SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA) — The new normal is having music at your fingertips. it's great for us, but what about the music industry?
The loss of sales can often lead to the loss of jobs and businesses. One of those companies hurt by the changes, a small label out of Silver Spring.
Inside an office building in Silver Spring, up on the fourth floor you’ll find shelves and stacks of CDs. Sitting among them, the owner of Cuneiform Records Steve Feigenbaum.
“Really what I wanted to do was I wanted to have the most adventurous record label I could do,” he explained.
From the start Steve set himself apart. The type of music Cuneiform pushed- was, well, all types.
“We have a lot of things that cross boundaries,” he said.
The next three decades brought release after release. They promoted concerts. Won numerous awards and created a working business for Steve.
“It was profitable, but it wasn’t very profitable,” he smiled. “I mean, I’m not complaining. It paid salaries of people, it paid the rent here.”
Then the digital age hit. Music became accessible online or on phones and the industry took a huge hit.
“Recorded music doesn’t really have an financial value to a large majority of people,” Steve explained.
The albums gradually stopped selling in the numbers they used to do. How badly? Steve said by at least 75 percent.
In 2017, after more than 30 years in the business, Steve gave his staff notice: Cuneiform Records would go on hiatus for the next year.
“I gave them 10 months’ notice and I released everything we had already promised people we would release,” he explained.
The stacks of CDs now serve his other business, Wayside Music. It’s a mail order record store for rare and collectible tunes.
It’s here Steve plans his next move.
“is there a future in this? Obviously, the future is different.”
Is there still a place in the music industry for a small label?
Not long after he announced the hiatus, one of the bands Steve worked with (Thumbscrew) approached him about releasing an album for them.
This year, he is working out a strategy to see how it can be done in the new era of music.
