Musicians Unmarked Manifesto

We, the Musicians Unmarked, are a group of very talented individuals who strive for success in music production. However, we refuse to succeed in the manner of allowing the record company industry take our money and prostitute us out as consumerism propaganda. We will remain unmarked by anything other than our music, especially, record companies. We are pleading with other musicians to stop the “selling of themselves” for fame and remember what you once loved and believed in.

In our opinion, the primary monster plaguing musicians is the mainstream recording industry. They are vicious lions seeking to devour any profit they can from us, the musicians. If you decide to sign with a recording label you get a big sum of money that you must pay back once you start making money. Then, you only receive about one-third of everything you profit from record sales, concerts, and merchandise sold while touring. Meanwhile, the record company makes the majority of their money doing nothing but selling you to the media. The record companies aid in your fame, but it is not because of  your music. This is why we, the Musicians Unmarked, disapprove with signing your soul over to the conniving devils of the mainstream recording industry.

Moreover, another consequent of signing with a record company is that you become the most valuable tool for marketing. You are transformed from the object of consumerism into the channel for consumerism. For example, millions and millions of headphones called Beats where sold at a high price last year because Dr. Dre endorsed them. Many musicians who have become celebrities are used in commercials to advertise weight lose products as well as cleansing and beauty products. Musicians, did you really think this would be your life: advertising for something other than the magnificence of music? The art of making music for the world to love and enjoy is demolished by the demand of advertising yourself to make more money due to the fact that the record company has made most of it’s money from your talent; you have not. Therefore, you feel forced into this lifestyle of promoting everything else except for what you truly believe in, your music. We, the Musicians Unmarked will not stand for this! We will not take part in this monstrosity and we beg of you to recant your decision and to think about how much you have given up to these companies just to record your music.

We, the Musicians Unmarked believe that musicians should be doing what they do best and that is MUSIC! We refuse to be marked by the mainstream music industry!! Making it through hard work and never giving up is the answer for success. It is outrageous that record companies get most of the profit from record sales and we will not support this. As musicians, let us not loose sight of our love for what we do. We can change the world through music and we do not have to sell out to mainstream music corporations to do that. We can make it without them! Macklemore and his producing partner Ryan Lewis have paved a beautiful road of success in this for us to follow down. They stuck their middle finger up to the mainstream record company industry and made a fortune themselves by purely making and recording their own music. Macklemore addresses these issues in his song “Jimmy Lovine”. He raps,

“We'll give you a hundred thousand dollars

After your album comes out we'll need back that money that you borrowed

So it's really like a loan

A loan? Come on, no

We're a team, 360 degrees, we will reach your goals!

You'll get a third of the merch that you sell out on the road

Along with the third of the money you make when you're out doing your shows

Manager gets 20, booking agent gets 10

So shit, after taxes you and Ryan have 7% to split”

 Furthermore, we propose a plan of action to boycott major recording companies. We, the Musicians Unmarked will never sign a contract with these vipers no matter how much money they dispense and will not relinquish our stance on this issue. We will use every kind of social media available to us to get ourselves out there and known. We will sell our record ourselves even if that means doing so on the streets like Immortal Technique did on the streets of New York. We believe that hard work, talent, and perseverance is enough to make it. We will record our own albums with the advanced technology that has been provided throughout the years. Anyone can virtually record their music from the comfort of their own home. We will have to work vigorously to get to where we want to be just like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Together we can succeed above and beyond mainstream record companies who lust for the blood of young, naive, and fame hungry artists. Hear my plea, musicians do not have to be the puppets of consumerism and big corporations any longer. 

In conclusion, you must all be urgently informed of this atrocity. The Musicians Unmarked maintain that we will not sign with any major recording company and we encourage all you other musicians to take heed and do the same. We will dedicate our time and efforts into making music and getting it out there in the world for other people to enjoy, because that is what music is about and if we can make money doing it then that will be great too! We will protest mainstream record companies and refuse to buy into to their slimy little schemes. We will use all types of free social media to get our songs and albums out there into the world and we will play and perform in as many bars, clubs, weddings, etc that we have to and get our name out there. If we have to work fifty times harder to do what we love and get people to love it to then we definitely do that. For it is better for all our work to come from us than to sell out to a major mainstream record company. Consequently, we will not allow our music to be put on the back burner and let consumerism be our avenue for success. 

WE WILL PRODUCE OUR OWN MUSIC OR DIE TRYING!