If I get one more e-mail from an artist asking how to get paid I’m gonna explode!

Didn’t anybody tell these people making music for a living was a privilege, not a right?

I hate to rain on your parade here, but unless you move to a foreign country where the government pays you to make music, it’s your fans who are in control, if you have any.

Yes, you sat at home, spent a year making your record. Or, even hired big guys and played in a big studio. You’re convinced your work is art, that it should be owned by everybody. Only one problem, you haven’t got a plethora of believers.

Musicians used to be able to rail at the system. They couldn’t get their records into stores. They were held back by the man. But as any indie act will tell you, even in the bad old days, getting the disc in the store was just the first step. You had to get someone to buy it! Otherwise, the retailer just shipped it back.

But now you can get distribution yourself, on CD Baby, on iTunes… And since your music is available, you think someone wants it. Oh, how wrong can you be.

As I’ve stated many times before, you probably suck. Oh, you’re probably not terrible, but not good enough. Metaphorically, you might be a good ballplayer, but if you’re not good enough to play for the Yankees, you’re probably never going to make any money from music. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

So, first you have to have a lot of talent. A rare few have so much talent that the audience spreads the word. And these people make it. Check out John Mayer. If you had your ear to the ground, if you were networked, long before his Columbia debut musos were testifying about this guy. I must have heard from the CIMS posse for eighteen months straight how great Mayer was. If you’re that good, people do the work for you. Don’t worry about getting paid, the money will come, because people are looking to have their lives enriched.

Furthermore, Mayer himself has testified that P2P broke him. Yup, college students traded his songs all over the country. Not so much via sneakernet, with the guy in your neighborhood, as to another state, where the guy who used to live in your neighborhood now goes to college.

But that’s if you’re that good. And I’m not a believer that Mayer is one for the ages, but don’t think I don’t know he’s got something. And it’s this something that broke him. A combination of skill, talent, songs, performing ability and looks. Yup, looks still count, they’re just not everything.

Then again, Mayer took a year off from high school to practice playing the guitar. He was willing to sacrifice everything to make it. He didn’t have a fallback position, didn’t go to law school and play on weekends. It takes all of your effort all of the time to make it in music.

Don’t confuse the death of the CD and the rise of P2P with the end of remuneration in the music business. I believe people should pay for music. Unfortunately, the major labels, the powers-that-be, don’t agree. Because they’re the ones making music free by refusing to authorize new acquisition technologies. But, there are many other ways to make money other than for the tunes themselves.

You can play live. But most people can’t. Because they don’t have a fan base and they can’t grow one because they’re not good enough.

If you’ve got a fan base, they’ll buy CDs. As totems. They’ll buy the CDs for someone else, to turn them on. Maybe they’ll just e-mail the tracks, but that will get other people started.

You’ve got to stop thinking about your investment of time and money in your project. That ain’t worth shit. Hell, some of the greatest songs in rock history were written in fifteen minutes on inspiration and recorded almost as quickly. And those, my friends, are the ones still generating royalties for their composers.

Music isn’t about effort. It isn’t about money. It’s about inspiration.

The truth resonates with the public, not the work involved.

Do it out of passion. Be thrilled people want to hear it. Maybe you’ll never get paid. But, if you’re supremely talented, and you must be, you will make money. Probably more than you dreamed of at a date after most of your competitors have given up.

The New Deal: Band as Brand

I’m freaking the fuck out. This Jeff Leeds story in the "New York Times" has my blood boiling.

Under the guise of artist development, the major labels are spinning this fantasy that 360 deals are good for the artist when the real story is they’re a land grab, a desperate attempt to insure the labels’ future.

At least they’re giving the vaunted Paramore a thirty percent deal instead of one for fifteen, but what did Billy Preston say, "nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’"?

The problem in the music business is not the deal, but the fact that the major labels made music free, by sticking their heads in the sand, refusing to authorize new distribution technologies. What’s even more bizarre, their poster boy for mass destruction is now Steve Jobs, when any economist will tell you sale by track is death.

If you’re contemplating a major label, and your success is not based on terrestrial radio play, if you don’t make pop music, YOU’RE A FUCKING IDIOT!

Have you been to the major label’s office recently? There’s nobody working there! They want more of YOUR money for doing less work. You’ve still got to hire a manager, an agent, pay them, and also pay the label which is doing no more than before, it’s just that it can’t make as much money because the landscape changed. What’s next, subsidizing WebTV? Or, maybe you’ve got no idea what I’m talking about here, which proves the point. And the point is, are we going to subsidize outmoded businesses because we don’t want to see people lose their jobs, we don’t want to see them marginalized, we don’t want to see them go bankrupt?

