ABSTRACT
The intelligent reader may well wonder whether musicians or singers ever tried to pursue do it yourself strategies before the internet even existed. A careful reading of music business texts would have revealed to the careful reader that only a small percentage of recordings even broke even, let alone provided sizeable income to the artists. The thinking was that surely if music was broadly available without charge on platforms like YouTube, or on millions of websites, consumers would gravitate towards a broader and more sophisticated level of musical endeavors. In Nashville the music was quite centralized, and songwriters could go from office to office simply by walking one or two blocks. They would buttonhole music publishers as best they could, and seek record deals. Local or regional record sales should eventually receive attention by record labels, and may eventually lead to a record deal, and to attracting the attention of personal managers.
