Could it be that Dr. Dre is so credible, the godfather, the most respected man in hip-hop, because he HASN’T SOLD OUT?\u00c2\u00a0 Hasn’t endorsed champagne, hasn’t had a clothing line?<\/p>\n
$400 headphones.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope Monster is writing him a fat check, because they’re certainly not going to sell many.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you say PRICE POINT?\u00c2\u00a0 You have to spend $400 to get bass?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, most people’s STEREOS don’t cost $400.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind their iPods, which they use to listen to music.\u00c2\u00a0 The only people who can afford these are the boomers, who hate rap.<\/p>\n
As for branching out into speakers and surround-systems…\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I think of when Dre comes to mind, TECHNOLOGY!\u00c2\u00a0 I can see Dre at home, reading old issues of "Popular Electronics", doodling, coming up with new ways for music to sound better, a regular Henry Kloss, or Amar Bose.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this like Steve Jobs making a record because he sells a shitload of tracks at the iTunes Store?<\/p>\n
I’m not saying you can’t grow from music into another business.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s happened.\u00c2\u00a0 Occasionally.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Jimmy Dean sold sausage.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about the Beastie Boys and their clothing line and magazine and…\u00c2\u00a0 And could it be that turning themselves into corporations, with non-music elements, has killed the big time rappers’ careers?\u00c2\u00a0 Have you looked at Jay-Z’s sales figures?\u00c2\u00a0 People aren’t showing him the love, not in prodigious numbers.<\/p>\n
Would Jay-Z have sold more albums if there were no Internet?<\/p>\n
Probably.<\/p>\n
But that wouldn’t solve his radio problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio’s a closed shop that no one listens to controlled by people beholden to advertisers who say they care about music and the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Hogwash.<\/p>\n
So Dre’s got a new album coming out.\u00c2\u00a0 I fear for him, in light of his label’s best efforts to destroy compensation for recorded music.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, Universal has single-handedly held back the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Doug Morris has even gone on record about it.\u00c2\u00a0 He couldn’t FIND someone to help him!\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve employed talent scouts forever, to find hit acts in nooks and crannies, but they can’t find one fucking technologist, one fucking geek?\u00c2\u00a0 Hey, ASK YOUR CHILDREN!<\/p>\n
But it seems that Jimmy Iovine has gotten out of the recorded music game.\u00c2\u00a0 Thrown up his hands and declared they must monetize elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 As if Tommy Hilfiger suddenly decided to create an airline.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Britney Spears decided to compete with Amgen.\u00c2\u00a0 Seems Jimmy only cares about money.\u00c2\u00a0 Art?\u00c2\u00a0 That was back in the twentieth century!<\/p>\n
Dre’s a musician.\u00c2\u00a0 A fabulous producer.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to focus on your assets.\u00c2\u00a0 License your tunes if you want more money.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t go into areas you’re unfamiliar with.\u00c2\u00a0 The public’s not going to follow you.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not at these prices.<\/p>\n
I think it’s hysterical that the major labels are so fucked up that they need 360 deals encompassing the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Wanting to whore their acts out to anybody who’ll pay.\u00c2\u00a0 Decimating careers in the process.<\/p>\n
If Dre’s pissed about economic conditions, he shouldn’t go into business with Jimmy Iovine, he should SUE HIM!\u00c2\u00a0 For restraint of trade.\u00c2\u00a0 Throw the book at him.\u00c2\u00a0 A cartel fucked up music monetization.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the story, not that consumers are thieves and everybody in music must find a new line of work.<\/p>\n
But what I find most hilarious here is that years ago, this story in the L.A. "Times" would have been news, everybody in the music business would have known about it.\u00c2\u00a0 But not one person forwarded it to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Because mainstream media doesn’t have the clout it used to.\u00c2\u00a0 So, when you say equivocal things in a fawning press, which loves access, your business partners may be happy, but the public remains ignorant, out of the loop.<\/p>\n
Fuck branding.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck turning yourself into a corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus on music.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a ton of money to be made in music.\u00c2\u00a0 If only you’d stop listening to the usual suspects who’ve got no idea what’s truly going on because they don’t have Facebook or MySpace pages and they don’t surf the Web 24\/7.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t have their ears to the ground.\u00c2\u00a0 But the people do.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re looking for good music.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to own it, they want to remix it, they want to sync it to slideshows and videos.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to see it live.\u00c2\u00a0 They will adore you and give you all their money if they believe in you.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re in bed with the man and not them, odds are they’re gonna give up on you.<\/p>\n
Don’t listen to the usual suspects.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is healthy.\u00c2\u00a0 There are opportunities galore.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re different from before.<\/p>\n
And let’s start by stopping lawsuits and licensing everybody with an idea.\u00c2\u00a0 Monetizing as we uncover what the public wants.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop trying to get the people to buy music the way you want to and try selling it to them the way they want it.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop fighting Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think licensing DRM-free tracks to Amazon is gonna hurt Apple, still selling locked tracks, you know nothing about convenience, you know nothing about stupidity.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, look at the tens of thousands of people who paid for the Radiohead album online this week when they could have gotten it from the band itself, months before, essentially FOR FREE!\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Come on.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop saying your hands are tied.\u00c2\u00a0 Start seeing the future as opportunities instead of closed doors.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if you want revenue from those draconian 360 deals then you’ve got to make the acts hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Which requires that people be able to acquire and hear the music cheaply.\u00c2\u00a0 Which side are you on, the future’s or the past’s?<\/p>\n
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