fighting in their corner for artistic integrity. These artists generated a lot of attention but rarely had a game plan to make huge profits, an alarming tactic for record execs. Since the music industry went digital, the piracy of music has made it very difficult for any artist to make money. With the massive fall in sales many have found other ways of making money through advertising or creating clothing labels for example but only big name artists get this opportunity. This means that most other artists fall by the wayside leaving the industry very one-sided with only a small amount of big names getting all the promoters time and clogging up our air-space.

So how can we counter the balance? Artists that endured over the years had to justify themselves musically which is in stark contrast to today’s stars. Most of the artists today are more concerned with how they look in photo shoots than they how they sound on stage and will be quickly forgotten as both we and the companies know too well. This is why record companies focus so heavily at the beginning of an artists career. However the continuous changes in how music is processed and sold means there are more opportunities for artists to carve careers than ever before. Artists just starting out have a greater access to music technology. Studio equipment is cheaper, and computer programmes for under a few hundred pounds are widely available meaning anyone can become skilled at digital recording. Digital distribution means that artists can sell or sample out their music to attract a wider fan base with little cost.

Smaller labels are being set up throughout the country as a result of job losses in the big companies. Artists should seek out these companies as they can give more time to their artist’s career development. Home recording and self marketing online may also prove a valuable way for new artists to promote themselves. Online sites such as MySpace and Facebook until now have not been hugely successful at finding raw talent; however many artists continue to use such sites to promote their music. A large reservoir of talent must have been building up over the years on these sites. If making music is to remain a viable business with any integrity then the alternative artists must be supported in difficult financial times. This means paying for your music, first to provide an incentive to record companies to invest in these bands and to ensure a wage for the artists.

The Morters made sure to emphasise that only paid for downloads are counted, so if you want to support your favourite artist in the charts then there is no option but to dig in your pockets. Their campaign has shown, despite its criticisms, that what people spend on music directly affects the charts. The public have a bigger voice than they perhaps realise and ultimately it is them who have the power to decide on an artist’s success.

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