This is not a music story.<\/p>\n
We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the conglomerates bought the indie labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there was so much damn MONEY IN MUSIC!<\/p>\n
But no more.\u00c2\u00a0 Whose fault is that?<\/p>\n
Don’t blame the consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t say Apple wouldn’t be successful if people stole their products.\u00c2\u00a0 At least people want Apple’s products!\u00c2\u00a0 Ha!<\/p>\n
If you don’t think that the Internet is the best thing that ever happened to music you don’t have a connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, the history of music is available at your fingertips.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s only free because the rights holders refuse to embrace a model that comports with consumption.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like Verizon insisting everybody keep their landline and demanding that people still pay a grand for a cell phone and a buck a minute for calls.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought music was about innovation and change.\u00c2\u00a0 Not at the label level.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the execs never made the music anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 It was concocted by a bunch of uncontrollable renegades following their muse, not the money.\u00c2\u00a0 And now the execs are in charge and the "artists" will do whatever they say.\u00c2\u00a0 The public has revolted.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no violence, but they destroyed Tower Records, decimated the CD and the major labels’ bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 And for this we should be thankful.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you can’t have the new unless you get rid of the old.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, how in the hell are we going to have innovation if Doug Morris is still in charge?<\/p>\n
Ignore the hype.\u00c2\u00a0 Citi is not in the business of holding on to assets.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re not ignorant, unlike Vivendi.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to sell.\u00c2\u00a0 At the highest price.\u00c2\u00a0 And you don’t get the highest price by saying you want to unload immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s Negotiation 101.<\/p>\n
And there are only two buyers.\u00c2\u00a0 No independent is that ignorant after Guy Hands’s disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 You need expertise to manage a music company.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is one of the reasons Roger Faxon will go.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever expertise he has is in publishing.\u00c2\u00a0 As for Warner keeping him on…\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want a cock in the henhouse, they don’t want anybody agitating for change.\u00c2\u00a0 Edgar and Lyor are old school.\u00c2\u00a0 Devious with a lack of transparency.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want the likes of Roger in the vicinity of their cash cow.\u00c2\u00a0 Roger’s gone if Warner buys EMI Publishing, which it probably will.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, what’s a record company without a publishing company?<\/p>\n
Bertelsmann realized this.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is not only why they sold their record company to Sony, but they want back in.\u00c2\u00a0 Without the label.<\/p>\n
Who’d want a label?\u00c2\u00a0 The glamour is in new music, but that’s a terrible business.\u00c2\u00a0 You invest tons for a meager return.\u00c2\u00a0 One in ten projects hits and you make a tenth of what you once did?\u00c2\u00a0 Who’d sign up for that?\u00c2\u00a0 If I ran any of these companies I’d shut new music down.\u00c2\u00a0 The value is in the catalog.<\/p>\n
Which is what Warner knows.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to get their hands on the Beatles and the Beach Boys and…\u00c2\u00a0 No one exploits this stuff better than Warner.\u00c2\u00a0 Universal is all about new product.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank god Doug is gone, he had it all wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll see if Lucian can correct this.\u00c2\u00a0 Maximize what you’ve already got.<\/p>\n
So Warner can’t have both publishing companies.\u00c2\u00a0 IMPALA will freak out and hold up the merger.\u00c2\u00a0 But they can probably have one. And EMI is better than theirs, Warner\/Chappell.\u00c2\u00a0 So they sell Warner-Chappell to KKR\/Bertelsmann.<\/p>\n
Let’s say I’ve got this all wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say Warner sells everything to KKR and cashes out.\u00c2\u00a0 Who gives a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 Bottom line, there’s going to be one less major label.\u00c2\u00a0 And don’t lament that you won’t have anywhere to sell your crap music, think about the opportunity!\u00c2\u00a0 EMI is going down not because of bad management, not that management was that good, but because it’s a bad business.\u00c2\u00a0 Why should we sustain bad businesses?\u00c2\u00a0 The newspaper does not deserve to live.\u00c2\u00a0 News does, but not the paper.<\/p>\n
We’re cleaning out the dead wood for the revolution.\u00c2\u00a0 And in the new era it might not be about recorded music, but touring and merch and…\u00c2\u00a0 And this revolution is about acts being in charge of their own destinies.\u00c2\u00a0 Wilco just went independent.\u00c2\u00a0 They looked at each other and said WHY SHOULD WE GIVE WARNER ALL THAT MONEY!\u00c2\u00a0 Wilco sells their music, not the label.\u00c2\u00a0 The label can just get you on TV and radio, and neither wants Wilco.<\/p>\n
And OK Go generates plenty of revenue with licensing.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough to feed a bunch of mouths.\u00c2\u00a0 But not all those at EMI.\u00c2\u00a0 You see bands don’t throw off enough money to support the old scale.\u00c2\u00a0 There will always be a few superstars, but not many.\u00c2\u00a0 And those superstars will want to do it for themselves, in their own vision.<\/p>\n
So if you’re looking for a mommy or daddy to suck up to…\u00c2\u00a0 Those days are through.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve been emancipated, you’re on your own, sink or swim on your talent and ingenuity.<\/p>\n
This is a business story.\u00c2\u00a0 How a financier was so dumb he thought he could run a creative enterprise when he didn’t even know its value.\u00c2\u00a0 How a bank ended up with tons of debt when it couldn’t find anybody to sell it to when the market crashed.\u00c2\u00a0 Write this up in "Fortune", but it’s not suitable for "Billboard".\u00c2\u00a0 Is "Billboard" still in business?<\/p>\n
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This is not a music story. We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the conglomerates bought the indie labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there was so much damn MONEY IN MUSIC! But no more.\u00c2\u00a0 Whose fault is that? Don’t blame the consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t say Apple wouldn’t be successful if people stole their products.\u00c2\u00a0 At least people […]<\/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-3746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Yq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746","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=3746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3748,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions\/3748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}