Hi Mark!
Welcome to TalkAWhile.
Now that the digital age is upon us and music no longer depends upon audiophiles with pristine vinyl to enable anyone to hear a recording more than a couple of years old, it is obvious whenever an artist or group release a new recording, they are competing against at least 60 years of popular music of all persuasions.
Many radio stations now play music from my 'yoof' - I never thought I'd hear Uriah Heep again, but then I switched on Planet Rock!
A lot of these stations never play a track less than 20 years old, so it'd seem.
Anyhow, the way I see it there are (at least) two problems with this scenario.
Firstly, the bar is set impossibly high in many genres by the easy availability of so much music, even when an artist or group breaks through, all they do is set the bar even higher for the next release.
Second, as the supermarkets and online retailers relentlessly drive down the price of recorded music, it is ever more difficult for any new band to make any profit on recordings. Indeed, there are bands I know who have abandoned formal releases of CDs because the price of production of relatively low numbers means they can't make a profit if they're sold through a retail chain, and just concentrate on profiting from downloads.
I realise that TV talent shows have always produced short-term success for their successful artists (long term for the likes of Mr Cowell as he gets the lions share of their income anyhow) so am discounting those.
For the majority of artists, it seems the only way to make a living in music is to emulate Fairport Convention (and many others) and be on the road almost constantly? Has the industry swung from live appearances selling recorded music to recorded music selling live music and are those live appearances the only way to sustain a profitable life as a muso?
Hope this isn't too long a question, but I'm really interested in what you think the model for successful careers in music will be in the future and whether in fact anyone actually knows where we are heading.
All the best
Andy