March 9, 2010
by Jerome Wilson | Online Staff Writer
Instructor Gabrielle Beatrice discusses how to write a press release for an upcoming album release with students in the Divercity Records class. Photo by Cyrette Smith
Students of DiverCity Records on the City College Campus adapt to vast changes in the music industry, as 2010 progresses with no halt.
DiverCity Records, the City College record label for students, and DiverCity Music and Productions Club (D.M.A.P.) have been promoting and raising money together for City College students to pursue a career in the music industry for 7 years.
With support from the SCC Foundation and the Music Department, it’s been a success thus far according to Music business instructor Gabrielle Beatrice. D.M.A.P. is a music club that puts on concerts and raises money for the record label. You don’t have to be pursuing a career in music to be part of D.M.A.P. The club teaches students about promotion and networking in the music industry. Both DiverCity Records and D.M.A.P. are student run organizations. D.M.A.P. provides students with a taste of how the business is run, complete with twists and turns along the way.
“If there are no mistakes made, students don’t learn very much,” says Beatrice.
CD sales, and the music industry have been hurting since 2000 when Napster, a downloading site for digital music burst on to the scene. Soon after many other similar web sites joined the trend. Does this damage the careers of the students who are apart of DiverCity Records? Not as bad as one would think. Since the rise of social networking, the Internet has proved to be a valuable resource for artists to gain exposure. Despite the resourcefulness of the internet, artists must continuously adapt to a constantly changing business.
While Divercity Records students focus on the learning the business side of running a record label, several are recording their own music in the SCC studio (shown) or in their home studios, which have quickly become the norm in the quickly changing music industry. Photo by Cyrette Smith
“We are losing the value put on the art,” said Travis Cook, President of D.M.A.P. and music major. It cost lots of money and time producing art and promoting for concerts. “In the music business there’s change, you have to adapt to your audience.”.
With CD sales in a slump, some say that there are other ways to gain new fans.
“A new approach to exposure is having a song featured in a movie or T.V. show,” said Beatrice.
“The Internet has changed music by creating overnight sensations. Anyone can make a song with the Internet.”
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube
No, not really- the principal way the Internet changed music was by allowing anybody to have access to all the music there is to listen to all the time. Confronted with all that choice, and all that great music, nobody wants to go back to listening to ready-made rock stars and over-produced pop starlets.
I don’t see that. I see a more vibrant mix of popular music than ever before, with more musicians and better music succeeding on a smaller scale. I don’t see how this can be anything other than a great thing for music, even if it’s not so great for the behemoth record labels.
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Are those artists really making money to survive? I think not.
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