Recorded Music Sales

Tracks are not evanescent. You don’t consume them and they disappear. Some people, like me, still have all their vinyl, but most don’t. So just because someone bought your CD once, don’t think you live on into eternity.

Arguably, you’re better off selling an MP3 than a CD. Said MP3 might be able to be deleted with a click, but it can also be put into a playlist, e-mailed to friends, spread far and wide. And with this distribution not only can new fans be made, you have a greater possibility of longevity.

What makes a Website grow is word of mouth. Word of mouth had a more difficult time in the past. You had to save up for an album, get to the store, always difficult if you don’t have a driver’s license, and then get someone to come to your house to hear the music. And that was before not only video games and DVDs and cable TV competed for attention, but before tens of thousands of people were making and distributing music. If you can get someone to spread your music far and wide, so much easier to do online, you don’t have a criminal, but a dyed-in-the-wool fan you should take to dinner.

Don’t take the short term view. Don’t believe just because you sold this many discs that you have a presence, that you have a career. The music must not only live on on the disc, which might be in someone’s closet, but in hearts and minds.

Ringtones

Are a badge of honor. A point of identification. Mostly used by young people as evidence of their personality and hipness. Sure, oldsters buy classics as ringtones, but they’re already fans of the bands, they’ve already been converted.

Selling a ton of ringtones means nothing when it comes to longevity. They can disappear into the ether about as quickly as the conversation that transpires on the hand-set. Furthermore, don’t young people prefer to text rather than talk?

And then there’s the question of how long paid-for ringtones will survive, with sideloading already here and spreading further.

As for giving away ringtones… Like I stated above, you can make your own in so many cases. And they don’t have lasting value. You burn out on them and replace them. You might as well charge while you can, but don’t say you’ve made it forever because your song sold a lot of tones.

Wallpapers

If you’re putting a band wallpaper on your computer, chances are you’re very young and will switch loyalties soon.

Sure, teen males may employ a wallpaper. But not for the bands trumpeted by the mainstream, the acts have got to be cool.

Fuck the wallpaper. Anybody who wants one can make one himself, kids are just that computer-savvy. A wallpaper giveaway identifies you as a teenybopper act. And, unless you’re part of the Disney empire, you probably want to avoid this.

Ticket Sales

Are evidence of loyalty. It’s less about how many you did once than how many you can continue to do. Underplay the market, keep prices on the low side. It’s not about being number one on the "Pollstar" chart, but being able to go on the road year after year, whenever you want to.

Also, give the audience what it expects. It’s all right to play obscurities if you’re known for that, but if you’re a sold-out popster, people only want to hear the hits. If you’re a classic rock act, no one wants to hear your new material. Sad, but true. Just know if you don’t fulfill audience expectations, you might be happy, yet your listeners might not. Fine if you don’t mind playing ever-smaller buildings, not cool if you want to maintain your lofty perch. And that begs the question of safety… If you’re a new act and not willing to risk, your longevity will be decreased. Unfortunately, it’s the opposite with old acts. Old acts would be better off innovating in side projects. No one wanted to see the formula of Coke fucked with.

Merch

The cheaper you make it, the better it is for your career. You want every fan to own a t-shirt. They’re walking billboards, with CREDIBILITY! Not only did people pay for the shirt, they chose to wear it of their own volition!

You know how you can tell who is really legendary? By scoping out what t-shirts you see walking down the sidewalk. That’s one of the reasons we know AC/DC is gigantic.

As for other tchotchkes… Hell, if people want to buy, great. But make them unique and know that although they show evidence of fan dedication, most do nothing for your ongoing career. Tour books are looked at for a day and then filed.

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Big stars get paid once, but there’s minimal benefit to their career. Yes, Sting’s album was revived by a Jaguar ad, but that was in the last century, before everybody tried to play this game, before we were so bombarded with messages, back when everybody was still watching television!

So, if you want a check, take it. But even though you’ll be heard and/or seen by so many, it’s doubtful there will be a benefit to your career. Conventional wisdom is Mellencamp’s car commercial HURT his career.

As for developing acts… You don’t have an identity yet. You’ll be forever linked with the brand. Feist…isn’t she the iPod girl? It can be a shortcut to success, but can also damage your long term career. You get notoriety and… Well, sometimes you don’t even get that notoriety. The blip tends to be momentary… Hell, how many commercials can you remember from three months ago?

