{"id":1651,"date":"2009-02-04T16:55:35","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T00:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2009-02-05T12:12:01","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T20:12:01","slug":"1651","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/04\/1651\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Ghost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"As well as working with artists signed to Epic, she plans to continue her writing\/production partnerships with Ian Dench, Jack Splash, Stargate, the Rural and FutureCut, and will also continue to work with artists Hugo Chakra and Scott McFarnon."<\/p>\n

Amanda Ghost<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And Rick Rubin will continue his outside production duties with Metallica and Weezer and…<\/p>\n

I like Rob Stringer, he’s got an honest assessment of his company, just ask him, but how about hiring an American?\u00c2\u00a0 It takes a decade at least to fully understand the American market.\u00c2\u00a0 How it isn’t dominated by the press, how there’s no cohesion, how there’s no center.\u00c2\u00a0 I speak to those in the U.K. all the time and they just don’t understand the disarray over here.\u00c2\u00a0 You have a hit, but no one wants to see you perform live and you sell a bunch of singles at best.\u00c2\u00a0 How about someone who understands the Dave Matthews Band?\u00c2\u00a0 An act that’s never broken overseas, but is arguably the biggest regular touring band over here.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t the labels want to be in 360 degrees of the business?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t they want acts who can generate revenue in all streams?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why hire someone with no success as an artist on this side of the pond?<\/p>\n

Amanda Ghost.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you heard of her?\u00c2\u00a0 She’s the new head of Epic Records.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that that’ll turn heads.\u00c2\u00a0 May not even get you a good seat at a restaurant.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how far the status of the labels has fallen.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to rebuild, you find someone who can focus all of their time, who understands not only music, but business.\u00c2\u00a0 And what music does Amanda Ghost understand? Rob would have been better off hiring Kara DioGuardi.\u00c2\u00a0 You know she’d do it.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got the benefit of that Duke education and all those vapid radio hits, if that’s what you’re interested in.\u00c2\u00a0 But isn’t that like driving the car straight towards the cliff?\u00c2\u00a0 When radio hits don’t power the business?\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s all about putting asses in the seats, creating a career?<\/p>\n

As for taking risks…\u00c2\u00a0 What’s this with on the job training?\u00c2\u00a0 There was not one single American executive available?\u00c2\u00a0 Not one single middle-management type, never mind big cheese, who understands not only Wal-Mart, but iTunes, who knows the different radio formats, who’s been to most of these markets, who went to college in the U.S.A. and has got a feel for the landscape?<\/p>\n

Isn’t this like the London "Times" hiring Malcolm Gladwell as its editor?\u00c2\u00a0 More accurately, Stephenie Meyer?\u00c2\u00a0 Connect the dots here for me, will you?\u00c2\u00a0 Or why not close down new music development at Sony and live off your catalog, or just let Simon Cowell turn all artist development into a contest.\u00c2\u00a0 Hey, he works for you, right?<\/p>\n

I wish her success.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d love to be proven wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 But just like hiring lawyers turned out to be a fallacious solution to record business problems, hiring inexperienced songwriters\/failed performers is no better solution.\u00c2\u00a0 A good songwriter is a lousy businessman.\u00c2\u00a0 A failed artist has no blueprint for what it takes to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 As much as Lyor Cohen has been derided by the press, at least he increased Warner’s market share.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if it’s all about numbers, isn’t that all that counts?<\/p>\n

Or maybe Epic doesn’t count at all.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a glorified imprint.\u00c2\u00a0 And rather than piss off those acts signed to the label, Stringer is going to keep it alive with minimal investment.<\/p>\n

Utterlyfuckingridiculous.<\/p>\n

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

"As well as working with artists signed to Epic, she plans to continue her writing\/production partnerships with Ian Dench, Jack Splash, Stargate, the Rural and FutureCut, and will also continue to work with artists Hugo Chakra and Scott McFarnon." Amanda Ghost And Rick Rubin will continue his outside production duties with Metallica and Weezer and… […]<\/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-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-1651","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","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=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1657,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}