Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nAs Jackson Browne would say, they’re just a couple of years and a couple of changes behind us in the music business. But, scary to believe that if professors think textbooks are overpriced, if there’s a revolt on campus, that the major labels are going to get the campuses to capitulate and ban P2P acquisition so students can pay a fortune for music.<\/p>\n
But the greater issue facing labels in America isn’t payment for work, but breaking work.\u00c2\u00a0 How do you break a band?<\/p>\n
I hope the cornucopia of purchase options for the Metallica CD generates a heap of cash, because I don’t expect that album to sell in prodigious quantities after the first week or so.\u00c2\u00a0 Sales will tank soon.\u00c2\u00a0 Not because the album is bad, but because there’s nowhere to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no exhibition in areas where people might be turned on to their sound, whether it be for the first time or once again.<\/p>\n
In America we’ve got Urban and Top 40 radio.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the only formats that can break nationwide acts.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you don’t fit into either of those categories…<\/p>\n
But it gets worse.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t make music that fits into one of those categories, a major label won’t sign you.\u00c2\u00a0 So look yourself in the mirror.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you a rapper?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you a pop star, as good-looking as Justin and Britney with dancing ability?\u00c2\u00a0 If not, your dream of a major label deal is done.\u00c2\u00a0 Because major labels are businesses, not charities, and they only sign what they can sell.\u00c2\u00a0 And if, hypothetically, they make a mistake and sign you and you don’t fit either of these radio formats, you’re dead in the water, and tied up to boot.<\/p>\n
I don’t think we’re gonna go backwards in the U.S.A.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think one radio format will ever dominate again.\u00c2\u00a0 The future will be a lot of wannabes, some journeymen and some stars who don’t sell anywhere near what they used to, not because of theft, but because of limited exhibition.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Urban and\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty sell records, but not everybody’s paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why Mariah Carey and the divas are not going diamond, not even double platinum!<\/p>\n
So we need to reset our expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 And realize that there’s more music than what appears on those two radio formats.<\/p>\n
The number one track in the U.K. this week is "Sex On Fire" by Kings Of Leon.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, that band on RCA which has never broken through over here.\u00c2\u00a0 And still won’t break through when their album is released in the U.S. on September 23rd.<\/p>\n
Listen to "Sex On Fire".\u00c2\u00a0 You may not be able to buy it in America, but it’s widely available.\u00c2\u00a0 And ask yourself, where in the States would you hear this?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not Urban, it’s not wannabe cowboy country.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as far from Top 40 as cabaret.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is good.\u00c2\u00a0 You can imagine seeing the video on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 In the eighties.\u00c2\u00a0 When a good track, with energy, was enough to launch your career.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not enough today.<\/p>\n
The challenge is getting people to hear new music.\u00c2\u00a0 Not debating if rock is coming back, but hearing a good cut and exposing it.<\/p>\n
Maybe the record companies can figure out how to truly have a global market, allowing Americans to purchase from iTunes stores outside the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to knock the barriers down.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to feel some of that U.K. excitement in the Colonies.<\/p>\n
You see in the U.K., there’s still a cohesive market.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s an island country and there’s controlled radio.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can get on, you’ve made it.\u00c2\u00a0 And what makes it isn’t of a narrow stripe.<\/p>\n
I’ve never gotten Kings Of Leon previously.\u00c2\u00a0 But I can hear "Sex On Fire" playing, loudly, in a bar.\u00c2\u00a0 On a jukebox.\u00c2\u00a0 At the baseball game.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget that it’s rock, it’s got the energy, the urgency, of great music.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we’re lacking over here. Everything’s so homogenized, ghostwritten and crafted by the usual suspects.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas "Sex On Fire" sounds unfiltered. This deserves an audience in America.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The most fascinating story of today is in the "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein professors are revolting against the high prices of textbooks.\u00c2\u00a0 And releasing their own works online, for free!\u00c2\u00a0 In one case forgoing a $100,000 advance.\u00c2\u00a0 The silver lining? Greater distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 A wider spread of the information.\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","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=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}