Sponsorships

Are all about the cash. Count your dollars, because they do nothing positive for your career. To what degree they hurt it we can debate all day long, but there’s no long term benefit.

Spins

Are heard by fewer people than you think. And the endless lifespan of these tracks burns fans out on the act and the song itself. Just because your MediaBase number is good, that doesn’t mean you’ve got a career. Either they’re playing your classic tracks and you already have one, or, if you’re fighting up the ladder, unless you’re a Top Forty act, the target audience doesn’t listen to the radio. And those Top Forty acts tend not to do road business. They’re like dessert. Something sweet and forgettable, if they don’t make you sick.

TV Appearances

Sheryl Crow showed up everywhere, but it didn’t move her new album. She’s owned by the media now, she’s no longer famous for her music. Maybe at her age and her career arc it can’t be about the music anymore. Then again, it is for Bonnie Raitt.

Starbucks/Wal-Mart

A deal with Starbucks elicits a yawn at best from the audience. As for the Wal-Mart imprimatur…check the SoundScan numbers for Bryan Adams.

Starbucks is history. Wal-Mart is all about name recognition and price. Is your name that big and is the package that cheap. Very few acts fit this paradigm.

Conclusion

Are you in the money business or the career business. There are a lot of choices you can make to generate capital. But although they might be trumpeted in the press, they don’t guarantee a career. If you want a career, you must widely distribute your music. Your goal is to be on as many iPods as possible, irrelevant of whether the songs were paid for or not. And you’ll know if you’re successful based on your ticket count and merch numbers. They seem to be the only tangible evidence of an ongoing career. And, in order to be ongoing, you must leave a certain amount of money on the table, to foster good will, to keep people coming back. People want to sit up close at a relatively cheap price.

Last night I watched Bud Greenspan’s documentary on the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

I’m not sure if you’re aware that the L.A. Basin is baking like an oven, but if you’re in Santa Monica, legendarily un-air-conditioned, you don’t want to be home. So, I wasn’t, I was off in the mountains, then at a party, then, after a brief respite at Ralphs, I was inside the Jenn-Air, lying on my bed, watching my suddenly working television. I pay for all the channels, but the Sony’s just about given up the ghost. Got to get a new one, but I’ve got to get this old one out of my domicile first, and that just hasn’t been a priority.

With the picture suddenly visible, I fired up the finale of "Deadliest Catch". Only when it was over did I realize I’d been duped, it was all an ad for the NEXT season of "Deadliest Catch", when the weather was truly horrid. I’m giving up, the show just isn’t that good.

And then, after flipping through all the channels, that’s the nature of television, you can’t shut it off, it’s an addiction that pales in comparison to surfing the Net, yet there are too many empty calories, I fell upon Bud’s show.

You know Bud, the guy who wears his glasses atop his head. You’d think he’d be dead by now. And how fucking weird is it watching an aged winter sporting event six years after it took place. But I couldn’t shut the show off, you see the storytelling had me hooked.

It truly doesn’t matter what the show is about, it’s the telling that hooks us.

Not that the media focuses on this. The media believes we want stars and explosions, we want visual excitement. No, we want something more internal, some insight into the human condition, something that sets our mind adrift, to contemplate how bizarre it is to be living and breathing on this human coil.

And nothing provides this human experience, this setting free of emotions, more than music. But that experience has been shoved underneath the rug by those historically in control, they want to sell, they want those same explosions that the TV and movie businesses strive to create.

So you get beautiful people with heavy beats uttering two-dimensional platitudes whored out to the Fortune 500. No, don’t see this as a condemnation of rap. Rap started out as the opposite. Rap was three minutes of truth, when rock and roll had abdicated the throne. But now even legendary rappers decry the state of the scene. As for popsters… Do you really want to sit down for a conversation with Kelly Clarkson? Do you really want to know where she’s coming from?

Sure, the Beatles wrote hits. But it was when they created "Rubber Soul", the album without singles, that it got interesting. And "Sgt. Pepper" and the White Album… Suddenly, it wasn’t about ditties, but statements, however understated, however subtle, and the audience was drawn in… "She’s Leaving Home" made the Beatles legendary, not "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

As the sixties wore on, artists inspired by the Beatles’ success, their testing of the limits, created album-long statements, usually with tracks that were never broadcast on the AM Top Forty airwaves. And the public gobbled up this experimentation, this truth, the modern concert business was grown and immense amounts of cash were generated.

