The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Thursday, January 24, 2019 — 3B

When I returned to school 
after winter break in elementary 
school, there was only one thing 
on everyone’s minds: What sort of 
gifts did everyone get? Everyone 
seemed to be interested in 
seeing if their presents were as 
cool as everyone else’s. In fifth 
grade, my good friend Tyler 
and I had each received iPod 
Nanos. However, there was one 
difference between our two 
devices — while I had about 
forty songs on my iPod (Radio 
Disney Kid Jams Vol. 1 and 2), 
Tyler had hundreds.
I didn’t know it at the time, 
but there was no way Tyler was 
listening to all of those songs as 
a fifth grader. But either way, 
I was jealous. I wanted to have 
more songs on my iPod. So after 
asking Tyler about how he got 
all of those songs on his iPod, I 
learned about a website called 
Limewire where you could (or 
as I understood it), “Download 
songs for free.” And so began 
my relationship with music and 
instant gratification.
Music streaming has been 
almost 
seamlessly 
integrated 
into our everyday lives. And 
with this emergence of a new 

way to access music comes 
those arguing for and against 
that method. Many claim that 
streaming services hurt the 
artists, while others think that 
it allows listeners to experience 
much more music than ever 
before.
Both sides are right, in some 
respect, but the argument that 
the artists are losing money 
from 
streaming 
services 
is 
only partially correct: Artists 
that relinquish control of their 
streaming 
rights 
to 
labels 
are 
really 
the 
ones 
losing 
out. Relying on an internet-
based music platform without 
adapting to an internet-based 
plan of making, producing and 
serving music is not a recipe for 
success. With increased ease to 
produce and release music due to 
advancements in technology and 
the proliferation of the internet 
and 
an 
increased 
demand 
for instant gratification from 
consumers, the need for artists 
to have a label is becoming 
almost irrelevant.
One of the most famous 
examples of an independent 
artist is Chancelor Bennett, or, 
as he’s more commonly known, 
Chance the Rapper. Bennett 
started by releasing his debut 
mixtape, 10 Day, to the world, 
garnering upwards of 500,000 

downloads 
on 
the 
mixtape 
sharing site DatPiff. After being 
recognized as one of the most 
prolific up-and-coming artists 
by publications like Complex 
and Forbes, Bennett released 
his second mixtape, Acid Rap, in 
2013 to even more widespread 
acclaim 
than 
his 
previous 
mixtape.
However even after achieving 
such a high level of success 
and working with artists like 
Childish 
Gambino, 
Kanye 
West 
and 
Kendrick 
Lamar, 
getting millions of streams on 
streaming services, and selling 
out stadiums across the country, 
Bennett 
continues 
to 
stay 
independent. When asked if he 
would ever sign with a label in 
an interview with Rolling Stone, 
Bennett replied, “There’s no 
reason to. It’s a dead industry.”
A lesser known but still 
very familiar artist is Claire 
Cottrill, better known by her 
stage name, Clairo. Although 
Cottrill is now signed to Fader, 
a record label based in New 
York City, and has also been 
accused of being an “industry 
plant,” her initial success can be 
completely attributed to herself 
and websites like YouTube and 
Bandcamp. When I first saw 
Cottrill’s music video for her 
song “Pretty Girl” on YouTube 

in late August of 2017, it had a 
couple hundred thousand views. 
Now, the video has surpassed 26 
million views on YouTube, and 
although the single wasn’t added 
to streaming services until a 
short while after the videos 
initial release, the track has over 
34 million streams on Spotify. All 
for a track produced completely 
by Cottrill on equipment she 
described as, “pretty shitty.”
Although she has only been 
signed to a label within the past 
two years, one can see music 
released 
from 
Cottrill 
from 
as far back as 2013 on various 
online platforms. From covers 
to originals, Cottrill has the 
freedom to post whatever she 
wanted for everyone to listen to. 
And although she’s been accused 
of being a sellout many times, the 
consistency in sound of Cottrill’s 
music begs to differ.
Sites 
like 
Bandcamp, 
Soundcloud and YouTube have 
allowed artists like Clairo to 
release their music to the world 
without going through a label. 
Although this can give artists a 
lot of freedom and options for 
their music, it also complicates 
things a bit. Because these 
services exist to artists for 
basically no cost, and home 
recording is becoming a cheaper 
and 
cheaper 
activity 
(many 
current 
computers 
including 
multitrack recording software 
upon launch), basically anyone 
can release music.
Like, anyone.
With all of this music being 

released, it’s not surprising to 
see how saturated the music 
industry has become. Every 
minute, twelve hours of music 
are uploaded to Soundcloud. 
That’s a lot of music. The amount 
of new music that people have 
not heard yet continues to grow 
at a rate that is unachievable for 
the average listener to catch up 
to.
So how do listeners decide 
which new artists they want 
to discover? The purpose of 
a record label used to be to 
produce artists’s records and 
then promote them. Well, artists 
are already capable of producing 
their own work, so how has 
this new age of the internet and 
technology influenced that? Are 
labels still necessary for that?
Well … sort of.
While it’s true that labels 
might have more money to 
promote 
artists 
and 
send 
them on tour, artists are still 
fully 
capable 
of 
marketing 
themselves, and even booking 
their own tours. Social media 
has completely revolutionized 
the way we communicate with 
each other and has changed 
the way we advertise as well. 
It’s now easier than ever to 
reach billions of people that are 
connected online for free or 
close to it.
The DIY music scene and its 
continued emergence in culture 
exemplifies the ease of self-
promoting and booking in the 
21st century. Countless student-
run bands from Ann Arbor 

have put on tours of their own, 
traveling across the Midwest 
and beyond without the help of 
a label; simply asking friends if 
they know anywhere they can 
play is enough of a start for them 
to go on tour.
But self-funded shows go a 
lot further than DIY basement 
shows. Bands can easily book 
their own national tours, and 
even fund them. Sites like 
GoFundMe 
and 
IndieGoGo 
make it possible for bands 
to raise funds for tours on a 
grander scale.

