Ten years ago, I was a junior in college, and a radio promotions intern at Virgin Records. Life was good, or so we thought. The internet had yet to become the distribution channel, and the model of “get radio play/sell records” was still going strong. Ten years later if there is one thing I’ve never been more sure of, is that particular model is dead, and has officially taken Nashville with it.

I was driving around town running errands today, and had my iPod set to shuffle song in my library, 8,323 songs to be exact, or enough music to play for twenty four and a half days straight. The song started with a banjo lick, and not one of those “I’m too lazy to learn how to play the banjo so I’ll just put a guitar neck on a banjo body” banjo licks. And then a fiddle kicked in. Then an amazing three part harmony. Was it something that this town had produced? No. Was it anything that “country” radio would play? Absolutely not. But did the Avett Brothers just sell out the 2,000+ seat Ryman Auditorium? You bet. Do they sell a lot of record? Probably not. Do they get played on the radio? Maybe the occasional indie/college station. But the internet and word of mouth allows them to draw huge crowds to their shows, something most Nashville artists would kill for.

This town places all of their bets on the radio, no matter how big. Instead of letting an artist (and by “artist” I mean someone with true musical talent, and not someone with a pretty face who can be autotuned and cut some complete trite and bullshit song about flag waving) build their own following by digital word of mouth, this town will literally invest millions into any pretty face and just throw it out there and see if it sticks. How’s that working out for you Nashville? Last time I jogged my daily route around Music Row, half of the buildings had for sale signs on them.

This town is dying fast, and I truly don’t believe there is anything that can be done to bring it back to life. Money won out over artistry many years ago, and along with that came the inability to adapt to the web. It would be my hope that in the future a record label would be nothing more than a VC firm to help artists who already have a small following get over the hump financially and spread their music globally. But until this town stops living by the radio, it will for sure die by it’s hand. Make good music, build a community, and never listen to what someone that reports to a shareholder ever tell you what’s going to sell or not ever again.

RIP, Nashville.