If Phish is giving away a free download of last night’s Hampton Coliseum show is the reign of the late twentieth century major label paradigm finally over?<\/p>\n
That’s how it worked.\u00c2\u00a0 The record company signed you, ripped you off and set you free to make some cash on the road, if the company had built enough demand for your services.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all about the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 You needed a specialist, with a team of soldiers to navigate the gauntlet to airplay and sales.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t do it yourself, the Grateful Dead proved that, giving up Grateful Dead Records and signing with Arista.\u00c2\u00a0 It all came down to the label.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew not only who Ahmet was, but Mo and Clive and Walter and Tommy, we were on a first name basis with these kingmakers.\u00c2\u00a0 Who is running EMI today?\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, who’s the kingmaker in the U.S?<\/p>\n
You may know, but the hoi polloi doesn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 And the hoi polloi doesn’t give a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not Christopher Moltisanti in the "Sopranos", shouting out to Mr. Mottola, the kids have the music and if you’re lucky the performers are stars.<\/p>\n
And a star is not who he used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Not someone with bling featured on gossip Websites and possibly in printed news the next day. That’s a separate business from music.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like those performers don’t truly perform live in concert.\u00c2\u00a0 Those people are selling extravaganzas.\u00c2\u00a0 Closer to Disney On Ice than the Doors.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s been a split in the road, a bifurcation, are you a musician, pursuing your muse, or are you a fame whore?<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me you don’t like Phish.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s completely missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 A true star doesn’t play to everybody, he plays to those who care and who come to care.\u00c2\u00a0 Phish has a rabid fanbase that paid $49.50 for tickets and much more flying to the gig in this somewhat remote location, because they had to be there!\u00c2\u00a0 People won’t cross the road to go to the show of the Top Forty wonder, but they’ll load up their credit card to attend what they truly believe is an event.<\/p>\n
And you’ve got to be in the building.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why the MP3s are free.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re a shadow of the overall experience.\u00c2\u00a0 In the heyday of the Beatles, it was all about the record, the band spent months recording "Sgt. Pepper" and never toured behind it.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, a great band plays different material every night and if you weren’t at the show, you missed it.\u00c2\u00a0 The record exists forever, the performance is evanescent.<\/p>\n
It’s pretty exciting.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve come back to where we once belonged.\u00c2\u00a0 Where it’s about musicianship, playing rather that the technical wizards behind the board.<\/p>\n
And Phish’s fans believe the band can play.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than go on television shows, doing a promotional junket advertising their return, Phish practiced.\u00c2\u00a0 Their audience demands excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what Phish has to deliver to insure their return.\u00c2\u00a0 Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers have one big tour.\u00c2\u00a0 A great act plays for the ages, it can’t afford to fuck up.<\/p>\n
The old acts found it important to get the sound perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 If there was a live album, it was rerecorded in the studio and came out months after the performance.\u00c2\u00a0 It was supposedly impossible to do what Phish has done, play one night and make the music available for download immediately thereafter.<\/p>\n
But really, how difficult is it?\u00c2\u00a0 Is your house mixer really that poor, that he can’t get the sound right?\u00c2\u00a0 Is your playing truly that bad, that you’ve got to cover up your mistakes?\u00c2\u00a0 And what if you do make a mistake?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s our flaws that make us lovable.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you ever saw those models up close and personal you’d see loads of imperfections.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s humanity, that’s what makes life intriguing, not the nose from this one, the removal of blemishes and Botox to make you look like a wax figurine.\u00c2\u00a0 God, one can say that music is leading once again, it’s natural!<\/p>\n
If you want to be part of the new music business, don’t start a record company, focus yourself on the live experience.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want a hero, look to Don Strasburg, not some nitwit at the label.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I can’t even think of a young nitwit at a label, the execs fired all the kids, who then went into tech.\u00c2\u00a0 So there’s no innovation at the record companies.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s like saying there’s no innovation at the Smith Corona electric typewriter company.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s irrelevant!<\/p>\n
You need fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans know who can play and who can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans want you to be three dimensional, exist outside the system and be about music more than money.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, scalpers resold Phish tickets for a ton more, but that doesn’t reflect negatively on Phish!\u00c2\u00a0 And you should be worried more about your image than your pocketbook.<\/p>\n
Phish has been doing it for two decades.\u00c2\u00a0 The demand for tickets was created over a long career.\u00c2\u00a0 They started in clubs, in college, they weren’t groomed for stardom by their parents, they didn’t make their debut on the Disney Channel before they hit puberty.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s commerce, not music.<\/p>\n
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