Award-winning and multiplatinum-selling singer-songwriter Sara Evans recently gave her opinion on the changing goalposts of today's music industry, expressing concern that social media platforms have set a bar for new and emerging artists that is almost impossible to reach.
Speaking on her podcast, Diving In Deep with Sara Evans, along with fellow Nashville veteran Martina McBride, Evans weighed in on the landscape these artists face.
"These days, I feel really, really bad for singers and musicians who are coming to town and trying to get a deal, because they're meant to have a million followers on TikTok and Instagram before a label will even look at them," she said.
Evans, who put out her debut album in 1997 and has released a catalogue of music steadily since, noted that -- despite decades of experience -- she doesn't even know how to advise her children, who are interested in music as a career.
"I don't know what to tell them," she admitted. "I have no idea."
McBride agreed, saying, "I don't even know how labels work anymore. It's like a whole different world."
The two agreed that a big part of their own respective successes lay in the "force" that their labels put behind promoting them and their music.
McBride added: "We were so lucky that we had a label that had experienced executives that knew what they were doing and could sort of shepherd you. We were always in control of making the music, and then they helped us get the music out there."
"These people today, I'm like, how are they doing it?"
Evans also lamented on how streaming has changed things for artists, as well. "These days our music is basically given away for free...Now we have really nothing to sell, except ourselves on the road."
Evans has released 10 albums since 1997 to date. Her 11th, Unbroke, is scheduled for release June 7.
