Why Do We Still Make Records?
inTheir Needson December 16, 2016
For over 20 years Music Maker has been releasing albums, showcasing the amazing work of the artists we feel are so important to the fabric of our culture. During the CD boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, Music Maker was able to sell CDs, putting money in the pockets of these important musicians. The dawn of Napster and other peer-to-peer file sharing applications, widespread accessibility to the Internet and the subsequent shift in how we value music began to diminish sales, even for the largest record labels. In a relatively short period of time the entire music industry changed.
Larger companies were only concerned with their bottom line so they began to change the way they worked with artists, giving them an even smaller piece of the revenue pie. But Music Maker’s function as a record label is different than the Sonys and Warner Brothers of the world. The albums we put out aren’t going quadruple platinum, there is something much more important at stake. Anyone who has ever toured or played music professionally knows the importance of CDs as a source of income and as a way to connect with fans, not to mention the fact that many Music Maker artists had never been given an opportunity to record an album at all. Music Maker is able to grant these CDs to the musicians for free because of supporters like you.
Boo Hanks, for example, was unique in that he had never played outside of his home community in rural Buffalo Junction, VA. Music Maker saw that Boo was a unique artist that contributed to our cultural heritage and was, like many many others, overlooked due to his socioeconomic situation. We partnered with Boo and recorded his first album – Picking Low Cotton and started booking him shows. Boo ended up traveling the world, sharing his music and even got to record his second album with GRAMMY award winning artist Dom Flemons.
Boo was incredibly proud of his accomplishments and was able to earn extra income with the CDs that Music Maker produced for him. After a show Boo played in Chapel Hill, NC a group of children rushed the stage when Boo was done to get their CDs signed. They were absolutely enamored with the fact that Boo was there in person to sign their CDs, Boo was equally excited. I immediately understood why we make still make albums at Music Maker.
— Corn Lewis
