Singer-songwriter Rosey, who wrote songs for films like Shallow Hal, talked about her musical journey on “Closer Look.”
Emilia Brock / WABE
In 2016, independent music labels generated over $6 billion dollars in sales globally, according to a report from the Worldwide Independent Network, also known as (WIN). To put those sales into perspective, WIN says that accounts for 38 percent of the recorded music global market.
Industry experts point to services like music streaming and social media platforms as some of the main contributors that have helped indie artists to not only stay independent, but also earn a profit.
Singer-songwriter, Rosey, started her career in Los Angeles and has been featured in publications like Billboard, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, but now she’s here in Atlanta working on new music to be released on her own independent label. Rosey recently stopped by the Public Broadcasting Atlanta studios as part of Closer Look’s Summer Indie Music series.
Rosey grew up in a family of musicians, and early in her career was signed to a major label, Island Records/Def Jam, and wrote songs that appeared in films like “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “Shallow Hal”.
“At first, I called [my music] urban rock and roll when I first got signed,” Rosey said. ” I thought ‘it’s got hip-hop beats, but they’re played on a drum set and there’s a rock band too’. I later realized it’s really funk — now I have a funk band and that’s what I call it.”
Rosey said her process to creating music starts with both the melody and the lyrics, sometimes she may hear a piano part or the words for a song may come to mind first. She says wanting to create music on her own terms is what led her to becoming a recording engineer for herself and other artists as well having her own recording studio.
“I’ve had to make some decisions about what’s the most important thing to me and I decided the music business, as incredible as it could be, it’s going to change — it shifts every few years,” Rosey said. “In the end, what matters, to me, most is the art and making art — if I’m making my own art or helping other people make art, because the art is the thing that lives on.”
Earlier this summer Rosey re-released a compilation of her jazz and blues music “Be Somebody Blues” via her own Roseymusic label, and later this month she’ll have a single release party for her song “The King of the World” at Dixie Tavern.
