We’re living in 1967.  The same year "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" was a hit single and Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees.

You see 1967 was the year the mainstream and the alternative split.  The year the Beatles put out "Sgt. Pepper", with no singles, and FM underground radio got its start.

By 1968, FM stations were flourishing.  Giving airplay to acts that could never get on AM radio.  In a matter of years all the action was on FM, to the point where AM was a sideshow. With hits by acts like the Starland Vocal Band.  Which won a Grammy but was instantly forgotten.  It was all about technology, FM radios in cars, and music.

But then in the midseventies corporate rock, lowest common denominator crap, dominated the airwaves and disco came in and in 1979 the whole record business crashed, only to be rescued in 1981 by MTV, a revolution enabled by cable TV, and the mainstream and the alternative became one.

And this paradigm ruled the last two decades of the twentieth century.

And the kids making music today grew up in this era.

As did so many of the executives.

And those executives that are older became enamored of the money mainstream exposure could generate.

So now we’ve got acts and executives playing a mainstream game that no longer exists.

You see, technology broke it.  Destroyed it.  We’re living in ’67 once again.  With an ever-declining mainstream and a growing alternative market.  Although in this case, alternative exists online, which is unlimited, there are no FM playlists, just a plethora of material.

That does not mean there won’t be any codification in the future, no filter that we all pay attention to.

But right now, there is not.

You can’t make it there anymore.

In the midsixties, if you were on AM radio, EVERYBODY knew you.  Because it was our only choice.  Go to the baseball game and you knew every cut.  Same at the beach. Maybe oldsters were out of the loop, but every youngster knew every song.

Same deal during the heyday of MTV.  Who hasn’t seen Michael Jackson’s "Thriller"?

But go out in the street and read a list of today’s number one hits and in many cases people will be dumbfounded. Rihanna, Britney Spears, even Eminem.  They’ve had big "Billboard" hits recently, but a huge swath of the population has never heard them and doesn’t know them, despite the culture built around them, the newspaper articles, the TV exposure, people just don’t care, they’re living in the alternative world, which is much larger than the mainstream.

It’s just as confusing as it was in the sixties.  Why listen to FM? The signal doesn’t go as far, the playlists are open…

So we’ve got a plethora of young talent desirous of mainstream success, willing to do anything to make it, cowrite songs with established composers, use the producers du jour, tie up with corporations, and the field they’re playing in has not only shrunk, it’s continuing to shrink.

Clive Davis and Tommy Mottola built the last paradigm. Spend a lot, use TV as exposure, get everybody to know and buy.  Worked for Whitney Houston.  Worked for Mariah Carey. But once people got choice they no longer wanted what was foisted upon them by the machine, and the people pulling the strings were diminished or lost their jobs

In other words, if you’re playing the game of world domination, trying to reach everybody, it’s futile.

Your only hope is if the mainstream comes to you.

It can happen.  The rings of your success can spread outward.

But they don’t spread from the outside in.

Everybody’s door is closed.  You don’t have permission to reach them.  Only their friends do.

So stop knocking on the door.  Stop setting yourself on fire. Stop making  Top Forty music which sells ever less and doesn’t generate a touring career.

Be you.

But be a really good you.

Be different.

All the acts on FM in the sixties sounded different.  There was no reason to copy, none of these acts were a mainstream success!

Yet.

And when the audience found them, when they finally blew up, there was a whole catalog to go back and experience.

You can’t shove an automobile down a kitchen drain.

That’s what too many are trying to do today.

They tell everybody they’re going to do it.  They spend a lot of money.  But it’s impossible.

Everyone is not focused on one record, just like they’re not focused on one television show or one Website or one…

Don’t try to corral everybody at once.  Just try to corral a few.

Be smart in both marketing and music.  That’s how you make it in an alternative world.  Don’t be lowest common denominator, approach people on their level, respect them.

1,108,000 copies sold?

THAT’S PISS POOR!

Okay kids.  Stop that knee-jerk reaction.  Be able to hold two opposing thoughts in your head.  That’s the mark of an educated person.

Yes, by conventional SoundScan standards a tick over a million copies in a week is a significant sum.

But is there anybody in the U.S. who did not know GaGa had a new album out?  Was there a problem finding a place to buy it?

