Gatekeepers are at the core of the music business.

---

The most central business function of the music industry is to match available content to tastes--i.e., to wade through the vast sea of material being produced, find the music that people are most apt to like, and make people aware it’s out there and available. 

At present, the major record labels are the overwhelmingly predominant entities performing this function.  Radio stations basically piggyback off the choices of the record labels, and music stores piggyback off the radio stations’ choices.

Unfortunately, the record labels are overwhelmed by the quantity of music clamoring for their attention.   It is not economically feasible for them to hire enough reliable assessors of content to give a reasonable evaluation to it all.   It is this structural problem that creates the wall of indifference that musicians who are unable to get their demo tapes listened to find so demoralizing.

In actuality, it is a problem not only for musicians, but also for consumers, who are deprived of a good deal of material they would have enjoyed.  It has additional adverse effects on the music industry, which loses the ability to sell people more of the material they would have bought, had this music only been available to them.

© COPYRIGHT 2003 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.