Yesterday at lunch Michael McCarty told me there was a different vibe at Canadian Music Week this year, it was no longer about beating up the major labels, lamenting the sad state of affairs in the music business, but picking up the new tools and TAKING ACTION!<\/p>\n
CDs are in free-fall.\u00c2\u00a0 This week sales were off 22.8% from last year’s numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s front page news in my book.\u00c2\u00a0 But somehow, it’s not on the very first page of the "New York Times" or the "Wall Street Journal", the newspapers of record.\u00c2\u00a0 And if it were, Warner and EMI stocks would tank.\u00c2\u00a0 For Wall Street, which does not read the "Billboard Bulletin", seems out of the loop.<\/p>\n
Recorded music sales are now a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re an act, unless you make Top Forty music that would benefit from TV exposure and terrestrial radio play, in other words unless you make mainstream pop or hip-hop music, WHY BOTHER WITH A MAJOR LABEL?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not interested in artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, EMI won’t EXIST by time you put out your SECOND album, never mind your third or fourth.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to get caught in that vortex?\u00c2\u00a0 Where contractual hassles, being tied-up in merger\/downsizing\/bankruptcy, will kill your career?<\/p>\n
All this talk about Apple’s dominance with iTunes, DRM, per track prices…IRRELEVANT!\u00c2\u00a0 Every band is now a cottage industry, charging at a different point in the food chain.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the music is the loss leader, the taste, that gets people in the door.<\/p>\n
Oh, it didn’t HAVE to be this way.\u00c2\u00a0 If only the majors had legalized P2P, had been willing to stop fighting to preserve their distribution monopoly.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean what difference does it make if you own the CD sphere if the CD sphere is CRUMBLING?<\/p>\n
And who is watching those TV programs, and who is listening to Top Forty terrestrial radio?\u00c2\u00a0 Not the hard core music buyer, keeping this business alive.\u00c2\u00a0 But the casual fan, who needs the single AT MOST!<\/p>\n
Credible acts, ALBUM ACTS, are coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they won’t be selling albums, but a continuous stream of songs, which people will want, because they BELIEVE IN THE ACT!<\/p>\n
Your image is everything.\u00c2\u00a0 You must play to the audience, not the machine.\u00c2\u00a0 You must micromanage the relationship.<\/p>\n
They used to say all publicity was good publicity.\u00c2\u00a0 Well just ask Britney if that’s still true.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to MANAGE publicity, you’ve got to worry about being OVEREXPOSED, you’ve got to make sure your fans trust you.\u00c2\u00a0 Stars are Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, two-dimensional icons with no content to believe in.\u00c2\u00a0 Musicians are no longer stars, but minstrels who the audience DEPENDS ON!\u00c2\u00a0 The band is down in the pit WITH the fan.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why the audience loves the act, because they’re REAL!<\/p>\n
No posturing involved.\u00c2\u00a0 Music that doesn’t just slide off your sexy back.\u00c2\u00a0 Playing for the long term, not just doing what’s expedient.\u00c2\u00a0 THESE are the code words of the new act\/entrepreneurs.\u00c2\u00a0 Word of mouth trumps hype.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about the system, each band IS ITS OWN system!<\/p>\n
Don’t swing for the fences.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in a niche world.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t carpet bomb, hitting those not interested, rather just appeal to the core.\u00c2\u00a0 And the core will support you, buy your CD even if they’ve stolen the tracks, as a badge of HONOR!<\/p>\n
Don’t make your songs for the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Ignore "American Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 Concentrate on building your base, person to person, not programmer to gatekeeper.\u00c2\u00a0 The gatekeepers are IRRELEVANT!\u00c2\u00a0 The gate is the quality of your music and your ability to find friends who will spread the word for you, because they love you and your music, not because you pay them, but because they WANT to be involved, because they BELIEVE!<\/p>\n
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