Stay out of the record business!<\/p>\n
If I hear one more fat cat or out of touch has-been studio guy or musician say they’re starting a record label I’m gonna keel over and die of laughter.\u00c2\u00a0 Please, SAVE MY LIFE!<\/p>\n
Enough with the disc support.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s on LIFE SUPPORT!\u00c2\u00a0 The disc is gonna die an almost instant death in the not too distant future.\u00c2\u00a0 How do I know?\u00c2\u00a0 RESEARCH!<\/p>\n
PiperJaffray, the only investment firm that has gotten the Apple numbers right, does a bi-annual teen survey.\u00c2\u00a0 And they found out that 72% of teens own an MP3 player.\u00c2\u00a0 And 79% of those are iPods.<\/p>\n
That’s STAGGERING penetration.\u00c2\u00a0 The ONLY reason these kids might buy a CD is to rip it.\u00c2\u00a0 (Sure, some want the disc for the booklet, or as a badge of honor, but how long do you think that’s going to last?)<\/p>\n
The survey also stated 79% of students are currently downloading their music online.\u00c2\u00a0 But 72%, UP from 65% in spring 2006, are utilizing free P2P networks as opposed to iTunes and its lame brethren (iTunes owns 91% of this market.)<\/p>\n
In other words, music is INCREDIBLY healthy.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that those who OWN IT aren’t getting paid for its acquisition!<\/p>\n
Think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 You own an iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re gonna be satisfied ripping the handful of CDs you already own?\u00c2\u00a0 NO, you want to FILL that sucker.\u00c2\u00a0 You borrow your friends’ CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 You hard drive swap.\u00c2\u00a0 You utilize the aforementioned P2P sites.\u00c2\u00a0 The amount of music sold legally on disc is a tiny FRACTION of the music consumed.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s declining every day.\u00c2\u00a0 And the population ages every day.\u00c2\u00a0 So, there comes a time when NO ONE wants the disc.\u00c2\u00a0 And that ain’t as far off as you think.\u00c2\u00a0 And what have the record companies done to prepare for this inevitability?\u00c2\u00a0 NOTHING!<\/p>\n
They’re just whining crybabies.\u00c2\u00a0 Lamenting the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Like studio musicians replaced by synthesizers.<\/p>\n
You can’t survive the present economic conditions unless you participate in ALL revenue streams of the act.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the disc\/legal file business is de minimis.\u00c2\u00a0 But the majors can’t get a piece of these streams.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s these monies the acts are living on.\u00c2\u00a0 The label builds you, you profit on ticket receipts and merchandise sales.\u00c2\u00a0 And since the label can’t get a piece of this ancillary revenue, they trumpet acts that work on their paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, two-dimensional caricatures that can be sold via image all over the media.\u00c2\u00a0 They want something with INCESSANT impressions.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to beat the public over the head to purchase the equivalent of hula hoops.\u00c2\u00a0 Because to take the time to develop an act slowly, that has real fans…\u00c2\u00a0 Well, the Grateful Dead never sold that many records.\u00c2\u00a0 And how many albums did Fleetwood Mac make before they hit on a winning formula?\u00c2\u00a0 The majors don’t want to invest in musicmakers who march to the beat of their own drummer, they just want a pretty face, who’ll do what they say, who will sing the songs written by the hacks and produced by the usual suspects.<\/p>\n
And indies can’t compete.\u00c2\u00a0 Because ever since Spitzer there’s LESS indie music on terrestrial radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is really not much more than Top Forty, which plays a swath of material narrower in scope than the career possibilities of a drummer in a bygone heavy metal band. <\/p>\n
The playing field could be leveled if the majors agreed to legalize the stealing.\u00c2\u00a0 Monetize it instead of trying futilely to eviscerate it.\u00c2\u00a0 But this is the same industry trying to sue into submission YouTube, which is about to be purchased by Google and be more dominant and influential than ANY record label.\u00c2\u00a0 And although one must cut Warner a break, never forget Edgar Bronfman, Jr. agitated for HIGHER prices at the iTunes Music Store (under the rubric of FLEXIBLE pricing, yeah RIGHT!)\u00c2\u00a0 The only hope for the industry is LOWER prices.\u00c2\u00a0 To make the stealing option less desirable.\u00c2\u00a0 Why go through the trouble of hard drive swapping if you can get all you want anyway for a few dollars a month?\u00c2\u00a0 And then there’s the problem of the publishers, who hate the labels just about as much as consumers do.\u00c2\u00a0 And trust them less than the bands do.\u00c2\u00a0 To make the future work, the publishers have to go to a percentage rate, but that’s gonna happen when Borat actually RUNS Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
But the majors have catalogs.\u00c2\u00a0 Classic shit that will sell forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Allowing them to survive their lack of insight\/inanity\/insanity.\u00c2\u00a0 But a NEW label has nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Only an excessive burn rate.<\/p>\n
So you spend all that money with the usual suspects, people who’ve been musical-chaired out of the major label system, paying for not only pressing, but distribution and promotion.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody blowing smoke up your ass as you try to get in the big box store, the only place where you can sell and make money anymore, purchasing an advertising campaign that is like throwing coins off a cliff since you’ve got no traction, because you can’t get on radio and MTV plays no videos.<\/p>\n
But still, people are forming labels.\u00c2\u00a0 To service a marketplace that is almost impossible to get a hold on and wants the music for free ANYWAY!<\/p>\n
Whereas the newbies, those not tainted by the old system, make records for nothing on their computers, sell them as souvenirs at the gigs and build fan bases.\u00c2\u00a0 The manager\/record label taking an income cut equivalent to a band member.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, the MANAGER is the new record label!<\/p>\n
Music is now the wild west.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors\/Mitch Bainwol are all eastern seaboard, but the action is out in the hinterlands, where a gun means more than a lawyer.<\/p>\n
The absolute key to success today is word of mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 Something the majors gave up on YEARS ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s unmanageable, it’s too RISKY!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they’ve got their street teams, but if you fall for their manufactured hype, then you probably click on the phishing e-mails.\u00c2\u00a0 No, the key is to have something real.\u00c2\u00a0 That people love and turn others on to.\u00c2\u00a0 Hoping to establish enough action\/favorable reaction to be able to tour, to sell merchandise.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about hyping an image that then translates into record sales, but turning people on to the music FIRST!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if the old paradigm still worked, Paris Hilton would have a hit and Jessica Simpson would be ruling the sales chart.<\/p>\n
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