{"id":1490,"date":"2008-12-03T20:55:39","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T04:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=1490"},"modified":"2008-12-03T20:55:39","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T04:55:39","slug":"ar-worldwide-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/03\/ar-worldwide-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"A&R Worldwide Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diane Warren<\/span><\/p>\n

Teri Garr says she judges someone’s intelligence by whether they get the jokes.\u00c2\u00a0 I judge people’s intelligence by whether they remember meeting me.<\/p>\n

I’m not talking about a handshake, but a conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 If we spoke for fifteen minutes, how can you not remember me?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve introduced myself over and over to the same people for years.\u00c2\u00a0 Feeling insecure.\u00c2\u00a0 But last night when Sat Bisla introduced me to Diane Warren she immediately recounted the details of our meeting years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only down to the Italian restaurant, but the reason we were all there, to see Jason Flom’s French protege.<\/p>\n

There’s a reason she’s so successful.<\/p>\n

You may rail against the titans, but I’ve never met a big time entertainment executive that was stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 They may be tenacious, they may be political geniuses, but they all possess a high level of intellect.\u00c2\u00a0 Which continually pays dividends.<\/p>\n


Ron Stone<\/span><\/p>\n

We were talking about Vail.\u00c2\u00a0 And Billy at Gorsuch, our ski guru.<\/p>\n

And after catching up on Ron’s bump sensation son Zak, who now runs a restaurant in Edwards, I got Ron to tell me his history.\u00c2\u00a0 How he let his old New York buddy Elliot Rabinowitz, er, Elliot Roberts, stay with him in Los Angeles.\u00c2\u00a0 How he got David Crosby, who Ron knew from his clothing store on Santa Monica, by the Troubadour, to produce the first Joni Mitchell album, thus getting Crosby a paycheck and out of Ron’s driveway where David was living in his VW Microbus.\u00c2\u00a0 This all ended up with Elliot and Ron becoming partners, and managing Crosby, Stills & Nash.\u00c2\u00a0 But what fascinated me most was not hearing how Neil Young joined the group (Stephen Stills had played all the instruments on the first album other than drums, and how could they replicate this sound live?), but Ron’s comment about the other David, who at that time was the band’s agent.\u00c2\u00a0 Geffen told them they had to do television.\u00c2\u00a0 Ron attributes the success of CSN to TV.\u00c2\u00a0 He said they did them all, not that he’d defend the shows themselves, but when the next album came out, "Deja Vu", it blew up because everybody had seen them.<\/p>\n

This was fascinating, because this was the complete opposite of my take.\u00c2\u00a0 There was uptake on CSN in the spring of ’69 because of the members’ history and "Marrakesh Express".\u00c2\u00a0 But the build was slow, by today’s terms.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t until the fall that the act truly penetrated my high school.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet I was shocked with the hoopla surrounding the band’s follow-up when it was released in March.\u00c2\u00a0 Why did everybody care?\u00c2\u00a0 How did everybody know?<\/p>\n

It’s hard to doubt Ron, he was there.\u00c2\u00a0 It was interesting to hear how Geffen masterminded the marketing plan.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s completely opposite of how I remember it.\u00c2\u00a0 This was before cable, when there were only three networks.<\/p>\n

So, does TV always trump?\u00c2\u00a0 Is it about exposure?<\/p>\n

If I’m saying to stay off TV today because of overexposure and the lack of exposure on those channels that do air you, am I right?<\/p>\n

It’s a different era.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easy to get the word out and overload people.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to say no more than yes.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was fascinating hearing the story from someone who was there.<\/p>\n

You learn new things every day.\u00c2\u00a0 And contrary to our society, which heaves everybody with a wrinkle in his face over the transom, you learn most from your elders.<\/p>\n

Mike Caren<\/span><\/p>\n

A white Jewish doctor’s son from Beverly Hills who signs hit rappers at Atlantic.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of an oxymoron on steroids.<\/p>\n

But Mike’s passionate.\u00c2\u00a0 And knowledgeable.<\/p>\n

We were in a deep discussion about rap and major labels and…<\/p>\n

This is when Ron got into it again.\u00c2\u00a0 Ron thinks the major label business died six months or a year ago, and we’re heading straight for a cliff.\u00c2\u00a0 I tend to agree.\u00c2\u00a0 The major label hype this act to high heaven so we can meet our numbers game doesn’t pay the dividends it used to.\u00c2\u00a0 Casual fans might buy a track or two and the hard core have moved on to specialized, indie product.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile…<\/p>\n

