It’s no longer about getting paid, it’s about getting noticed.

Party like a rock star? What IS a rock star?

A rock star was someone who danced to the beat of his own drummer, who did what felt good in his heart, did not follow trends, but his own vision. He didn’t give a fuck about the establishment, he was ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT! Those rock stars might return. But the people we call rock stars now, the famous twits known for their partying more than their music, they’re done. Because no one is paying attention anymore. Why should they? It’s not like people have to listen to the music to know which way the wind blows.

EMI has cried "uncle". Eventually the rest of the major label groups will too. The Tommy Mottola mold, and if he didn’t invent it, he perfected it, of overexposure in all media known to man, spending a lot to sell a lot, is history. Because no one is paying attention anymore.

They’re not paying attention to "American Idol". Oh sure, the ratings dwarf those of the shows on the other networks, but that just proves that the writers strike is the best thing that ever happened to the Internet. Why do you need a $100 a month cable bill? What’s so good on the tube that you can’t find something better online, whenever you want to watch it? "American Idol" is truly sinking because the audience no longer believes it creates stars. Believe me, if Jordin Sparks were burning up the sales chart, people would be watching. But the bloom is off the rose. It’s "Star Search" with more flamboyant personalities. Doesn’t matter whether Simon is nice or they lose the celebs, the heart of the show is gone, built by Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, the perception that this truly was great talent, that the best would out. If Jordin Sparks is the best, then I’ll just sit at home and play Rock Band, it’s a hell of a lot more stimulating.

What kind of fucked up world do we live in where kids would rather play a video game than follow and go to the shows of new artists? One in which the creativity encased in the game exceeds that in the grooves of the new records. Music has lost its way, its essence. But that isn’t its biggest problem. Its biggest problem is the lack of attention, the fact that not only do people not care, those acts that are cared about garner very few eyeballs.

MTV… Plays no music.

Music radio… Drumbeat of a generation? No, a financial scam run by fat cats featuring automatons spinning researched records in between a ton of commercials.

How do you research a Jimi Hendrix? You don’t. Research can’t predict the future. Furthermore, research can’t even predict the winner of the New Hampshire primary. All the old institutions, they’ve lost touch, we’re all flying by the seat of our pants.

But that does not mean there’s no good music. That just means it’s very difficult to break new acts.

Breaking an act. Artist development. That has come to mean taking a John Mayer from clubs to arenas in a little over a year. That’s not artist development, that’s ALBUM development, oftentimes no more than SINGLES development. To create something lasting, of value, that will pay off like a slot machine, TAKES TIME!

You’ve got to find the act. The act must be original. You can’t think of the audience first, but the music. Most great acts of yore didn’t sound like anybody else. The audience found them, via radio exposure, touring and word of mouth.

Word of mouth is king today. Because no one trust the filters, the media. Everybody’s whored out (including the bands!) The public wonders who is getting paid. And if you’re getting paid, you play by the rules, you say nothing against your sponsor. And once you quiet yourself, you can no longer be a rock star. So you’re working against yourself.

Industryites HATE all of the above. They’re looking for an easy way out. Hitch a ride on a corporation. But unless you’ve got a huge fan base to begin with, selling out will get you noticed, but will not deliver a career.

You’ve got to make it about the music, and only the music. People have to find this music and tell their friends. It’s not about convincing the PD, nor the booker at the late night TV show. About the only thing you have control over is the music. So when people WANT your music, GIVE IT TO THEM!

Don’t lock up your music, if someone wants it, give them the tools to spread the word. It’s your only hope. If the Tommy Mottola system still worked, you’d still see his name in the gossip pages, he’d still have some power. You can no longer goose things. And, if you do, you’ve just shortened the act’s career.

Radio, television…they should be an AFTERTHOUGHT! Like when AM picked up on an FM track a year later. The fans thought this was cool as opposed to a sell-out. And it’s all about the fans. Treat each one like gold. Don’t hold him at arm’s length, give him more than he wants.

The old game is done. What stars have been built this century who can consistently sell out arenas? Maybe the aforementioned Mr. Mayer, who is sui generis. Or maybe Mr. Mayer is inventing the paradigm. He’s so out there, so sold out to everybody, that people say he must be making the decisions. Recipes on his Website? Defending his old girlfriend? What’s the upside?

Rock stars don’t worry about every single move. If it feels good, they do it. They’ll take a political stance, they’ll laugh off a drug bust, they’re ABOVE THE SYSTEM, if not the law. That’s what a musician does, provide a beacon.

So fuck all the old players, the salesmen, the radio promotion guys. They’re so inured to the old ways that they can’t see the new ways.

As for the old guard…there’s not enough money in the new game for them to care.

It’s open season. For musicians and businessmen. Become a manager. Find an act (the hardest thing to do). Believe in that act and build a fan base one by one. Don’t jam the music down people’s throats, use permission marketing. If someone is on your mailing list don’t only tell them about the gig, send them an MP3. Ask their opinion. Be involved with them. THIS is your sales team. You can convince every media gatekeeper in the country, but that won’t give you a fan base. And without a fan base, you’ve got no career.

