Max Stalling sees changing scene for independents

After nearly two decades in the music business, Max Stalling finds himself at a crossroads.

Like other independent artists, the Texas country singer-songwriter is wondering where his industry is going.

"This is a business in transition, and I guess we will be for a while," Stalling said. "I guess that's the nature of things - things are always changing."

The biggest change, Stalling said, is how fans will get the music.

"It's just a long period of time where you were selling a physical product that contained the music, whether that be a single 45 or an 8-track or a cassette or a CD.

"That era reigned a long time, but it appears that if it's not already dead, it's about to be."

Stalling - who'll return to Amarillo on Friday for a show at Golden Light Cantina, 2906 S.W. Sixth Ave. - said he's even wondering if he'll make a full-length, physical CD again.

"I don't know. We still sell some CDs at our shows, but yeah, it's a brave new world out there, my friend," Stalling said.

"In the past, you'd make a record and press 5,000 to 10,000 units on your first run. Now, it's maybe 1,000.

"Now, instead of spending the $10,000 to manufacture the discs and the shipping costs ... you can apply it to anything else."

Now, "the sky's the limit," Stalling said - especially since he's not bound to a contract with a record label.

"As an independent artist, you can be so much more nimble and quick-footed rather than some gigantic label entrenched in their ways," Stalling said.

"There's a good reason to never be signed to a major label.

"Maybe you don't even do a major release anymore," he said. "Maybe it's just a whole series of singles.

"There's no right or wrong as far as I can tell, as long as you can keep doing it."

That's been Stalling's method from the start of his career, after he left product development for Frito-Lay to try out life as a songwriter, though he'd only been playing guitar since graduate school.

These days, Stalling said he's "tinkering around with more rhythmic things catching my ear" with his new music.

"I'm trying to teach myself new rhythm patterns and trying to write around those instead of 4/4 or three-quarter time, or a fast-four-on-the-floor kind of thing," he said. "That's what seems to be catching my ear when I sit down with my guitar."

Though he hasn't released a new album since 2010's "Home to You," Stalling said he remains constantly busy.

"I'm always working on songs," he said. "I'm always trying to work up some new tunes and work up some stuff for the live shows."