Immutable/Inscrutable: Radiohead wouldn't exist without early major-label funding. The future won't bring new Radioheads. All I want to say...
Mike Doughty, one of my favorite artists growing up, lays out the bad news of starting up a band in a severely wounded industry:
I was kind of shocked that few people knew the ground-level math, the nuts-and-bolts inconvenient truth: the diminishment of labels means there’s little money to fund the initial touring costs of new bands.
It’s called tour support. Paying for a van/bus, gas, sound person, per diems (meals), motels, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s vital start-up money, it’s the impetus of scores of bands’ careers, and it’s not really available anymore—certainly not to the extent it was when there was more money in music.
This means that there will be fewer bands.
