Music Meets Prose: The Meeting

Music Meets Prose is our weekly bite-size prose feature on fictional stories inspired by real life behind-the-scenes events in the music industry. 

Our prose this week is entitled The Meeting - a three-part short story. Look out for our prose features every Friday.

The Meeting

Written by Bemi

Abstract artwork by Zaahira

Part 1

Max Lache looked through the window of his Southeast London office. He was a long way from the origins of Lache records on London’s West End. His father John Lache started the record label back in the heydays of music – the 1980s. Success continued into the 1990s – the compact disc era. And suddenly in the 2000s everything changed. Technology had brought a profound change in the music industry, no thanks to the new generation of illegal music downloaders. Music sales declined along with the profits. Lache records had to contend with the reality of financial restructuring coupled with downsizing staff and office space. These tough decisions probably contributed to John Lache’s early demise.

Max’s father struggled with the new reality of the music industry – a familiar territory had become so strange. He never anticipated the growth of digital music revolution as a formidable threat to the music business. Once music consumers discovered free illegal digital music download, the tide had turned and the record labels now had diminished control of the music market. The advent of social media which was initially heralded by up and coming artists became their very undoing. Social media had given the consumer easy access to music. The saving grace were the loyal music fans who continued to pay for music and come to gigs.

John Lache’s strokes began after the London West End office shut its doors due to the increasing financial problems. It was one stroke after another, until his death. He never saw the modest South East London office – perhaps it was better that way.

The sunrays peered through the window, Max looked away from the glare, his eyes roamed around his office. It was quite modest - a desk, two chairs and a filing cabinet. Next door was his personal assistant’s office. Lache Records had gone from over 100 staff with offices on London’s West End to a staff of 2 in a tiny office space based in a less glamorous part of London.

Well, he was in the music industry for the love of music. Anyone looking to make a quick buck from music in this day and age was in the wrong business. Just a few weeks ago Billboard’s number 1 album sold only 52,000 copies in its first week! This was in United States - the number one music market in the world. Back in the day, an artist couldn’t even crack a spot on the Top 10 Chart with those sales figures. Innovation had now become salient in today’s music market. An artist or music industry professional had to engage in different sources of revenue – product placement, music publishing, partnering with corporate entities and brands….music was somewhere on the list.

There was still money to be made in music – you just have to know where to look. In these times, a key ingredient required for success in the industry was patience, coupled with true passion for music. He had signed on with some new partners and a music management firm. His new partners were younger, computer savvy and grew up in the digital music revolution era - it was time to change with the times.

It was 9:00 am. Max's meeting was at 10:00 am.

Many thanks to our volunteer abstract artist Zaahira. Lookout for Part-2 next Friday (Oct 3rd).