Those days have returned. The Web is today’s free format FM radio. While the establishment purveys ever more vapid product, those who know the power of music are spreading the word on the Web. They don’t want automatons, they want artists, who inspire them, who set their minds free.

This is what all the blather about saving the album is really about. People want the statement saved, the full-length exploration. They want to revel in this experience. Unfortunately, they’re as locked into the past as Doug Morris and the record companies. If you want to know the future, you look at immutable elements and throw away the packaging.

The immutable element is the power of music to touch one’s soul.

There’s that cliche… Are we even going to listen to the Top Forty hits of this century, even the nineties, ten years from now? Five? Will they be the soundtrack to weddings and bar mitzvahs or classic rock, Motown and other sixties oldies? We’ve already got our answer. Today’s overplayed crap is completely worn out when it finally slides out of the public consciousness. Shit, who even wants to listen to an Eminem album now. But people want to hear AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin… It’s how the music makes you feel, it’s what it does to your soul.

The problem is it’s harder to get traction with this type of music, hard to break through the morass and get noticed. But, maybe that Tom Petty song about the A&R man not hearing the single is what it’s all about. Maybe there is no single. Maybe the concept of an A&R man is archaic. Maybe it’s solely about the band. Making its music and releasing it to the public, unfiltered.

The old guard abhors this. They’re trying to rationalize their continued existence, spreading bullshit all the while. P2P will result in the death of music. You’ve got to sign 360 deals or the major labels will die, and we’ll all be the poorer for it. But all that’s untrue. The public hungers for that hit music gives them. Not something that slides off their backs, bounces off their foreheads, but x-rays that penetrate their souls and are held close forever.

You have to look at the Web music explosion not as theft, but as raw desire, for the hit that music has generated from the beginning of time. People know the power of music, and they don’t like what the businessmen have done to it, and with the tools at their disposal, now having power themselves, they’ve taken charge. That’s just how important it is to them.

It’s not important for a track to be in a TV show, in an ad. Those are just marketing tools. One track does not make a career. How can you convince people that everything you do is worthwhile, especially after the nineties, when the only cuts worth listening to on endless albums were the singles?

I’d say there’s a revolution brewing, but really, it’s a reclamation, of music’s power. The Netizens don’t care about SoundScan numbers and concert grosses, they only care about how the music makes them feel.

The music of the classic rock acts makes them feel powerful, and reflective, a whole cornucopia of human emotions. They go to the show for the album experience. They know all those cuts that never hit the airwaves, they played the albums ad infinitum.

We want order, we want comprehension instead of chaos. Therefore, we lean on old models. But the only way to the future is on a brand new path, the old models are dead. It’s truly about the music. Does it elate you, does it comfort you, do you want to hear it not only today, but the rest of your life. Will it help you get through after your beloved dumps you, or dies. Will it give you the strength to beat cancer. It will only do this if it’s the unfettered truth. If the focus is on what’s in the grooves instead of the trappings.

I’m gonna break one of my rules.

Today I got an e-mail from a manager, one of many, imploring me to write about his act. I told him this was the kiss of death, that if you ask for hype, you don’t get it.

But this woman asked for hype, and I’m doing all I can to avoid giving her props, since she asked for it, but I see no way to write about this track without giving her credit… Otherwise, how would I have known about the song?

The woman’s name is Val Heller. And she’s got a site, ValsList

Yes, I often check out your links. But I almost never respond. And I didn’t respond to Ms. Heller either… Because the public is fucking nuts, and you never know who will take this opening to bombard you, to load up your inbox and complain that you’re not doing your share, not helping them become rich and famous.

And almost always, what I find when I click through is forgettable. But I was intrigued by the simple layout of Ms. Heller’s site. Even more, I was intrigued by the pitch… Her desire to reach the baby boomers… Inside, I felt that she just might be recommending the kind of music that appeals to me.

Here’s the e-mail:

Hello Bob,

Love your blog. Wanted to introduce my new boutique music site www.valslist.com. I target the 25-boomer crowd. Most in this age group have lost track of music, so my site helps them get it back. I basically hand pick music that boomers will love (and their kids will envy.) I’m an iTunes affiliate so format and price are the same, only difference is with valslist you know WHAT to buy.

I believe this is an untapped market niche who will actually pay for music if they just knew what to buy. I’m getting positive feedback from users, artists and managers. Check out the site www.valslist.com – if you like it, perhaps you could help spread the word? Would love your feedback.