Ann Arbor favorite Vulfpeck 
figured out a way to fund a 
national tour back in 2014 using 
resources that would have only 
been available to them in the 
internet age. By uploading an 
album of silence to Spotify, 
asking their fans to stream 
it while they sleep and then 
using the money made through 
streaming to fund a tour, the 
group was able to fund a tour 
that was completely free to fans 
spanning from Los Angeles to 
New York.
A 
musical 
artist’s 
metaphorical tool belt continues 
to grow and grow each and 
every year. The more resources 
they have, the less they need 
a label and the more they can 
focus on expanding their brand 
on their own terms. Consulting 
professionals can still be helpful, 
but the need for artists to sign 
daunting and binding contracts 
is just not there anymore.

How the internet changed 
the way artists are signed

FADER

VULF RECORDS

RYAN COX
Daily Arts Writer

Like it or not, celebrities 
play a pivotal role in our 
society. Whether it’s to take a 
stand politically or to promote 
a controversial diet, there’s 
no doubt that they have an 
extensive influence on the way 
we live our lives and how we 
fill our time. Consequently, it’s 
no surprise that their impact 
reaches beyond our screens and 
into the books we read.
In 
1996, 
the 
publishing 
industry saw a drastic shift in 
the way books were marketed to 

the world with the introduction 
of Oprah Winfrey’s book club. 
The program ran for 15 years 
and many of the books went on 
to become bestsellers, certain 
titles selling over 1 million 
copies. Since then, celebrities 
everywhere have joined the book 
club craze: Reese Witherspoon 
and Jimmy Fallon both have 
prominent clubs of their own, 
and the books they endorse have 
had similar successes.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to 
anyone that the books celebrities 
enjoy 
and 
publicly 
support 
experience 
positive 
public 
feedback. What’s concerning 
is the fact that authors and 

books may suffer because of the 
individual tastes of the people 
directing what the public is 
reading. One economist pointed 
out that while Oprah favored 
certain classic books, the sales 
of genres like romance and 
mystery tended to suffer from 
her directed interests because 
the public was simply busy 
reading something else.
Balancing a book’s role as a 
product while remaining true 
to the art form is difficult, 
especially in a world where 
people are ever more distracted 
by 
their 
phones 
and 
the 
newest 
thing 
on 
television. 
While 
celebrities 
can 
often 

be the bridge between these 
two 
worlds, 
their 
constant 
advertisements pushing this or 
that book can change the way 
we perceive the text. The book 
becomes increasingly more like 
a product someone is trying 

to sell, instead of a piece of art 
meant to help us understand the 
world. And maybe it could be 
argued that books have always 

been products, that publishers 
have always been trying to push 
the sales of their new book, 
but 
celebrity 
endorsements 
seem to emphasize this point, 
rather 
than 
draw 
attention 
away from it. Often times, with 
their fans being such a reverent 
audience, their opinions become 
muddled with “expertise” and 
their 
recommendations 
with 
principles. Eventually, the books 
that are promoted lose the very 
individuality that made them 
appealing to the celebrities in 
the first place.
Creating a book club is an 
art in itself, a potential key to 
understanding a difficult text 
or 
cultivating 
relationships 
one might not otherwise make. 
But clubs on such a wide scale, 
like that of Oprah’s book club, 
take on a corporate quality and 
lose the intimacy that makes 
reading a book with a group of 
people so enjoyable. On a local 
level, Ann Arbor’s own Literati 
Bookstore runs a variety of book 
clubs that present an interesting 
understanding of the way a 
book acts as both a catalyst 
for relations and discussions 
while also remaining a lucrative 
product for the store. It’s a 
perfect marriage: The monthly 
clubs provide a platform for 
Literati to advertise their store 
and their books while the 
local atmosphere of the coffee 
shop preserves the personal 
connection 
between 
books 
and people, overall avoiding 
the downfalls that come with 
celebrity endorsements.
None of this is to say that 
celebrities are without their 
good 
intentions. 
They’ve 
changed 
the 
publishing 
landscape and the way we 
experience books — we can 
connect not only with each 
other but with our favorite 
stars through the books they 
read. Nevertheless, while the 
clubs are meant to encourage 

reading and can often have a 
positive impact on book sales, 
their prevalence marks a society 
that yearns to confirm the idea 
that “Stars, they’re just like 
us.” We shouldn’t rely solely 
on Emma Roberts or Sarah 
Jessica Parker to tell us what 
books we should or should not 
read. Part of the experience of 
reading is browsing a bookstore 
or a library and stumbling on 
an up-and-coming author or an 

old classic that may or may not 
have a huge following. Even 
recommendations are integral 
to the process of finding a book 
— it’s when books undergo 
mass marketing, with the help 
of celebrities, that the real 
threat is evident. The process of 
reading is a personal experience 
and, if people continue to rely as 
heavily as they do on celebrities 
for 
book 
recommendations, 
books 
stand 
to 
lose 
the 
very thing that makes them 
marketable. 

OWN
Celebs: Did you know they 
like to read? Just like us.

EMMA CHANG
Senior Arts Editor

Balancing a book’s 
role as a product 
while remaining 
true to the art 
form is difficult, 
especially in a 
world where 
people are ever 
more distracted by 
their phones and 
the newest thing 
on television

It shouldn’t be 
a surprise to 
anyone that the 
books celebrities 
enjoy and publicly 
support experience 
positive public 
feedback

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