Fire Neil Portnow.<\/p>\n
We’re at an historic point in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 The decline of the power of the major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Only two albums went double platinum last year and the four remaining majors look more like Lehman Brothers than Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve mismanaged while extracting untold profits and sky-high salaries, bitching all the while that it’s not their fault.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me now when I tell you that Ticketmaster is the new major label.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Irving controls all the acts.<\/p>\n
So, NARAS must stop looking to the four families.\u00c2\u00a0 Must stop acting like someone who’s extracted protection from these ancient mobsters.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s time for NARAS to escape its handlers, spread its wings and truly execute its mission.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is to spread music throughout the land.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting people exposed to what they might enjoy if they knew it existed, helping artists create and reach an audience.\u00c2\u00a0 NARAS shouldn’t be about a TV show, but music itself.<\/p>\n
As for that TV show…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about awards.<\/p>\n
The nineties are over.\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Greene’s plan was to add so many categories that it would drive up membership.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve still got the categories, but membership is declining, significantly.\u00c2\u00a0 The only way to rescue this, to increase membership, is to increase the prestige of the awards.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s by eliminating almost all of them.<\/p>\n
No more categories than the Oscars.\u00c2\u00a0 If you made an album no one bought in a genre no one cares about you’re not entitled to the same statuette a gigantic star gets.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like student movies are not awarded at the Oscars.\u00c2\u00a0 It devalues a Grammy when anybody can win one.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, anybody can.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t get nominated for a Grammy, you didn’t make an album.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a category for everybody!\u00c2\u00a0 So, twits in penguin suits hold little statuettes while big stars go home empty-handed.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n
So, your minor masterpiece is better than the mainstream crap.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’ll buy that.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why NARAS should take a clue from the CMAs.\u00c2\u00a0 There should be an ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR AWARD!\u00c2\u00a0 You reward one of the big five sellers\/grossers, everybody is interested in that.\u00c2\u00a0 Kenny Chesney wins because he’s got the biggest grossing tour, year after year.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Herbie Hancock gets the biggest Grammy for reinterpretations of old Joni Mitchell songs.\u00c2\u00a0 I played that album.\u00c2\u00a0 Once.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I’m a huge Joni Mitchell fan.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think that Hancock album deserved the Grammy, you never heard "Head Hunters".\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not Miles Davis.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the phenomenal work of Joni Mitchell herself.<\/p>\n
Speaking of rewarding the oldsters, ONLY ONE A SHOW!\u00c2\u00a0 There’s only one Irving Thalberg award.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop parading endless has-beens across the stage.\u00c2\u00a0 It looks like a casting call for a wax museum.<\/p>\n
So, the Grammy Awards show should have few awards, a lot of music and the script should be written by the guys who do the tutorials for Rock Band.\u00c2\u00a0 Get rid of those old hacks.\u00c2\u00a0 Irreverence and honesty are in.\u00c2\u00a0 Not lame jokes akin to sixties variety shows read off prompters by squinting stars who can barely read themselves.<\/p>\n
Make the show a show.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a big tent, but an arena spectacular.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of one band headlining the Staples Center, not a cavalcade of who gives a shit stars performing for charity.<\/p>\n
But the Awards and the show are secondary…\u00c2\u00a0 Grammy must be a year-round thing.<\/p>\n
That Elvis Costello TV program?\u00c2\u00a0 The Grammys should have done that.\u00c2\u00a0 There should be a Grammy TV show, EVERY WEEK, showcasing new talent and classic talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Immediately viewable on YouTube the next day.\u00c2\u00a0 With FREE downloads of the live material available right away on iTunes.<\/p>\n
There should be a Grammy store on each and every online service.\u00c2\u00a0 If a major label wants to be featured there, it’s got to give up twenty percent of the action.\u00c2\u00a0 Indies get featured for free.<\/p>\n
Bottom line, it’s time to bring NARAS into the twenty first century.\u00c2\u00a0 Make Steve Jobs honorary chairman.\u00c2\u00a0 Let Eddy Cue preside.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe even give Shawn Fanning a title.\u00c2\u00a0 Show the world that you’re not beholden to the old masters anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 That you’re truly about music.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop worrying so much about spreading the brand, just worry about spreading the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough with the fucking museum and all that crap.\u00c2\u00a0 It just smells of rank commercialism.<\/p>\n
You want to make the Grammys work?\u00c2\u00a0 Put a strong-willed emperor in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone like Jimmy Iovine, but who is hip and tech-savvy.\u00c2\u00a0 Cancel the perks.\u00c2\u00a0 Like those idiotic meetings in Hawaii.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t see it on the screen, if it doesn’t directly help expose music, it goes.\u00c2\u00a0 Only the charitable foundation remains.<\/p>\n
The image of NARAS sucks.\u00c2\u00a0 In a world where Twitter is on the cutting edge and may be eclipsed at any moment, there’s no Grammy tweets, telling us honestly what great new acts exist.<\/p>\n
If people were that fucking interested in Mariah Carey, her album would have gone double platinum.\u00c2\u00a0 Get rid of those old phony nineties Tommy Mottola hypes.\u00c2\u00a0 You say you’re about music?\u00c2\u00a0 Only expose great songs.<\/p>\n
There’s incredible opportunity here.\u00c2\u00a0 If only NARAS would stop genuflecting towards the calcified major labels and stop seeing itself as a serf on the CBS plantation.<\/p>\n
Fuck Ken Ehrlich.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re better off having the show run by Cirque du Soleil.\u00c2\u00a0 If Ken Ehrlich had a show in Vegas, no one would go.<\/p>\n
Enough with the usual suspects.<\/p>\n
Where’s the online Grammy radio station?<\/p>\n
God, you’d think the Internet didn’t exist listening to these Grammy fucks.<\/p>\n
Who gives a shit about your low-rated TV nominations announcing show.\u00c2\u00a0 TOM RUSH got more hits on YouTube!<\/p>\n
Wake up. The tools are extant.<\/p>\n
If only someone familiar with today’s musical landscape was in charge, instead of someone beholden to the old fucks.<\/p>\n
Hell, I’m willing to let Portnow keep A job.\u00c2\u00a0 Demote him.\u00c2\u00a0 Make him an administrator.\u00c2\u00a0 Make him earn his exorbitant pay.\u00c2\u00a0 But put someone who understands all of the above in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 PLEASE!<\/p>\n
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Fire Neil Portnow. We’re at an historic point in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 The decline of the power of the major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Only two albums went double platinum last year and the four remaining majors look more like Lehman Brothers than Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve mismanaged while extracting untold profits and sky-high salaries, bitching all the while that […]<\/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-1497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-o9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497","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=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}