Why don’t we start with AOL. Yup, I want all of you to sign up for a dialup account. That’s when AOL was most healthy. The company’s a shadow of its former self. Don’t you care? Don’t you remember when you logged in to AOL back in ’96? Don’t you have any sympathy? Come on, use your modem. Call your phone company and reactivate your extra line. AOL needs to be SAVED!

Or maybe AOL can get a cut of Comcast’s broadband fees. And Verizon DSL. Hell, they were there first, they DESERVE the money.

Major label… You want more of my money, TELL ME WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO FOR IT!

If you’re just going to sit there and collect cash on my touring income, because you can’t make money selling recorded music, FUCK YOU!

And artists want to be beholden to these same assholes who tell you what to record, who micromanage your whole life?

Either go on tour or we’re gonna stop working your album. Make this endorsement deal or we’re not working your track on radio.

The oldsters, the Eagles and Madonnas and Radioheads of this world, are never going to go for this. We need a union, to protect the newbies. Used to be you only got raped financially in the recorded music world. Now you’re getting raped IN ALL 360 DEGREES!

The label won’t put out your record, because it’s not satisfied you’ve got hits. So, you decide to play some live gigs to eat. Oops, you’ve got to give thirty percent to the label. And you can’t get divorced, because you’ve got a CONTRACT! So, you’re tied up for the life of your career, unless you’re a superstar and actually last more than ten years.

Thank god Bruce Flohr went on record here. But where were the attorneys? Oh, I know, they were afraid of pissing off the labels, not eating themselves. Are they interested in their clients or THEMSELVES?

Sanctuary, which INVENTED the 360 deal, collapsed. As my dear friend Tony Wilson asked the executives, isn’t it the job of the label to steal from the act? Isn’t this why its stock goes up? Then how can you be the manager, the label, the publisher and the agent…

I’m thinking that new bands will have 360 deals. But with people you don’t know the name of, who are trustworthy! That’s what the new paradigm is based on, trust. If you trust anybody at a major label, you haven’t signed your deal yet. They’ll send limos, take you out to hundred dollar dinners, but once you’ve inked the deal, you’re back in your Toyota at Burger King. Ask them what happened and they’ll tell you it’s YOUR money, and the company isn’t only you, they’ve got to sign OTHER acts! The new 360 companies won’t have so many acts. Like managers, because it will be about personal attention.

We thought we had a common enemy, the assholes stealing the music. But no, all along the enemy has been the major label. Which hasn’t had the interests of the artists at heart for DECADES! Create a musical haven. Give us FIFTY PER CENT of recorded income. Treat us like brothers, not slaves. Do something new as opposed to moving in on our territory, based solely on your leverage. Yup, want a deal, it’s got to be 360!

Utter hogwash.

The sooner young ‘uns reinvent this business, the better it will be for artists and fans. The entire music business has moved to the Net. Where’s the penetration of this sphere by the majors? NONEXISTENT! They’re forming advertising agencies, getting down with endorsements. Wade into the wild west of the Net? NO! Unless it’s with total control, which results in fiascos like PressPlay.

The major labels didn’t create MySpace. Facebook either.

They didn’t invent Napster. They didn’t roll up the concert promotion companies.

They’ve been out of the loop on every innovation of the last ten years. But because they ruled in the past they’re entitled to rule in the future?

Ridiculous.

Apple creates the iPod. Google comes up with software for phones. Fox at least buys MySpace. What do the major labels do? Eat their young. Say that since we fucked up the future, you’ve got to cough up your rights.

Bullshit.

The LABEL has to give up something to get more. So far, I can’t see that they’re giving up much.

Don’t buy this ruse. The future will arrive. And it won’t be run by Universal or Warner. Unless you’re so fucking stupid, or so mesmerized by the homes of Zeppelin and Cream, that you end up signing with these entities run by caretakers who weren’t even around when the great music was created.

It’s the artists’ move. Want to make a deal with your computer genius buddy down the hall? Someone who will go to every gig? Be my guest. Throw in with the establishment because they WERE the establishment… You’re fucking ignorant.

One more and I’m gonna go. Isn’t that what the Stones say on "Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!"?

It’s just that I heard this song on X Country today, right after "Back To Jackson" in fact, and I just fired it up, as I was reconciling my iTunes database, and it sounded so good I wanted to TELL YOU!

I spent three years in college getting drunk.

