When Dollars and Cents Meet Heart and Soul: The Cost of Dedication in the Music Industry

“Your Money or Your Loyalty”

The music industry, in decline and disgrace, like many others today, faces almost certain implosion if it continues on its path to self-destruction.  Global music sales decline consecutively, year after year.  Record labels point to illegal file sharing as a reason for falling revenue.  Other possible factors for the deterioration include decreased disposable household income and a rise in video music and games sales.  Simply put, the post-recession financial rewards that many businesses now reap aren’t being realized in the music business.  Therefore, the leaders in this industry must examine their driving corporate values.

By Richard J. Atkins, Ed.D.

CEO of www.improvingcommunications.com

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

The day-to-day operations of the business speak loudly of the problems within.  Bands are signed and dropped in the twinkling of an eye.  Artists are promised the moon and then shown to the dumpster.  The whimsical winds of taste determine the flavor of the week without regard for greater potential in later days.  Through it all, the question is raised, where is the sense of loyalty?  What happened to all those campaign promises prior to election?  In such a bleak environment, it is difficult or even impossible for an artist to create.

Rosanna Arquette’s All We Are Saying provides a shocking exposé of the music scene.  The film expresses the acrimony and disillusionment about the “business” of creating and producing art in today’s society.  Among the vast stable of artist input she presents, icons such as Joni Mitchell express a complete refusal to jump through the hoops held by the media giants.  David Crosby mourns the loss of the numerous smaller record companies as a few big corporations that are responsible for today’s entertainment are the replacement.

Devotion, faithfulness, dedication—whatever the appellation, today’s business and industry could use a shot of the magic elixir in its collective arm.  Even canines stereotypically possess more of this focused quality than some of their human counterparts.  In an age when dollars mean all, the mindset that incorporates values such as loyalty can find itself in the path of a corporate greed and profiteering tornado.

Since the latter half of the last century, a sense of obligation—to anything—has practically disappeared.  Children are raised to believe, “I did it all by myself.”  The notion of acknowledging help and support is unknown to many.  Today’s generation finds itself in the self-centered “me” mentality, so foreign to any sense of loyalty punctuated with gratitude for assistance.

In the business world, this sense of responsibility is supplanted by the drive for personal recognition, frequently in the form of ego stroking and a paycheck—pride and greed.  In the past, workers stayed with the same company for the span of their careers.  Today, some experts say that employees who stay in the same job for more than five years are anomalies.  Greed has outweighed a sense of commitment, or at least it seems so.  Individual materialism or corporate self-indulgence pans out to be, in essence, the same thing.  After all, corporations are comprised of individuals.  Each person carries different mental and emotional qualities to the workplace that will set the course for smooth or rough sailing.  New York Psychologist Edward M. Petrosky states that, “individuals bring their own unique personalities and habits into the workplace and form an organizational culture that is distinct from and greater than the individual personalities that comprise it.  These norms then take on a life, personality, and power, all their own that dictates how business should be conducted.”  When attitudes and behaviors are especially self-centered, negative, and destructive, the consequences for a damaging corporate culture manifest themselves in numerous ways.