By Steve Meyer, Inside Music Media™ Contributor"Now, more than ever, labels should reinvest in artist development, something that's been overlooked for too long, and was once an integral part of every label's day-to-day operations".Artist development went out the window once their budgets went toward making videos for MTV. Now artist development has long been forgotten in the rush to flood the market with trend music, flavor-of-the-month artists, and anything that sells and keep revenues flowing. Even in the late 60's and 70's, all labels wanted to grow and make profits. But they were also focused on signing artists that could provide them (and the public) with long-term success. Is this really an imperative at labels in today's business model? If so, then how many artists out there today have platinum and multi-platinum success? Then ask yourself how many will still be making music that will be valid in the marketplace, or on radio in 5 years. The list will be short. If one goes back and looks at the sales success stories and monster acts that sold product in the last decade, you'll find most of them are either gone today, or no longer finding success at radio and retail. Labels have to have diverse rosters and they've always had novelty acts, one-hit wonders, and short-term success stories. But the one constant that always provided health was in that diverse roster, a strong foundation of singer/songwriters/bands that could always deliver great albums when ready. The music people, not the lawyers, not the business affairs people, not the music video directors are the ones who will help the industry weather its current storms. And when the storms calm down, it will be the music people who engage the consumers. Steve Meyer is one of the music industry's top professionals and publisher of the new media newsletter DISC & DAT
