The most fascinating story of today is in the "New York Times".  Wherein professors are revolting against the high prices of textbooks.  And releasing their own works online, for free!  In one case forgoing a $100,000 advance.  The silver lining? Greater distribution.  A wider spread of the information. 

Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free

As Jackson Browne would say, they’re just a couple of years and a couple of changes behind us in the music business. But, scary to believe that if professors think textbooks are overpriced, if there’s a revolt on campus, that the major labels are going to get the campuses to capitulate and ban P2P acquisition so students can pay a fortune for music.

But the greater issue facing labels in America isn’t payment for work, but breaking work.  How do you break a band?

I hope the cornucopia of purchase options for the Metallica CD generates a heap of cash, because I don’t expect that album to sell in prodigious quantities after the first week or so.  Sales will tank soon.  Not because the album is bad, but because there’s nowhere to hear it.  There’s no exhibition in areas where people might be turned on to their sound, whether it be for the first time or once again.

In America we’ve got Urban and Top 40 radio.  They’re the only formats that can break nationwide acts.  And if you don’t fit into either of those categories…

But it gets worse.  If you don’t make music that fits into one of those categories, a major label won’t sign you.  So look yourself in the mirror.  Are you a rapper?  Are you a pop star, as good-looking as Justin and Britney with dancing ability?  If not, your dream of a major label deal is done.  Because major labels are businesses, not charities, and they only sign what they can sell.  And if, hypothetically, they make a mistake and sign you and you don’t fit either of these radio formats, you’re dead in the water, and tied up to boot.

I don’t think we’re gonna go backwards in the U.S.A.  I don’t think one radio format will ever dominate again.  The future will be a lot of wannabes, some journeymen and some stars who don’t sell anywhere near what they used to, not because of theft, but because of limited exhibition.  Yes, Urban and  Top Forty sell records, but not everybody’s paying attention.  Which is why Mariah Carey and the divas are not going diamond, not even double platinum!

So we need to reset our expectations.  And realize that there’s more music than what appears on those two radio formats.

The number one track in the U.K. this week is "Sex On Fire" by Kings Of Leon.  Yes, that band on RCA which has never broken through over here.  And still won’t break through when their album is released in the U.S. on September 23rd.

Listen to "Sex On Fire".  You may not be able to buy it in America, but it’s widely available.  And ask yourself, where in the States would you hear this?  It’s not Urban, it’s not wannabe cowboy country.  It’s as far from Top 40 as cabaret.  But it is good.  You can imagine seeing the video on MTV.  In the eighties.  When a good track, with energy, was enough to launch your career.  But that’s not enough today.

The challenge is getting people to hear new music.  Not debating if rock is coming back, but hearing a good cut and exposing it.

Maybe the record companies can figure out how to truly have a global market, allowing Americans to purchase from iTunes stores outside the U.S.  Time to knock the barriers down.  Time to feel some of that U.K. excitement in the Colonies.

You see in the U.K., there’s still a cohesive market.  Because it’s an island country and there’s controlled radio.  If you can get on, you’ve made it.  And what makes it isn’t of a narrow stripe.

I’ve never gotten Kings Of Leon previously.  But I can hear "Sex On Fire" playing, loudly, in a bar.  On a jukebox.  At the baseball game.  Forget that it’s rock, it’s got the energy, the urgency, of great music.  That’s what we’re lacking over here. Everything’s so homogenized, ghostwritten and crafted by the usual suspects.  Whereas "Sex On Fire" sounds unfiltered. This deserves an audience in America.