Well, I wasn’t inebriated 24/7. But by the time my career ended, seemingly six days a week I was down at the local bar. Hell, the night of my graduation the proprietor grabbed me by the elbow to give me a personal goodbye. And one good thing about getting drunk as opposed to getting high on dope is you don’t retreat into yourself, you want to go where the people are, you want to integrate, you’re positively CONVIVIAL!

Oh, you’re pouring down the Molson’s. Maybe a bit of Jack. Even a flaming Drambuie to show the uninitiated you’re a pro. And the alcohol means nothing without music. Music is the grease, that insures you have a good night.

And the music we played in college did not consist of what was on the Top Forty. Hell, in Middlebury, Vermont you couldn’t get any Top Forty! We played rock. With an element of rootsiness.

If it was Saturday night, the first shot was always taken with "Brown Sugar". But there was also Van Morrison’s "Domino". We wanted music to fuel the fire. Pat Green’s "Wrapped" fuels the fire.

If you like your music sans video. If your idea of a good time is going to the club, getting liquored up and cutting loose…"Wrapped" is good for you.

The music plays, you start losing your inhibitions, you talk to the opposite sex, you’re your best self…AT LEAST YOU THINK YOU ARE!

I don’t want to go back to college. I don’t want to have to study for the test, write all those papers, be in a hothouse with everybody trying to get somewhere yet frustrated they haven’t been set free yet. But the feeling of having my whole life in front of me…I’d like to have that back. Before I saw the shenanigans the politicians and the businessmen play, before I realized you’re lucky if you can do ONE good thing in this life.

You get older and you’ve had so many losses, you’ve got so many aches and pains, that it’s hard to believe. And everybody winning at the game of life wants to keep you down in the hole…if you tell them they’re full of shit they chide you for not believing in their religion…MONEY!

That’s what’s freaking the major labels out. And LiveNation too. They don’t give a shit about music. Rapino and his boys just want to cash out at the end. Doug Morris and his posse just want the gravy train to continue. And they’ll say and do ANYTHING to insure this. Meanwhile, you’re left scratching your head, wondering how come you know everything’s shite and they don’t.

I flew Virgin America last weekend. And I’m gonna take one of their planes again, because as we pulled away from the gate, the pilot got on the intercom and said we were gonna be in San Francisco in an hour and he wasn’t gonna say anything more because we’d heard it all and he didn’t want to bore us. God, how come Richard Branson knows that truth sells and no one else does?

And Saturday night I found myself under the Half Moon Bay stars with a bunch of people I’d never met before, but what we had in common, what kept us together, what allowed us to communicate, was THE SONGS PLAYING OVER THE STEREO!

The girls were dancing up a storm. The boys weren’t jockeying for position, but speaking of passion. John told me about his trip to the Andes, riding horses at 18,000 feet. And when I saw the pictures on his computer they resonated, not because of the exotica so much as the tunes streaming out of the speakers.

These weren’t flavor of the moment, but classics. Everyone from Bowie to Carlos to even Jimmy and Robert. Yup, on this night even STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN sounded good!

And Pat Green’s "Wrapped" puts me in the same mood I was last Saturday night. One that has me believing it’s SO FUCKING GREAT TO BE ALIVE! That life is full of POSSIBILITIES! And that’s why I love it so, that’s why I’m writing this.

When I listen to Pat Green I want to meet everybody, I want to hang out with everybody. I don’t want to hold back. I want to be my real self. Compassionate, yet irreverent. Not worried about what you think, knowing that the real me is enough. That’s what music’ll do for you.

Unfortunately, you can’t hear "Wrapped". I couldn’t find it anywhere online. Not on MySpace, not on YouTube. Oh, I found some live takes, and they’re interesting, but the sound quality isn’t good enough, and you’re missing the mandolin and the soaring guitars. The vocal is right, but the studio track is JUST RIGHT!

I can see sitting in the bar, raising my longneck to the ceiling, then letting the beer pour down my gullet as my buddies cheer me on.

There’s nothing wrong with the music. There’s something wrong with the selling of music, the DISTRIBUTION! The issue isn’t getting paid so much as getting people to HEAR IT! This one song makes me a Pat Green believer. I’d like to make you a believer too. But someone’s convinced Pat to keep his music locked up. So, he’s beating himself up on the road, with one hand tied behind his back. His fans need the tools, to spread the word.

I want to spread the word. I want to tell you "Wrapped" is magical. That it sounds nothing like what you hear on Top Forty, not even the Nashville stations. It sounds like MUSIC!

