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YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret

You’d think their relationship with Disney’s TV and radio channels would be enough. That Hollywood Records wouldn’t resort to the kind of fraud legendary in this business in order to try and break a new act. And I emphasize "try", because you won’t find Ms. Digby’s cover of "Umbrella" in the iTunes Top 100, and if you think an appearance on Carson Daly’s show has any relevance, you probably think he still hosts TRL.

The press is there to keep businessmen in line. The fact that this story on Ms. Digby is on the very front page of the "Wall Street Journal" shows what a great paper it is, and how much it has to lose under Rupert Murdoch’s ownership. It’s just this kind of non-hard news story he wants to banish from the front page. But it’s exposes like this, that go to the heart of how American business is done, that need exposure.

Let’s get real. It’s not like any of Ms. Digby’s original material has got any traction. They’re working a cover. Hell, even Gary Jules can’t get arrested anymore (Gary who?) Ms. Digby probably never would have broken through anyway. But one hopes this article puts the nail in the coffin.

Kind of like the vaunted LonelyGirl15. The YouTube series continued after it was revealed to be a hoax, but you would only know that if you were watching, buzz was nonexistent. And the CAA repped producers haven’t made any big deals since.

LonelyGirl15 was about the story. Modern medium allows closeted religious prisoner to reveal her inner thoughts. Once revealed to be untrue, it lost all its heat. Once the uber-beautiful Marié Digby is revealed to be just another young music wannabe, no different from any other major label priority, suddenly, there’s nothing of interest left. Fans are no longer discovering her, they’re complicit in the shenanigans of a Fortune 500 company.

Guard your credibility very closely. Lose it, and you can’t recapture it. Before you execute anything untoward or false, know that in the modern era, if anybody cares, the truth will be revealed online. You will appear naked in front of not only your peers, but the whole world. You’d think that businessmen would have wisened up after Mitzvahpalooza. But only this week, we’ve got Lyor Cohen behaving like it’s the nineties and Hollywood Records like it’s the eighties. Believing their string-pulling will go unrevealed.

As for Ms. Digby’s appearance in "The Hills"… It resulted in this career-killing story, not any real traction. There was enough buzz for people to start paying attention, and find out that she’s a fake. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollywood generated all those YouTube hits too.

You could say I’ve lost my faith in corporations, but I’d respond that my belief in the fourth estate’s ability to tease out the truth has been reinforced.

I’ve been e-mailed this story constantly, ever since it went live last night. It’s your turn to read.

We’re looking for transparency and effectiveness. And he who delivers same will rule in the future.

Transparency. When you deal in bits and bytes you end up with a real answer. Something the labels hate. Because they’ve profited for years by stealing. How many tracks have been downloaded? Pay me my share. And that share must be fair.

Heritage acts are still smarting from giving up royalties to fund the introduction of the CD. They got whacked then, and now they’re getting a double dose with low iTunes payments. In return for helping their business partners grow, they’ve gotten less.

The deal had value when majors could make acts stars. But now, the majors can only make vapid popsters successful. With radio in the doldrums and MTV effectively out of the music video business, the benefit of signing with a major is close to nil for many acts. Furthermore, their rights are tied up for eons. They can’t get off the label even if their record is shelved, and they don’t own their masters.

Ownership. That’s coming. Acts pay for their records and then the majors STILL own them. This doesn’t instill trust as much as hatred. The new model will be akin to Don Henley’s with Irving Azoff. Complete trust. And someone akin to the manager will rule. And an entity like Frontline will emerge as the new powerhouse.

The old model is dead. 360 degree deals will be the norm. But with WHOM?

New entities. Just like Microsoft supplanted IBM, just like Google supplanted Yahoo, just like Apple supplanted Tower Records, unforeseen entities will eclipse the usual powers and rule in the future.

We’re in an era of chaos. But it won’t last forever.

Just like only a handful of the millions of blogs get a disproportionate share of the hits, new companies will control the music sphere. They’ll have money. Their charges won’t starve on the street. Musicians will give up income to get the reward. But they’ll believe they’re getting a fair deal. And, they will know exactly what their deal and revenue are.

This is what is going to appeal to the musician. This transparency.

We’re not talking indie labels running on a shoestring here. Rather, well-financed companies that control talent. A veritable cabal out to rape and pillage traditional powers all in the defense of the artist, for the benefit of the fan. You’ve got to reference Irving Azoff again here. What did the aforementioned Mr. Henley say at the Eagles’ induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? "He may be Satan, but he’s OUR Satan?"

You want Satan on your team. Someone who has a direct interest in your success. And no one at a major label fits this paradigm. Hell, they may not even be there when your record comes out, never mind your fifth. And what can they do for you anyway?

