I’m constantly bombarded with e-mails from entrepreneurs promoting their new business ideas.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re almost always a newfangled label.<\/p>\n
It’s no longer about the label.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the talent.<\/p>\n
Used to be you needed money.\u00c2\u00a0 To navigate the waters of distribution and marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 But although those can now help, they’re an ever-decreasing part of the pie.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you need distribution, and something that qualifies as marketing, but it doesn’t require big bucks, and oftentimes no bucks at all.\u00c2\u00a0 So I can’t understand why all these wannabe businessmen are creating new models\/edifices that no artist needs to utilize\/inhabit.<\/p>\n
The hardest thing to do in this business is to find talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why the major labels have to a great degree stopped doing this.\u00c2\u00a0 The same way the movie studios have been remaking TV shows and putting out endless sequels.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a desire to eliminate risk.\u00c2\u00a0 So, in music, you have a handful of behind the scenes producers\/beatmakers and it’s only the faces that change.\u00c2\u00a0 They only have to be pretty, for anybody can sing with the new technology\/auto-tune.\u00c2\u00a0 The Neptunes, Scott Storch, Timbaland…it’s all about BEHIND THE SCENES today.\u00c2\u00a0 Cranking out the formula.<\/p>\n
As for non-hip-hop music.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, where’s the marketing avenue?\u00c2\u00a0 Too tough to market and sell, the majors have given up on breaking ground.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got a record that sounds nothing like what’s on the radio, believe me, the major doesn’t want it.<\/p>\n
So, you wannabe majors…\u00c2\u00a0 What are you bringing to the party?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got no power at radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And certainly not at retail.\u00c2\u00a0 One Tower bankruptcy would wipe out your entire equity.<\/p>\n
No, the focus has to be completely the opposite in the new world.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got to start with the TALENT, find someone great and then navigate the waters alongside them.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t create a model and wait for the talent to come to you.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if your act is good, doors will open like crazy.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, isn’t that how Coran Capshaw built the Dave Matthews Band?<\/p>\n
And if the DMB started out now, it wouldn’t have a major label.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, videos financed by RCA helped the DMB, but now MTV doesn’t air any videos.\u00c2\u00a0 And, you can get paid at the iTunes Music Store and so much of your revenue comes from touring.<\/p>\n
There’s going to be a new distribution model on the Net.\u00c2\u00a0 One within which more people will have more music at a lower price.\u00c2\u00a0 But the company landscape will be positively cottage industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there will be aggregators in the future, but they will be more akin to the aforementioned Coran Capshaw and other managers like Irving Azoff than major label execs.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about an adversarial relationship, it’s about having someone on your TEAM!<\/p>\n
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I’m constantly bombarded with e-mails from entrepreneurs promoting their new business ideas.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re almost always a newfangled label. It’s no longer about the label.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the talent. Used to be you needed money.\u00c2\u00a0 To navigate the waters of distribution and marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 But although those can now help, they’re an ever-decreasing part of the pie.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-88","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}