I went to lunch with an A&R man.\u00c2\u00a0 Fascinating experience, because they’re all hit-driven, it’s like they live in a different world from everybody e-mailing me about the Hold Steady and the National…they’ve got to put up numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 Quickly. And this guy was lamenting how long it took to break a record.<\/p>\n
He was talking about someone who’d had a big hit.\u00c2\u00a0 How radio rejected the follow-up track, but how this cut was percolating in the marketplace, there was a ton of online buzz, iTunes sales were building, yet the business perceived the cut as a stiff.\u00c2\u00a0 What was gonna happen when the noise got truly loud, was radio gonna go back on the record?<\/p>\n
No way.<\/p>\n
And what does this mean for the artist.\u00c2\u00a0 Should he cut a new track and forget the old one?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially since it now took eight months to build a cut?<\/p>\n
I don’t care about the rapper of the moment.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I don’t think it’s about the face, but the producer.\u00c2\u00a0 Remove Drake and Bieber and Katy Perry from the chart and replace them with the geniuses behind the photograph, that would be more real.<\/p>\n
But that begs the question, is the "Billboard" chart real?\u00c2\u00a0 Is radio real?\u00c2\u00a0 Is SoundScan real?<\/p>\n
And what are the biggest acts and tracks in America?<\/p>\n
"Billboard" made a mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 It believed its customers were the record labels.\u00c2\u00a0 And the labels believed their customers were the retailers. When today, the model is direct, from the manufacturer to the customer.\u00c2\u00a0 Both entities blew it.<\/p>\n
And we’ve ended up with a vacuum.<\/p>\n
This vacuum is filled in music sales by P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 Which includes all kinds of swapping and trading, from RapidShare to IM transfers, none of which the old guard seems to understand exist and are essentially unstoppable and can only be controlled by making a better offer.<\/p>\n
In information, we’ve got a Tower of Babel.\u00c2\u00a0 Some pay attention to Pitchfork, others to Stereogum, still others are so overwhelmed that they’ve given up paying attention completely, and are dedicated to politics or video games or other forms of entertainment.<\/p>\n
Into this void now come Eric Garland and BigChampagne.<\/p>\n
Believe me, Eric could never succeed at a record company.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s just not jive enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor does he radiate cool.\u00c2\u00a0 His is an intellectual style.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s what works in the modern era.\u00c2\u00a0 Nerds have already inherited the earth, you just may not know it.\u00c2\u00a0 And the nerds always win, not through intimidation, but data.<\/p>\n
Eric and BigChampagne have announced a new chart.\u00c2\u00a0 The Ultimate Chart.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, you can view it at: <\/p>\n
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