The new company, probably controlled by a youngster, will OWN Facebook. I don’t mean literally, just that it will be wired in the online sphere. The new company will have a database of every music fan in the genres within which it operates. It will know how to solicit and motivate without overpressuring. It will be in the long haul business, not solely desirous of instant gratification. Career management will be paramount. "No" will be heard more than "Yes". The new company will be on the same team as the act.

We’re just waiting for these trustworthy effective companies to raise their head. They won’t be like Starbucks, a retailer with tons of cash. Rather, they will be run by fans, who understand both technology and tunes.

LiveNation could be a factor, since it’s such a force in the physical world, the live business can’t be replicated on the Net. But LN promotes so many acts, that it will be an arm’s length negotiation, about the advance. Certainly as long as the company is beholden to Wall Street. Good for Madonna. But for the next Madonna, starting from scratch? Probably not.

Some things never change. There are businessmen at the nexus of art and commerce. But there’s no guarantee that those businessmen will remain the same.

I don’t get it. If kids aren’t listening to radio and MTV plays no music and CDs are dying, what exactly does an act need a major label FOR?

They want a percentage of touring revenue. But what are they giving up in return?

Cash?

So, you need to give up a huge chunk of your upside so that execs can blow it as they play hedge fund wannabes?

Credit hitsdailydouble, but did you READ Austin Scaggs’ bit on Lyor Cohen? If what I’m getting for giving up so much of my income is the ability for you to hype the scion of a has-been rocker by giving him the keys to the castle for the weekend, COUNT ME OUT! There are better ways to spend money. Like taking care of your EMPLOYEES instead of having them constantly walking on hot coals, believing they’re gonna be fired any minute.

Look at the major labels… The A&R is being done by lawyers. These same lawyers and independent contractors could feed someone else with money. Someone more in touch with TODAY! Who wouldn’t blow all their income and deliver meager results.

Who says the major labels have to be in control of music in the future? Isn’t this like saying GM should rule the auto world? After making inefficient SUVs and being trumped by the Japanese? The Japanese companies made cars that didn’t break, with good gas mileage. Instead of focusing on the bells and whistles, they put all their energy into substance. How the car actually drove. Isn’t it funny that Toyota is poised to be the biggest car company in the world?

Don’t ask what can be done to save the major labels, ask what they can do for YOU! And reading the Rick Rubin article, it appears very little.

Want to sell your music online and get paid? You don’t need the major label, you can use Tunecore, the Orchard or CDBaby. And make MORE!

Want to get on the radio? Well, do you make the kind of music that’s PLAYED on the radio? If you’re a no-talent wannabe, who needs publicity to get noticed as you sell singles and never generate any touring income, the major label is FOR YOU! Out of touch, generating heat in the dying world of mainstream media. But, if you’re anything but a Top Forty popster, you can’t GET ON THE RADIO! Not in any way that generates significant returns. And is it worth paying the labels for the slot? You can use indies, who will gain in power as the majors decline, or admit to yourself that NO station will ever play your music and save your cash.

Or maybe you need the label’s ONLINE STREET TEAM!

Do you send money to Africans? Do you buy penny stocks on the advice of strangers? Are you a FUCKING IDIOT? ANYBODY can tell when they’re being hyped. Our shit detectors are BUILT IN! Sure, word of mouth is king, but from people we TRUST! Not the paid hypester who enters our forum and tries to sell us on a new act in such a bogus moonie manner that even a child knows the jig is up. Did anyone say SPAM?

I’m still trying to figure out what the major label gives your average credible act. Want to use Rick Rubin to produce your record? You don’t even need to be SIGNED to Columbia, his deal’s not exclusive. Come to him with the cash and a story and you can use him too, without giving up all the ancillary bullshit.

Want to get in a commercial, on "Grey’s Anatomy"? You don’t need a major for that either. Indies have entered the field, and a lot of these shows want HIP acts, which means NOT ON A MAJOR LABEL!

If you’re looking for easy answers, maybe you’re tempted by the major label deal. But really, it’s like joining a cult. Giving up all control to an out of touch entity who tells you how to act. It’s scarier to forge your own way. But it’s the only true way out of the wilderness.

The old guard is stumped. If radio is dead and MTV doesn’t play any music and you can’t hype shit, HOW WILL THEY BE SUCCESSFUL?

Do you want to put your career in the hands of THESE people? So out of touch? Jim Guerinot fought with Columbia to give away an Offspring track online seven years ago. Now, finally, in 2007, Columbia allows Springsteen to give away "Radio Nowhere". So who’s smarter here? Jim or the Columbia brass? Who should you trust?

