Tommy’s larger than life, but so old school as to make Will Ferrell seem like a high school student.

Tommy’s a hustler.  Who made it on his own ingenuity and ears.  But does what he have to say today truly apply?

Maybe you’re not in the same network as me, but I’ve been e-mailed Tommy’s interview with musiciancoaching.com again and again in the past twenty four hours (musiciancoaching.com? Does that make you want to run or what?)

It’s just plain wrong.  It states that no one breaks from the Internet, everybody needs the deep pocket of a label.

I’d say money helps, although I wouldn’t take the money of a usual suspect label…

But this is the kind of thinking that would have Kodak saying that they’re relying on film, or newspapers saying they’re relying on print, or labels saying they’re relying on CDs.  Just because you can’t see the cliff from where you are, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  Everybody said no one would read a book on a hand-held electronic device, and suddenly everyone’s saying the opposite, Kindle’s got many competitors and Apple’s unreleased tablet gets more press than a starlet without panties getting into a car outside a bar.

The old ways are history.  But am I really going to respond to musicianscoaching.com?  Actually, doesn’t matter what I say, that’s what I love about the Internet, you can’t steer, you can only jump in the river and keep your eyes open, and try to detect where the current is going.  In other words, the public triumphs, it has control, the only way to possibly steer is to be so far out ahead, no one knows what you’re doing. That’s the Apple paradigm, not the major label paradigm.

Anyway, Jeff Price of TuneCore decided to respond to Tommy.  And even if you don’t read Tommy’s ravings, you should read Jeff’s.  They’re incredibly eye-opening.  The labels’ advantage wasn’t their money, but their lock on distribution.  TuneCore is the labels’ worst nightmare, for almost nothing your music can get distributed and you can get paid.

Read what Jeff has to say here:

How people use Neilsen to hurt musicians

Link to Tommy’s interview here (there are three parts, all entitled "State Of The Industry")