Kind regards,

Val

I winced at her desire to have me spread the word, she obviously wasn’t a regular reader. But, like I told you, I clicked through.

The homepage, after the initial splash page, is a bit too busy. But, when you click on "See Our Music Now" in the lower right-hand corner, you end up on a page that’s simpler. There wasn’t too much information, and the info I needed was included. And there weren’t too many playlists. I clicked on one.

Turns out the links lead you to thirty second snippets on iTunes. I hate snippets. But, as Al Kooper has stated time and again, in that short period of time you can capture the essence, you can discover that you actually like something.

And I didn’t like most of the unknown material, and most of it was unknown, but there was this one track by Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, "In Front Of The World". BY GOD, this was GOOD!

I started doing some Web research, I started downloading tracks, I became a fan.

That track was good, but the one by the Fleet Foxes, "Mykonos", was even better. It had that feel of the sixties, that darkness. You know that vibe in "Walk Away Renee"? This wasn’t the same, but akin. Kind of like a Searchers record, something cut in the UK in ’64 or ’65, shown on TV in black and white.

That was the vibe, not the feel. The track was modern. But haunting. Like driving in your car on a grey western Massachusetts day.

Check it out, it’s the fourth track down: Fleet Foxes MySpace

Turns out the Fleet Foxes have gotten good reviews. I haven’t found the rest of their material as enriching, as fulfilling as "Mykonos", but the bar is set a bit higher than it is with Stephen Kellogg. Stephen Kellogg is not quite good enough. You can be a fan, but you can’t quite convince someone who’s not to believe.

Not that I think most people will love "Mykonos". But if you’re of the same sensibility as me, you’ll get it.

We’re looking for more. Computers can’t tell us what we like, we need humans. Like Val Heller.

I don’t think Val Heller’s going to make it. Just a bit too much promotion and not quite enough innovation. But where she’s coming from is exciting. She may be in Illinois, but in the Net world, that’s right next door. She’s a fan, she wants to spread the word.

The person who owns the filter will own the future. Their success will be based not on the business plan so much as trust…the same kind of trust you placed in the deejay, back when he picked the records.

As for me… Most of the music hyped to me is far from good enough. I feel defeated. Then I hear stuff like Stephen Kellogg and the Fleet Foxes and I get this inner glow, like maybe it’s not all over, maybe there’s hope.

These are not mainstream acts, they’re never going to become endorsed by a Fortune 500 company. And I hate when you hype me on acts and can’t see the same thing, that they’re niche. Also, it’s weird to be a member of a niche… We want to be a member of larger club.

Maybe the club is run by someone like Val… A trusted site.

It’s about the tracks more than the album today. We don’t have to listen to anything we don’t like. We’ll check out more if we like one cut, but too often we’re disappointed. But we still know magic when we hear it.

There’s magic in "Mykonos". Check it out.

So yesterday I hosted a panel on 360 deals for the Beverly Hills Bar Association. I was questioning Rand Hoffman, head lawyer for Interscope, and Fred Goldring, attorney extraordinaire, and I wondered if we were even in the same business.

The scam is you get continuing education credit for coming to these affairs. Which is why attendance was pretty good. And I wondered…was this about 360 deals CONCEPTUALLY or how to negotiate one? After all, it was a room full of lawyers. I played along with the latter until it was all just too chummy for me… What about the elephant in the room? The act that didn’t want to sign to a major label, that had a team of twentysomethings surrounding it, that wanted no part of the SYSTEM?

Rand agreed with me. That what a major label delivered was Top Forty success. But is Top Forty the end all and be all, the triumphant, all-dominating paradigm TODAY?

You forget, that prior to MTV, there were different genres of music. All with notable successes. But MTV anointed specific stars and everybody else was either a has-been or an also-ran. You were either a winner or a loser. Now MTV plays no music, radio listenership is declining and a hit record doesn’t generate a career, doesn’t even allow you to fill the building in most cases.

Actually, that’s what MTV wrought, evanescent stars. You could be rocketed to the moon today, be forgotten tomorrow. Elian Gonzalez all over the news for a month, then back in Cuba. TV did sell records, but it burned out acts. It was good for labels and lawyers, but was it good for acts?

All the acts propping up the live business today started BEFORE MTV, or have roots in the jam band world. Even U2 broke before MTV. As for Dave Matthews, the TV airplay was icing on the cake.

