One could argue that SoundScan ruined the record business.\u00c2\u00a0 Oldsters might say the phony charts of yore, manipulated by the labels, were better for the health of the industry, that they allowed a record to build and grow.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s more interesting to look at it from the other direction, how the first week became so important that marketing trumped music.<\/p>\n
That’s the era Tommy Mottola ushered in.\u00c2\u00a0 One of hysteria.\u00c2\u00a0 You stir the pot to a frenzy and then you generate huge first week sales.\u00c2\u00a0 But the problem with hysteria is it dissipates.\u00c2\u00a0 The prizefight doesn’t go on forever, but just one night, then everyone forgets.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, who won the Best Picture Oscar in 2007?\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind 2008!<\/p>\n
SoundScan quantified sales, but not careers.\u00c2\u00a0 But sales were all the labels were interested in.\u00c2\u00a0 And being instantly quantifiable, they were good for the mainstream media, obsessed with facts and figures.\u00c2\u00a0 But SoundScan relies on a firm street date, and suddenly, like the CD, street date is evaporating.<\/p>\n
Leaks.\u00c2\u00a0 The old guard hates leaks.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to make sure no one has the record.\u00c2\u00a0 So they remove hard drives from the studio every evening, they make critics listen in conference rooms, it’s all about control.\u00c2\u00a0 But you get no control on the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s chaos.\u00c2\u00a0 So, suddenly we’re seeing an opposite tack.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of a long lead time, instead of a single ramping into an album, we’ve got quick recording times and almost instant releases.\u00c2\u00a0 Like with the Raconteurs.\u00c2\u00a0 Final recording sessions were in February, the album came out in March.\u00c2\u00a0 Why wait for the buildup, the servicing of the media, you’re just going to lose sales!<\/p>\n
Not that the issue of sales is no longer complicated.\u00c2\u00a0 Tracks hit P2P services almost instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 But the focus is backing away from the first week, that big SoundScan number.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially in an era where many acts get almost no radio airplay and it’s about servicing fans.<\/p>\n
The system has broken down.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s been a blaming of the fans for almost a decade, as if there’s a cadre of teens conspiring to bring down the walls of the old model, but really it’s more like evolution, or maybe revolution.\u00c2\u00a0 The move to files allows instant distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 killed radio.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV makes more money airing series than videos.\u00c2\u00a0 All these factors have contributed to a sea change so gargantuan, those in the business can barely catch up.<\/p>\n
If you get some visibility, you make the tracks available on iTunes immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 Why miss out on sales?\u00c2\u00a0 Why care about physical when the active generation is digital?\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s the oldsters and the most casual of consumers who purchase discs.<\/p>\n
So with Gnarls Barkley rushed into release, with the files available long before the discs, with a staggered intro, not timed to hype, you just can’t enter the SoundScan chart at number one.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t pay to enter at number one, by holding back, by respecting a firm availability date, you’re actually losing money.\u00c2\u00a0 And, at the end of the day, money is more important than glory.\u00c2\u00a0 Labels have to go where the money is.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, it’s about the long term, about careers once again.\u00c2\u00a0 Facts demand it!<\/p>\n
Acts and fans have been railing about credibility and careers for years.\u00c2\u00a0 Blaming the labels and radio for not caring.\u00c2\u00a0 But suddenly, few care about radio and the labels are struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 The only hope is to build a fan base and hope you survive.<\/p>\n
So it’s not about ubiquity so much as profitability.\u00c2\u00a0 Does the hair and makeup and big television appearance grow your core?\u00c2\u00a0 If not, it’s better to save your cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Acts no longer have context, but vertical fan bases.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like a fan of the Eagles knows everything on AOR or Hot AC…\u00c2\u00a0 Is there any AOR?\u00c2\u00a0 And is the fan listening to radio AT ALL?\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s no different with the Raconteurs, which appeal to a tech-savvy audience.\u00c2\u00a0 They eat up everything Jack White does, but they’re not about to sit and listen to terrestrial radio feed them tunes they do not like.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like they have to listen to Louis Armstrong to get to the next Beatles cut.\u00c2\u00a0 They listen only to what they want, 24\/7.<\/p>\n
And even if you catch fire on radio, that doesn’t mean you’re going to make any money.\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty is the only truly viable music-selling radio format, and fans end up going to iTunes and buying the single.\u00c2\u00a0 Was it worth it to spend all that money just to sell one single?\u00c2\u00a0 You’re better off investing in a career act.<\/p>\n
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One could argue that SoundScan ruined the record business.\u00c2\u00a0 Oldsters might say the phony charts of yore, manipulated by the labels, were better for the health of the industry, that they allowed a record to build and grow.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s more interesting to look at it from the other direction, how the first week became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-iU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}