I’m not sure the Live Nation/Madonna deal is all that revolutionary. Seems positively nineties if you ask me. She went with the company that would pay her the biggest ADVANCE!

That’s how this business got fucked up. When the distrusting attorneys and managers no longer counted on royalties, and just negotiated a gigantic advance. And it’s no different in the touring business. Just ask Rapino, who failed to break the agents’ stranglehold. We want our money and we want it NOW!

Are you willing to leave money on the table?

If not, you’re not a member of the new team, but just a money-grubbing player on the old one.

Think about the Eagles deal… Let’s say Warner Brothers had bought 3 million discs one way, would Irving Azoff have made a deal with THEM? Better yet, if they guaranteed twenty million in advertising, whatever they could convince Irving was equivalent to the Wal-Mart hype? Let’s say they gave back ownership of the old masters, would Irving make THAT deal? You bet your sweet ass baby.

But at least Irving kept the Eagles from burning out the marketplace. They take the better part of a decade to return to most cities. Whereas when his partner Howard Kaufman is done with Aerosmith, NO ONE will want to see the band. Kind of like Fleetwood Mac, which played the same damn markets three times on their last tour.

But Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac wanted the money.

So, if you’re a new band, and you want money, up front, hire one of the usual suspects and go out ‘a hunting. But, get all you can, because unlike these dinosaurs who made their bones back in the seventies, you’re gonna have a very short run. Because whoever puts up that dough is gonna whore the hell out of you, because HE WANTS HIS MONEY BACK!

Is anybody willing to leave money on the table?

How about the acts. Funnily enough, most don’t. They’re sick of starving. And if you truly are, you’ll make almost any deal. Ergo, the history of rip-off contracts.

But they need to count on their managers for advice. The managers are on THEIR team, aren’t they?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?? The managers only eat when the band does. So, if the act’s off the road, the manager’s living on savings. Same deal with the agent. So what do the manager and agent SAY? TAKE THE MONEY! Go on tour, make that endorsement deal, IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR CAREER! But how often is it? Not as frequently as the manager and agent say it is. Most times, it’s about the money. But they don’t care, BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT THEIR ONLY CLIENT! Now, more than ever, the big time acts are managed by the usual suspects, with careers longer than the acts they represent. Their loyalty isn’t to the players, but themselves. Hell, they’re gonna OUTLAST THE PLAYERS! As for the agents, loyalty in a business where the acts switch teams on a regular basis? No way. Show me an agent who’s willing to let their act stay home and I’ll show you someone who’s about to be fired by his boss.

So you can make a lot of money with your own operation these days, but the money’s not guaranteed. Do you think the attorney is going to tell you to go it alone WHEN HE’S ON A PERCENTAGE?

It’s not only the record labels who are ensconced in the old world. It’s the entire music business infrastructure. Don’t blame the labels for forsaking artist development, the lawyers, managers and agents JUST AREN’T INTERESTED IN IT! Artist development is how long it takes to go from the red to the black. If that’s a month, GOOD JOB! Whatever it takes to hit critical mass.

The above is not the Radiohead model. The difference in the Radiohead model is the fans perceive the band is beholden to THEM! How did Radiohead do this? BY LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE! It’s not about the money they made selling downloads at a consumer-determined price, it’s how cool it made the band look. When you made your offer, you didn’t feel ripped off. Whereas you feel ripped off every time you buy a CD and go to a show for most of the other major acts.

If you want to have a long career, you’ve got to think of your audience first. And that’s the fan, not the label or the promoter. What’s going to enhance your relationship with the FAN! Good music at a fair price. Same deal with concert tickets.

Look at the Dave Matthews Band. The tickets never hit $100. Usually are half of that. And, if you join the fan club, you WILL get a good ticket, because the band controls half the house. Money is being left on the table here for sure, but it comes back because the DMB can sell out arenas or their equivalent year after year WITHOUT A HIT RECORD!

Can you say no?

If you can’t say no, you’re gonna have a brief career.

I don’t care if the scalpers get a ton of tickets. If you go out for a cheap price, the fans LIKE IT! Sure, it’s best to come up with a scheme for getting the tickets in their hands, but if they have to pay a fortune to a scalper, or have to forgo attendance, THEY DON’T BLAME YOU! Actually, you look even better. Because you’re so hot THEY CAN’T GET A TICKET!

Music? Music’s free. If you don’t know this, you’re not in this business. So, don’t charge more than the fan is willing to pay! Whether it be by Radiohead’s tip jar model, or building the album into the price of the ticket or just GIVING THE MUSIC AWAY! The public expects everything to be available for next to nothing, so don’t insult him by trying to put up walls preventing him from what he knows is available!

There’s very little career management anymore. Very little strategizing. Everybody’s on the take, and their advice is tainted.

The new generation will not run the business this way, will not sell out to the highest bidder. The same way Facebook won’t sell its operation. Go with the man, and not only do you lose your cool, you lose control, you get caught up in layers of management that fuck up your brand. Like GeoCities. Never heard of it? Yahoo paid a fortune and metaphorically killed it.

Don’t marvel at the endless deals MySpace has made with every corporation that will pony up bucks. Those are business stories. Meanwhile, Facebook has eclipsed the Fox site in the U.K.

You wonder why the music industry is in the shitter? There’s no MANAGEMENT! The usual suspects’ idea of innovation is getting their money from SOMEONE ELSE!

Ultimately you’ve got to get the money from the fan. Think of him first, and you’ll be all right. It might be a struggle, you might not be able to buy your Bentley in two years, but just maybe, you can play music for the rest of your life. And your lawyer, agent and manager can send not only their children, but their GRANDCHILDREN to college on their commissions. But the way these old wave players are operating today, the coffers will be empty in a very few years, after a brief period of high on the hog living.

MTV? The major labels? They didn’t invest in their futures, that’s why they’re fucked today. Are you gonna take all the bread up front now or invest in YOUR future? The choice is yours.