{"id":759,"date":"2007-04-16T11:14:30","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T19:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/04\/16\/what-we-know\/"},"modified":"2007-04-16T11:14:30","modified_gmt":"2007-04-16T19:14:30","slug":"what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/16\/what-we-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hip-hop will not come back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hip-hop was of a time and place that no longer exists.\u00c2\u00a0 Built on a foundation of truth about the inner city, it resonated with blacks and whites because of its truth.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was blown up by nineties society.\u00c2\u00a0 When we were all in it together, when the hip merged with the mainstream, when we had no choice.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no longer one scene, but many.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, like the major labels, big time rap consolidated and became about only a few themes, bitches, hos and cash.\u00c2\u00a0 With choice, people went elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 Hip-hop will survive, but as a shadow of its former self.<\/p>\n

Video has moved to the Web.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’re better off breaking on YouTube than MTV, or anywhere else on television.\u00c2\u00a0 Because clicks on YouTube have the imprimatur of the public’s choice.\u00c2\u00a0 People are sick of being dictated to by the man, they want to make their own choices.<\/p>\n

Singles are death.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless you can convince the public to believe in the act, and want to purchase everything it ever does, you’re fucked.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s just not enough money in singles.<\/p>\n

The cost of production has gone down, irrevocably.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You don’t want to be in the studio business.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you can make a better record in a big room with state of the art equipment, but who is going to BUY that record?\u00c2\u00a0 Economics dictate that production costs be lower.\u00c2\u00a0 And with the new computer tools, they can be.<\/p>\n

The major labels will lose market share.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What they do best is find bland talent and utilizing carpet bomb marketing, they try to sell it worldwide.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a business here.\u00c2\u00a0 It costs money, that indies don’t have.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to be ubiquitous, you’ve got to be on a major label.\u00c2\u00a0 But not only does this reach for the brass ring come with costs to your career, most types of music just can’t be sold in quantity anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 So we’ve got indie niches.\u00c2\u00a0 Until the majors enter these indie niches, they will forever lose market share.\u00c2\u00a0 The networks merged with the cable channels.\u00c2\u00a0 Will the majors take over the indies?\u00c2\u00a0 Only if they’re smart.<\/p>\n

The credible acts of tomorrow will not sell out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And credibility will equate to "career".\u00c2\u00a0 If you want people to believe in you, if you want to be able to play music for a decade, you cannot make a deal with Procter & Gamble, or even Jagermeister for that matter.\u00c2\u00a0 The more you take the cash from anyone but your core constituency, your fans, the more these same fans can’t believe in you.\u00c2\u00a0 Go for the slow build, not the fast ascent.\u00c2\u00a0 Artist development is not only in the hands of the label, but the act itself.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re looking for shortcuts, you’re negatively impacting your career.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re good, people will find you, you’ll develop.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, most acts aren’t any good.<\/p>\n

Music is not cool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I just did two hours on this last night on KLSX.\u00c2\u00a0 The only callers who said music was cool were those into heavy metal bands you’ve never heard of.<\/p>\n

Doesn’t matter what you think of music, its image hasn’t been tarnished, it’s been TRASHED!<\/p>\n

The whole industry is in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 As a result of the RIAA suing its customers, hip-hop being a joke and the selling of vapid, no-talent singers who don’t write their own material and sound like an imitation of Mariah Carey, if they can sing at all.<\/p>\n

People have tuned new music out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, there is great new music out there.\u00c2\u00a0 But the casual listener is not exposed to it, and therefore has tuned out, and is into other entertainment media.<\/p>\n

As for modern music like Justin Timberlake, that’s seen as a vehicle to bump bodies in the club, it’s not something you want to listen to on the stereo at home.\u00c2\u00a0 And until that desirable listening experience comes back with new music, and people haven’t changed, they still want it, kids still sit in front of their computer or fall asleep with their iPods to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, we’re fucked.<\/p>\n

Music should be paid for.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music shouldn’t be free.\u00c2\u00a0 But the major labels made it so.<\/p>\n

You can’t pull people back into the past.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to monetize the way they presently acquire music.<\/p>\n

This is immutable.<\/p>\n

The more P2P is demonized, the less revenue comes in, the more the business of selling music goes into the toilet.<\/p>\n

People only want to see stars.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, you might want to see the Decemberists, but most people don’t know who they are and don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 And the Decemberists have got TRACTION!\u00c2\u00a0 There is not a healthy live music scene.\u00c2\u00a0 Live music is like blockbuster movies.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody wants to see a very few acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that we should blame them, there aren’t many good acts out there.\u00c2\u00a0 And tickets are too expensive and a show is no longer about the music, but the production.<\/p>\n

A greedy industry is looking to get all the money and is not looking to the future, when there are no superstar new acts that anybody wants to see.<\/p>\n

Melody never goes out of style.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beats might be selling, but there is ALWAYS room for a well-sung song with a melody and hooky changes, which people can sing along with.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who realize this will end up with all the money.<\/p>\n

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Hip-hop will not come back. Hip-hop was of a time and place that no longer exists.\u00c2\u00a0 Built on a foundation of truth about the inner city, it resonated with blacks and whites because of its truth.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was blown up by nineties society.\u00c2\u00a0 When we were all in it together, when the hip merged […]<\/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-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-cf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","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=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}