I think it’s important to look at the jam band game. It’s all about the music. The music draws fans and engenders a lifestyle, one of participation as opposed to rip-off. Tickets are not a rip-off and you can get one. And when you go to the show, you don’t want to hear the hit, but EVERYTHING! You want the music to move you. You go again and again, to become familiar with the material, and you trade material online that you like. You’re a fan of the band, not the hit, not a specific track.

This is the way it used to be. Sure, Cream crossed over with "Sunshine Of Your Love", but they were a successful touring band BEFORE THAT! Traffic never really had a Top Forty hit. The AM radio hit was the cherry on top, not the starting point. Sure, FM radio helped, but the endless touring at a low price cemented the deal. That touring was today’s file-trading, today’s spreading of the word, outside the system. Does the system build or kill acts? Is a hit record the best thing that can happen to you, or the worst?

Fred asked Rand if Interscope was a pie-slicer or a pie-baker.

Rand said a bit of both. In essence, part of their commissioning of ancillary rights is a land grab, to make up for their declining recorded music sales. Is that what I want to do? Prop up an enterprise too stupid to see its future? In other words, do I want to invest in GM or Toyota?

Fred said a deal was good if the label brought partnerships to the table, brokered some deals. Fred’s clients the Black Eyed Peas have built their career on this, but it’s death for a jam band, anybody based on credibility, and it appears the only acts with a career, with a longevity, that truly have an extended run in all 360 degrees of revenue, are credible acts where the music comes first!

I don’t want to make no stinking endorsement deal, no partnership with the man. That’s just what I want, one more fucking asshole telling me what to do. Am I an artist or a puppet? I don’t know about you, but I gave up on Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop a long time ago.

I thought artists were supposed to work outside the system. Be a salve for all those BEHOLDEN to the man. Ronnie Van Zant…did whatever the fuck he wanted! Didn’t check with his sponsor first, didn’t appear in print ads hawking some product that won’t change your life.

So, what a major label delivers, Top Forty radio and marketing to the masses in the best of circumstances, is almost always antithetical to a long term career. Don’t you find that fascinating? In other words, who’s going to own the future? The usual suspects, beholden to the old game and bullying with their perceived power, or twentysomethings who reject all that? News Corp. didn’t come up with MySpace and Microsoft didn’t come up with Facebook. If these old lumbering companies were so damn smart and powerful, how come THEY didn’t invent the future?

And those tech enterprises ARE ABOUT selling out. That’s the game.

But that’s not the game if you’re an artist, if you’re an artist, it’s about NEVER SELLING OUT!

So, if you want a Top Forty hit, if you want to be both chewed up and beholden to the old machine, make a 360 deal with a major label. That’s all Interscope does, 360 deals. The old records-only deal, except for maybe already established stars, is HISTORY! And don’t ask me how the label gets paid… After ripping off the artists for years, do they expect an honest accounting? The movie business has taught us…you only get paid if the money flows THROUGH YOU!

As for the attorneys… Who are you in bed with, the major label or the artist? For the last twenty five years, the artist has had a very brief career, your primary relationship was with the label. Charging a percentage, you want something to commission, you want to look for the man with the money, you don’t want to venture into the wilderness with no guarantees. You’ve got to EAT!

No, an act has got to eat. You’ve got to put your kids through private school and make your Mercedes payment.

This whole business is top-heavy. And these lumbering giants are trying to maintain their power, however ignorantly.

The key today is leaving some money on the table. Be willing to give the audience something for free, you’ll get paid back in spades, if you’re good.

That’s what it’s come down to again… Are you any good? Can you play your instruments? Can you write innovative material? Can you touch people’s souls? Can you change their lives? Can you infect them to the point where they’ll come to your show for years?

That’s the future of this business. Not dominant superstars, but tons of journeymen, super-serving their fan base.

This is the more difficult road. But since the usual suspects, attorneys and major labels, are not interested in this road, they’re leaving the journey open to entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will inherit the landscape. A truly savvy one will roll up some acts to reach critical mass. The new entrepreneurs will not be chomping on cigars, going to lunch, but tapping their iPhones as they Skype contacts around the world, monitoring their business, giving those with the power to spread the word the tools they need to do so.

It’s not about less, but more. It’s not about drenching the public but starting with the trickle of one drop. It’s not about banging the audience over the head, but the sense of discovery and wonderment. It’s not about feeding the mainstream media, but the bloggers. It’s not about the deal, it’s about the music.