You need a quarterback who’s not guaranteed a salary, but a manager, who’s HUNGRY! Whose livelihood DEPENDS on your success. Someone who doesn’t manage EVERYONE who NEEDS you to hit. That’s motivation for you.

What’s Lyor Cohen’s motivation? Hell, he’s seen enough hit records. He’s rich enough. He wants to go to the society ball. Russell Simmons is a self-help guru. They’ve all jumped the shark, to use a burned-out expression.

You need HUNGRY people. Who don’t want to take most of your upside with only a PROMISE in return. People who can see the new world. Not labels who don’t even let you OWN your music and tell you how to make it and what you can do with it.

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where you can keep 40,000 songs IN YOUR POCKET and the labels think a reasonable price for each and every one of them is a buck, IF NOT A $1.29 IF YOU WANT THEM SANS DRM!

It’s like we’re living in the twilight zone. The labels are stuck in the nineties and the public is in the twenty first century. Who even HAS 4,000 albums?

A lot of people. Oh, not as CDs. But as MP3s, stolen from the Net, their friends, their family.

People WANT music. The labels just can’t figure out how to sell it to them.

Took them over three years to even deliver it easily online at a reasonable price (2003’s iTunes Store). But, they still haven’t given people what they want. How about a 160 gig iPod PRELOADED with the greatest hits of the sixties? Or the history of dance music? Don’t bother to steal the music, you can get it, for an extra fifty bucks.

Those iPods would fly off the shelf. But that deal can’t be made, because Apple has TOO MUCH POWER! We must stop Steve Jobs, before he ruins our business. Huh? Isn’t this like making Peyton Manning play with weights around his ankles? Refusing to let Tiger Woods have eye surgery? It’s their incredible talent, their superstar qualities, that GROW THE SPORT! Golf without Tiger is tennis. A game for old fogies that has peaked. Online music without Apple is what it was before the iPod, a field for HOBBYISTS! Steve Jobs gets non-techies, people who don’t even know how to manage virus protection on their PCs, to buy iPods, and USE THEM, and this is a problem?

Oh, I guess it’s a problem if you believe that the CD must rule forever. But those same execs who feel this way are MARRIED to their giant plasma and LCD TVs. And they don’t get just three channels, but HUNDREDS! Why should music be forced to live in the past?

I’m not saying every fan has 40,000 tracks. Just that more people have more music than ever before. And they want to take it with them. And they’re not averse to paying for it, AS LONG AS THE PRICE IS REASONABLE!

It’s like mobile phones. Imagine if EVERY call was a buck. How many would be made?

Imagine a twelve year old, asking for a phone. NO SARAH, you can’t have one! You’re gonna bankrupt us! And, if Sarah is LENT one for a sleepover, her parents will spend five minutes telling her NOT TO USE IT! That it’s for EMERGENCIES ONLY!

God, the mobile business would be a fraction of what it is now. It would be like…1988. Where the labels are comfortable. Jimmy Iovine can afford dollar a minute mobile calls. He would tell people just to get richer, like him, so they can afford them too!

But people’s lives are enriched by their mobile handsets/lives. They’re in contact. Just like with the Net. Imagine if computers still cost $4,000 and Net access was $100 a month. How big would MySpace be?

Oh, you can rent the music!

Did you read Jon Healey’s experience with Rhapsody and the iRiver Clix?

Rhapsody, MTV and the iRiver clix

The iPod is the gold standard. It just works. And all those who’ve lamented the fact that they’ve got to create playlists, slice up their libraries, to get their iPods to sync, have been delivered today.

Oh, you have no idea what I’m talking about? PROVES THE POINT! If you’ve got a large library, bigger than your iPod’s storage capacity, you don’t get automatic sync, you get an error message. But now, you can have automatic sync up to a total of 40,000 TRACKS! You can carry that obscure track you want to hear once a decade on vacation. You don’t have to leave it at home. Why should you have to leave it at home?

Break Apple’s stranglehold on distribution. Give it a shot. But I don’t think it makes a difference, because as Mr. Jobs said, people buy almost no tracks from the iTunes Store! That’s not how they fill their iPods!

It’s time for the labels to enter reality. Every teenager should be able to have legal Zeppelin for a pittance. Yup, a pittance. So when they lose their iPods, they can buy the music ALL OVER AGAIN!

Fuck selling CDs at Starbucks. New music should be close to free online. God, there’s no manufacturing costs, and very little distribution costs.

End result? The labels are rescued from financial ruin and the public is music-crazed, easily experiencing the broad range of the most fulfilling art form. What’s wrong with that?