What we’ve learned here is most people just don’t care.  They don’t want GaGa at any price.

Welcome to the modern world.

We’ve been hearing from major labels for a decade that the problem is theft.  But that’s not the true issue, more accurately it’s diversity, choice.  We no longer have to pay attention to what you want us to.  You can pour on the hype, you can tell us to care, but most of just don’t.

You can’t argue about the price.  "Born This Way" was available at Amazon for 99 cents.  And then, just in case you didn’t catch it the first time around, they repeated the promotion a couple of days later.  Only 400,000 odd people took Amazon up on this offer.  Meaning for many, they just don’t want to hear GaGa AT ANY PRICE!

It’s not about the quality of the record.  If it had been better, it wouldn’t have sold significantly more.

It’s not about set-up.  How many singles were there?  GaGa was all over TV, giving quotes to media outlets ad infinitum.

But it fell on deaf ears.

There was a hard core of people who wanted the new album.  And then she hit a brick wall.  After that, NO MAS!

Mainstream media just can’t fathom this.  That the mainstream is dead.  That we’ve all scattered off into our own little niches.  Fox keeps touting how many people watched the "American Idol" finale, but I can’t even remember the winner’s name.

It wasn’t about the winner.  It wasn’t about music.

And the hipsters can’t fathom this either.  For decades the sport of insiders has been to put down the taste of the outsiders, the unhip.  There’s been a sieve through which music had to pass, to the point where we had an anointed few.  For a couple of decades it was those tracks that made it on to the MTV playlist.  They were the winners, everybody else was a loser.  Now there is no major league.  There are no winners.  Just a bunch of sideshows.

In other words, the only people who cared about Lady GaGa’s music were her little monsters.  THAT’S IT!

If you’re an act satiate your core.  That’s all there is.  GaGa has proven that you can prostitute yourself all over TV, come up with outrageous quotes, and most people shrug their shoulders, they could care less.

Like I said, this is not about theft.  Hell, you’re lucky if someone steals your music, that means THEY CARE!  And if they really truly care, maybe they’ll come to the gig and buy some merch.

But don’t ask me to care.

Don’t ask the person next door to care.

We’ve got little time, we’ve got so many choices.  We’ve got our own interests.  Even if you gain our attention, that does not mean your interests will comport with mine.  Beat me over the head with the story of that basketball player, I’m watching ski racing.  And others are fans of B.A.S.E. jumping and still others are out skateboarding.

This leaves us with a Tower of Babel society.  Which is what brings us to festivals.  Where it’s less about individual acts than being there, amongst our peers.  That’s the hook, we’re all in it together, not the music!

This is SO different from the last century.

And just like we’re never going back to a three network TV universe, we’re not going back to a few musical superstars and a bunch of losers.  Now we’ve got a ton of journeymen.  The business at large is huge, but no act within it is very big.

Oh, the mainstream media tells us Lady GaGa is a superstar.  But she’s not, not by the standards of yore.  How many people actually went to her show?  How many people have purchased her music?  If she were a network TV show, they’d cancel her.  And network TV shows have a fraction of the audience they once had.  Three networks used to have 90% of the audience.   Now four and a half networks have less than 30%.  The rest is made up of endless cable channels, endless niches.  Many of them quite profitable, in some cases more profitable than the networks, because costs are watched and a premium is charged for their audience.

In other words, maybe you can’t afford to spend so much making your album.  And if you’ve got hard core fans you can get a lot of money from them.  That’s the game.  Getting a hundred bucks from one fan, who buys music, tickets and merch and even joins the fan club, as opposed to trying to beat people into buying an album they don’t want to hear for ten bucks.

It’s a brand new era.

The old one is done.

Set yourself on fire.  Everybody will know who you are for a day.

But you won’t have fans.

And now it’s all about fans.  And a fan base takes time to build, it must be nurtured, you must give back, you must treat your fans right, from delivering more music to fair ticket prices to access to…

It’s easier than ever to get started.

But more difficult than ever to succeed.

But don’t let that discourage you.

Human nature is to look for something new.

We’re always kicking the tires.  We’re listening to the recommendations of like-minded friends.  If you gain a fan base, you’ve got a chance some of those fans will grow your audience.  But your audience won’t go instantly nuclear based on ANY mainstream exposure.