You remember music. Written and played by people who just HAVE to make it. Not for fame or riches, but because they need to express themselves. This is the nugget, this is the key. Make this music, and if you’ve got it, people will beat a path to your door.

31. Matchbox Twenty "Exile On Mainstream"

Sales this week: 25,701
Percentage change: -15%
Cume: 299,862
Weeks on: 5

I’m surprised they haven’t already released a NEW version, with additional tracks, just to fuck over the losers who bought this package in the first place. I’m surprised they haven’t already released a NEW version, with additional tracks, just to fuck over the losers who bought this package in the first place.

You know Rob Thomas caught a lot of flack the first time around.  But I’ve come to believe he’s quite talented.  And the hits on the Matchbox Twenty debut were pretty damn good.

If you throw off your hipster hat and listen to "Back 2 Good", you’ll be enraptured.  It’s actually authentic.  Wouldn’t you like to get it back to good, after things are fucked up?  And how come you never can…  Once you’ve broken up, once you’ve fought, it’s toast.  You can try, but it’s fruitless.

And "Long Day"…  Has got an early seventies feel.  Kind of a cross between McCartney and American bands, with a dose of nineties sheen…  The acoustic intro is enrapturing.  The dynamics…  Not quite "Kashimir", but still good.

Then there’s "3 am".  Aren’t you lonely at that hour?  Don’t you hate waking up alone at that hour?

But the piece de resistance is "Push".

She said I don’t know if I’ve ever been good enough
I’m a little bit rusty, and I think my head is caving in
And I don’t know if I’ve ever really been loved
By the hand that’s touched me, well I feel like something gonna give
And I’m a little bit angry, well

Have you ever had self-doubt?  Have you ever wondered if you’ve been good enough?

I have.

And if you haven’t played for a while, you feel rusty, and you don’t trust yourself.  But you’re committed, you’re hanging in there, you’re giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Then you find out you were wrong.  And you get angry, AND YOU WANT TO PUSH THEM AROUND!  You want to take them for granted.  But you just can’t.  And it hurts SO bad.

I didn’t get it with the studio version.  But I’ve got a live acoustic take from a Star 98.7 Christmas record that taught me the greatness of this song.  There are slowed-down acoustic versions all over the P2P services.  Look for one.

And what do you do with a band that played the Top Forty game in an era where Top Forty is a shadow of its former self.  They didn’t try to be credible, they reveled in their moment in the spotlight.  But now there is no spotlight.  They’re talented, but the vast majority of the public has a bad taste in its mouth.

I wish it was solely about songs.  But more important now is your relationship with your fans.  There’s got to be a bond.  And when you’re all over TV, you’re fans with Katie Couric, with  Carson Daly, you’re removed from the street.  It’s like leaving your hometown honey for a supermodel.  When she dumps you, where are you then?  POSITIVELY NOWHERE!

The stardom game Matchbox Twenty played is dead.  Maybe their label can run a single up the chart, but it still won’t help the band’s career.  They need to go on a club tour.  They need a fan club at MusicToday.  They’ve got to come down from the pedestal and INTERACT!

40. Neil Young "Chrome Dreams II"

Sales this week: 20,260
Percentage change: -62%
Cume: 74,363
Weeks on: 2

No one cares.  The album got pretty good reviews, I haven’t listened to it, I have no idea how good it is.  But Neil’s fans just want to relive their salad days, they want to hear him play cuts from "Harvest".  He’s making new records, but he’s a nostalgia act.  Not that the press treats him this way.  This guy gets coverage like he’s selling double platinum.  Funny era…  If you want to know what’s going on in culture, don’t read the newspaper, nor the magazines, dive into the blogosphere.

43. Foo Fighters "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace"

Sales this week: 19,306
Percentage change: -14%
Cume: 335,653
Weeks on: 6

You might think this is a borderline call.  I hear you.  But it’s just that this guy gets so much press, people love him.  But he doesn’t resonate with the public like his old bandmate Kurt.  Speaking of which, if they released the Nirvana boxed set THIS Christmas how many people would have cared?  The nineties are finally over.  Just like the baby boomer acts are falling off at the box office, everyone deserving of a boxed set has one.  The cupboards are bare.

44. Coheed & Cambria "No World For Tomorrow"

Sales this week: 18,907
Percentage change: -69%
Cume: 81,105
Weeks on: 2

Shit, this is terrible.  Remember the buzz on this act the last time around?

They waited way too long to release a new album.  They lost their momentum.

83. James Blunt "All The Lost Souls"

Sales this week: 9,980
Percentage change: -22%
Cume: 230,975
Weeks on: 7

Where do they come up with these album titles?  Did James know it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Does this guy have any fans?  Do those that exist even know the record came out?