Play to the fans first. Know that they’ve got a shit detector nonpareil. They need honesty. They need to know they’re in line ahead of Volkswagen. They need the good seats at the gig. They need free live shows distributed on your Website. They’ll buy t-shirts, they’ll pay for concert tickets. They might even buy a vinyl album. But first and foremost they’ll tell everybody they believe in you. The zeal in their voices will come straight from the heart. Their only goal is to show others the light, that what they’re into saves lives.

And music will save your life. It’s religion. Treat it that way.

I have no idea what possessed Guy Hands to purchase this pig in a poke, but having done so, and seen what sick shape the business is in, he is now making drastic efforts to insure its survival and future viability and for this I applaud him.

Those in the industry have been laughing at Mr. Hands for his endless missteps, put forth in writing, for everyone to see. But in hindsight, one has to admire the transparency absent from a business whose heads act like Mafia Dons. And let’s not forget when the biggest mover and shaker of all, Doug Morris, finally went on record, he stated that he didn’t know who to call…as if he was in a Harold Ramis comedy and forgot the number for "Ghostbusters".

Not only is EMI sick, the other three major label groups are too. And despite protestations, mostly that kids are stealing their wares, they’ve done nothing to prepare for a future that is already here.

Sony hired Rick Rubin, who’s known no success as a label head and can still pursue his production trade elsewhere. Mr. Rubin’s monumental moves? Moving the office and pronouncing in the "New York Times" that subscription is the future. Meanwhile, Mr. Rubin is famous for not even going to the office, and he hasn’t outlined how this subscription model will work, never mind help make it a reality.

On the other side of the Sony BMG monolith, we’ve got Clive Davis. Who’s functioning like it’s 1995, if not 1975. Sure, he’s done a phenomenal job with Alicia Keys, but the Idol franchise is wilting and a ton of money is still being spent. There’s no new thinking here.

There’s new thinking at Warner, but it constantly keeps changing. Is Steve Jobs the savior or the enemy? Is DRM good or bad? Edgar Bronfman, Jr.’s problem is he’s a songwriter with money. He’s too close to the way things used to be, and too rich to realize what dire straits his business is in.

And Universal functions like the CD is on a juggernaut. Except for bad lieutenant Jimmy Iovine, who seems to want to get out, make movies, sell headphones, go wherever the money flows more easily.

It’s been fascinating to watch these companies implode. Kicking and screaming while their sales of recorded music go down, as they ask for more rights from artists and lay off staff. If they have the answer, it must have come in a fortune cookie, for I see no innovative thinking. Doug Morris thinks the future’s a turf war, where you’ve got to bully and sue to get your due. Honesty, transparency, working together…they don’t come into the equation. We need to fear Universal. Apple’s got to genuflect. Is this any way to run a business?

Of course not.

Traditional players are scared by Mr. Hands’ renovation plan.

First and foremost, firing 2,000 employees.

Roger Ames, who Steve Jobs went to first, the driving industry force for the iTunes Store, has told me that he can run the company like one up in Silicon Valley. He can employ outsourcing to get what he needs.

I’m not sure this is possible, but I give Roger credit for having a clue, having a plan. A way to get rid of the crushing overhead.

But more interesting to me is EMI’s jettisoning of big advances and its pledge of honesty and transparency. If you’re not in partnership with the artist, the mutual distrust only hurts your bottom line.

Insiders know for that in excess of a decade, there have been no royalties. Only huge advances. A manager of superstar acts told me that he tells every artist to fire him if they ever get a royalty check, that if the company sends them more money, he’s not doing his job well. Miles Copeland famously took a larger percentage on the Police for less up front. Those who believe in their acts will do this. If they believe they will get paid.

And no one believes in an honest accounting anymore. So we’re going to march forward with this as a given? Which is what is happening at the other label groups…

Should a band be signed to the highest bidder, or the label who believes most, and can break the act?

Money has ruled this business for so long that its infrastructure, its basic principles, have rotted away.

I feel for Coldplay, Robbie Williams, who made deals in the old world, have become superstars and want everything to be the same as it ever was. Maybe Guy Hands hasn’t handled them well, maybe they should be on another label. But Mr. Hands’ goal isn’t to kiss the butt of the old guard, but to find a way to make his company prosper.

Radiohead hasn’t sold that many copies of "In Rainbows" since the CD was released after the first of the year, fewer than 200,000. But they’re making a bloody fortune, much more than a superstar act on a major label, possibly more than five bucks a record when they’re all done. Can Guy Hands compete with this? Not via the old model. The bands think they can still go five times platinum, when almost nobody does, and a band’s old track record is no longer such a good predictor of their future sales success. Hell, look at Jay-Z!

So do you pay a fortune and cross your fingers or blow the whistle and say you’re done?