Those days are history.

Twelve years.  The first Coachella was 1999.  Is there a label today that would put that much time into a band?

Not that there weren’t indicators of success, not that it was an endless money pit, but it wasn’t until this year that it was clear…

It doesn’t matter who plays the festival.

Attendees trust Paul Tollett to put on a good show.  They expect a modicum of stars with a plethora of barely heard ofs who may not ever be heard from again.  Coachella is no longer act dependent.  It’s become a cultural institution.  It’s about being there.

And now it’s clear that more people want to be there than can be accommodated.  Ergo, the second weekend.

And we can debate all day long whether it’s a good idea.  I would have had completely different bills, made it two separate events, because by utilizing the same acts, the aura of the festival is diminished.

But that’s not the point.

The point is people will lay down their hard-earned cash for events.

Yes, the music business has become event marketing.

Very few acts can do stellar business all by their lonesome.  And so many of those only for a brief period of time.  But roll a bunch of acts together and…  1+1=3.

But it’s not as simple as the bill.

The venue’s got to be special.  You can’t replicate Coachella in a ballpark.  No one’s going to pay money to go to a stadium without hearing who’s playing first.

But Coachella is like a vacation.  The weather should be good, it’ll be a good hang, I’m in.

How many Coachellas can there be?  How many festivals can North America support?

Probably as many as have unique venues.

So, what we’ve learned here is:

You can make a ton of money at a festival.

Or lose your shirt, and the shirt of the person next to you and the shirt of the person next to him.

But by controlling the venue, by making the upside so large, you avoid so many of the issues of the single show.

It would be great if we could build a plethora of new arena acts.

But at least we’re building new places to see acts.

There is demand.  Tollett is trying to satiate it.  One can argue the details, the bills, whether business will be great next year, but pat him on the back for building it and continuing to take risks.

Re: It’s the Money

From: Jac Holzman
Subject: It’s NOT Just the money!

Bob – Elektra was sold/merged for two very specific reasons, and it wasn’t "just for the money.".

First the need for Elektra to have powerhouse distribution. Independent distribs were only marginally effective and this was true for every independent label gaining traction in an environment once hostile toward Indies.

Warner and Atlantic were already part of what was to become the WMG  and  they needed to control their own distribution destiny, to make sure things happened in the field as was intended. This required a distribution mechanism controlled by the labels. Adding Elektra to this consortium guaranteed it’s success. We brought the right amount of extra annual volume to put the WEA distribution unit on a profitable basis almost from its first year! And our catalog, which then included both Nonesuch as well as Elektra, was well differentiated from theirs.

Then there was international, which logically should be managed by us within our own international set up.

From a competitive standpoint in 1970, the distribution system of Columbia was the best out there and many artists were urged to sign with Columbia by management and attorneys, more comfortable with Columbia’s ability to "lay it out there." They wanted fatter sales and bigger pieces for themselves. W-E-A became a valued alternative to Columbia and the unique nature of our labels was so much quicker and more flexible in A&R and deal making.

The second reason was a personal decision. I had built both my labels from a belief that whatever I imagined, I could make happen would, but only if I was totally committed. And, it worked for me and our artists, leading to a decade of unbelievable success. I also knew success wasn’t going to last forever and I wanted to live in Hawaii and take my  break at mid-life and think through to my next direction. But first I had to guarantee the future of Elektra/Nonesuch. The merger with Atlantic and WBR insured that. I now had room to dream and plan.

This led to my technology interest and aspirations which were  to include: Warner Home Video, Warner Cable, MTV, Atari, Pioneer Electronics, Panavision, Cinema Products (Steadicam), etc.

Certainly, the monies I earned from a sale were lovely but not the controlling rationale. I wanted to work, to play in the same band as Ahmet, Gerry, Neshui, Mo and Joe.  Joining this mutually respectful alliance was far more fun than I would have had by myself. And not writing the check out of my own pocket, freed me. My passion and drive never faltered and two of my later signings, Harry Chapin and Queen, were tweezed from the clutches of Columbia. Having proven WEA distribution, wielded by a passionate and committed label head, was hard to resist.

Bob -Keep tilting at the windmills. You help to keep us and the music honest.

Jac