No one cares.

Welcome to the modern record business.  Where the major labels and mainstream media conspire to jam shit down our throats, and although they may get us once, we don’t get fooled again.

No one thought James Blunt was real except himself.  They just wanted a nostalgic song that made them think about love.  That’s it, no more.

111. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals "Follow The Lights"

Sales this week: 7,817
Percentage change: -58%
Cume: 26,409
Weeks on: 2

Did you know this EP came out?  Come on, how would you know?

This is an artist in search of a business model.

We had to endure the endless hype how his previous record, "Easy Tiger", released at the end of June, was the second coming, a return to form.  Only it wasn’t.

But this guy always comes up with a keeper or two.

Maybe he needs a chart on his homepage.  His fans telling those passing through which songs are necessary, and which aren’t.  Maybe he needs a fan club with automatic delivery.

I applaud the fact that he’s writing, that he’s a working musician.  I would check out everything he does if it was e-mailed to me when it was completed.  But to find out about releases, to read reviews…  Impossible.

You can tell with Ryan with one listen.  I want to hear a song and decide whether I want to keep it, and delete the rest.  I’m cool with that.  But I don’t want to buy everything, make an investment, to find out I’m not interested in hearing the vast majority ever again.

116. Puddle Of Mudd "Famous"

Sales this week: 7,221
Percentage change: -18%
Cume: 60,083
Weeks on: 4

No they’re not.

I’m stunned they’ve even got a new record.

A band with hits but no fan base.

120. KT Tunstall "Drastic Fantastic"

Sales this week: 6,595
Percentage change: -16%
Cume: 124,182
Weeks on: 7

I really like KT.  But this record did not get good reviews.

She was the girl of the moment because of a ton of media exposure, in TV, movie trailers, ads for all I know.  All I do know is "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" and "Suddenly I See" were on every corner, it appeared she had broken through.  But she was still playing clubs.  People liked the songs, it’s just the bond with the fan base…didn’t really exist.

Maybe all those commercial endorsements and TV placements sell the tracks featured, but don’t do much for your career.  You get noticed, but that’s about all…  People see you, but they’re not in love with you.  When they discover you more organically, they love you.’

Kind of like the Moby syndrome.  He licensed the tracks from "Play" EVERYWHERE and then never had another hit.  Then again, he never cut anything nearly as good thereafter.

I think you have to settle for less.  Better to have a bunch of buddies than a plethora of casual friends, people you can count on as opposed to those who are only into you because you’re flavor of the moment.

This business is sick. It’s based on selling tonnage, and then getting the buyers to go to the gig.  It’s just that this isn’t happening.

125. Melissa Etheridge "The Awakening"

Sales this week: 6,154
Percentage change: +11%
Cume: 112,011
Weeks on: 6

This shouldn’t be on a major label.  She’s positively NICHE!  You might see her all over the media, but no one cares.  She needs to stop playing to everybody and start playing to her CORE again.

Do you own the very first album?  She wasn’t smiling.  She needed success.  She needed it for her LIFE!  There was no calculation.

This is sad.  Because she’s got a modicum of talent.  But she’s so busy being a celebrity…  And celebrityhood doesn’t sell records.  Just ask Paris or Lindsay.  Or Jessica Simpson!

140. Dashboard Confessional "Shade Of Poison Trees"

Sales this week: 5,587
Percentage change: -24%
Cume: 89,563
Weeks on: 5

Screaming irrelevancies.

151. Mark Knopfler "Kill To Get Crimson"

Sales this week: 5,166
Percentage change: -14%
Cume: 78,398
Weeks on: 7

Tell me why I need another Mark Knopfler record.  With maybe one great track and a lot of stuff I can respect but I don’t need to hear again.

He’s got something.  But it’s been so long since it’s been vital that most people have tuned out, they’ve got no idea this record IS out.

He’s not featured in expensive videos on MTV.  He’s got no significant airplay.  He’s on a world stage playing to a club audience, maybe a theatre audience…

Velvet Revolver "Libertad"

Released on July 3rd, no longer in the Top 200

Wait a second, G N’ R really only had one great album and that was TWENTY YEARS AGO!  Should we really care about Slash these days?  Did you ever hear Snakepit?  See them live?  Would have you scratching your head.  Makes Mike Clink look like a genius.

All we read about is Duff McKagan taking business courses. He’s gonna need them, he’s gonna be out on the street SOON!

Terrible name anyway.