I don’t want to give the guy too much credit, Mr. Hands is a financier, he wanted to borrow money, he needed to make the trains run on time. But this latest restructuring is not purely about cutting, there is some wisdom, there is some strategy. And for that I support him. Change is anathema to the old guard. But if you don’t change, you die.

Sales Force
by Sasha Frere-Jones

Back in the sixties, we’d buy greatest hits albums.  But only sporadically, when a band we hadn’t thought was a stayer turned out to be, or one we didn’t think we liked that much ultimately churned out so many hits we didn’t even know where to start, there were too many albums to buy, so we figured we’d get all the radio songs at one time.

My first Rolling Stones album was "Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).  No one called it "Big Hits", everybody called it "High Tide", maybe "High Tide and Green Grass", and it was a killer.  Released for Christmas long before we knew that was how the music industry operated, the track I was riveted by was not the overplayed, but unable to burn out on, opener, "Satisfaction", but the follow-up, which was never an AM hit, not in my market anyway, but possessed one of the greatest guitar sounds of all time, "The Last Time".

I told myself once, I told myself twice, that I always loved "Tell Me", but I became enraptured with "Play With Fire".  Every time I take the tube in London and I see "Stepney" I’m brought right back.  Listening to this dark song during those dark days of winter I experienced the true English sound, made on damp, dreary days.  There’s a certain soul in the music of people who live in bad weather.

But the song off of "High Tide" I heard this afternoon, on my way to Beverly Hills, was "19th Nervous Breakdown".  It was playing on XM’s Top Tracks.  I heard it after pushing the button from the folk station, the Village.  Where I’d been listening to Donovan’s "Colours".

Not that I could remember what track it was.  I pulled up my iTunes library as soon as I got home, didn’t see anything that immediately jolted me, and I didn’t want to look for my copy of the two CD best of, so I just went to Amazon to look at the track listing.  And that’s where I saw it.  The album I purchased back in 1969, which is in a box of vinyl somewhere in my house, which I’d forgotten I owned, even that it existed, until I saw the album cover photo online.

I know, I know, Donovan’s the guy Dylan puts down in the movie.

Bob’s right, Donovan is no Dylan.  But he was pretty good.  He had quite a run.  I needed to own the greatest hits album because of "Sunshine Superman".

Some songs are made for the summer, they brighten your whole day, they put a bounce in your step.  That’s "Sunshine Superman".  Positively sixties, but somehow timeless.

The greatest hits album also contained "Mellow Yellow", back when "electrical banana" was seen as a marijuana reference, back before people were shooting heroin on TV…and then going to rehab, ALSO ON TV!

I must say I found "High Tide" more satisfying than Donovan’s "Greatest Hits", but I loved owning "Hurdy Gurdy Man", never mind "Catch The Wind".  But it was the secondary tracks that came alive.  When you bought albums in the sixties, when your money was dear, when you couldn’t afford that much, you played your purchases out, you became familiar with every track on the record…that’s the genesis of the term "album track"…we knew them!  So I know every lick of "Epistle To Dippy" and "Lalena".  And came to love "Jennifer Juniper" and "Wear Your Love Like Heaven".  Never mind the cut that Al Kooper turned into a classic, "Season Of The Witch".

But I couldn’t immediately place the track I heard on XM today.  So familiar, yet…  "Colours"!  Also on that album!

The Donovan track that sticks out most in my mind these days wasn’t on the original "Greatest Hits" album (although it makes the reissue).  It was the last Donovan hit I remember, when time had passed him by, when he was seen as a bit of a joke.  Did Donovan know "Atlantis" would be a single?  Who broke this track, a deejay?  I don’t know, but it was on the plane stereo system when we flew to Aspen as a family back in February 1970.  Every time we’d ride the chairlift, my sister Wendy would put on a haughty voice and say HAIL ATLANTIS!

Yes, Donovan ended his high profile career as a joke.  But listen to these tracks, they are no joke.

And as I’m driving west, listening to Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Sirius, I suddenly hear another Donovan track, "Catch The Wind".  And I think how it’s too late for baby boomer acts to come back, no one cares, too many years have gone by.  I don’t mean having radio hits, that’s impossible.  But going on a big time tour.  Donovan played clubs a while back, right?  Is he just in a time capsule, or is there any way to rejuvenate his career, get young people interested?

Maybe if they heard "Colours"…

I think every generation needs its own voices.  It’s just that being young and singing your song doesn’t make you good, doesn’t make you legendary.  Joni Mitchell is better than everybody who came thereafter, never mind Sarah McLachlan, who’s already long in the tooth.  Joni didn’t only have a great voice, she had something to say!

I don’t want to put forth the proposition that Donovan had an equal amount to say, but he possessed a mellifluous voice, listening to his exquisitely crafted music took you away, on a flying carpet above this dirty, dangerous world to a place where love permeated the atmosphere, where you could wallow in your own thoughts and feel good about it.  Try listening.