The Swedish Consulate<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s who paid for this whole shindig at Cravings on Sunset.<\/p>\n

What am I going to say to the Swedish consulate?<\/p>\n

Turns out the guy was listening and suddenly jumped in.\u00c2\u00a0 He said how the majors in Europe had eliminated all the A&R men.\u00c2\u00a0 Who was going to shepherd product?\u00c2\u00a0 Who was going to decide what product was good?<\/p>\n

Mike talked about releases slipping from the fourth quarter to the first.\u00c2\u00a0 Like U2 and Eminem.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be there was other music in the pipeline. Today?<\/p>\n

Then the Swedish gentleman said how on the Continent, iTunes was a smaller factor.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the majors wouldn’t license\/make available all the regional material.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Apple featured all the big international hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the local ones.\u00c2\u00a0 But the catalog?\u00c2\u00a0 It was too expensive for the majors to digitize and make available.\u00c2\u00a0 This guy salivated over the American iTunes Store.<\/p>\n

Sonos<\/span><\/p>\n

The gentleman to my right started waxing rhapsodic.\u00c2\u00a0 How he’s got Sonos and Rhapsody in every room of his house.\u00c2\u00a0 Plays lullabies for his kid and what he wants in his bedroom.<\/p>\n

But what struck me was he said he no longer wanted to own it.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d stopped downloading.\u00c2\u00a0 Legally and illegally.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

This is the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Wireless subscriptions.\u00c2\u00a0 Rental.\u00c2\u00a0 If people experienced it, they’d go for it.\u00c2\u00a0 But most people have never been exposed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the key is the iPhone\/iPod Touch.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what made Sonos workable.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what will make subscriptions portable.<\/p>\n

And if this is the future, why in the hell are labels arguing over per track pricing, DRM and licensing P2P?\u00c2\u00a0 The future IS rental.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just a matter of when.\u00c2\u00a0 These imbeciles have left unrecoverable revenue on the table for almost a decade.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop arguing and start charging, knowing that we’re going to get to paid subscription in the future, which will rule because it’s easiest and most rewarding.<\/p>\n

Steve Schnur<\/span><\/p>\n

The video game business is not planning to get fucked like the record business.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not worried about their retail partners.\u00c2\u00a0 They know everything’s going to be an online download.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re working towards that now.<\/p>\n

You’ve just got to turn on your ears when you’re around Steve.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s got a great idea for selling music via videogames.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t speak out of school, but we laughed when he said the labels asked if he could raise the price beyond ninety nine cents.\u00c2\u00a0 He said no.\u00c2\u00a0 He said he’d like to drop the price to forty nine cents.<\/p>\n

Boy is this business fucked up.\u00c2\u00a0 Make less on more, not more on less!<\/p>\n

Nigel Grainge<\/span><\/p>\n

Lucien’s brother, in case you didn’t know.\u00c2\u00a0 But Nigel was there first.\u00c2\u00a0 With Graham Parker and Sinead O’Connor and…<\/p>\n

Nigel lives in L.A. now.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s still just as passionate about music.\u00c2\u00a0 He makes playlists.\u00c2\u00a0 He goes to gigs.\u00c2\u00a0 And what blows his mind is he shows up in out of the way venues that end up being packed with fans who know every word of the music of bands the mainstream does not feature, some of whom I’ve never heard of.<\/p>\n

There’s something happening here.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is underground again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s fertile.\u00c2\u00a0 The person who tells us what to listen to is going to make all the money.\u00c2\u00a0 The old filters can’t be trusted.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody who’s taken a stab at it so far online is in it for the money.\u00c2\u00a0 But money never came first.\u00c2\u00a0 What started it all was passion.<\/p>\n

There’s no passion at the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s passion on the street.\u00c2\u00a0 What did Sting say?\u00c2\u00a0 Turn the clock to zero because we’re starting up a brand new day?<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diane Warren Teri Garr says she judges someone’s intelligence by whether they get the jokes.\u00c2\u00a0 I judge people’s intelligence by whether they remember meeting me. I’m not talking about a handshake, but a conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 If we spoke for fifteen minutes, how can you not remember me?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve introduced myself over and over to the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-1490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-o2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1492,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490\/revisions\/1492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}