Call it the Metallica Rule.\u00c2\u00a0 When you can’t get arrested, give it away.\u00c2\u00a0 When
you’re a star, arrest people for stealing your music.<\/p>\n
Radio’s over.\u00c2\u00a0 The model is done.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless iPods start coming with commercials
and every Internet radio station has to have twenty minutes of ads,
terrestrial radio is done.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it will survive in a fashion.\u00c2\u00a0 As a place for news and
talk.\u00c2\u00a0 But for music it’s history.<\/p>\n
OH NO, you say.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in all those cars!<\/p>\n
Don’t be a fucking idiot.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course radio counts today.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re
thinking about today, you’re just as dumb as the major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Because really,
it’s what’s gonna happen TOMORROW!<\/p>\n
Look at major label release schedules.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like the seventies anymore.\u00c2\u00a0
If something doesn’t have hit potential, it doesn’t come out.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore,
that which DOES come out is tweaked endlessly, making it palatable for sporting
events and fashion shows, but it lacks that one essential ingredient of TRUE
hit music…it doesn’t touch your soul.<\/p>\n
It’s all about the bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 And the only way to make quick bucks is to
overexpose, pay for play EVERYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 (Yeah, like the Spitzer settlement is
really going to stop this, the money\/game will just be refashioned.)\u00c2\u00a0 Major
labels release records like movies.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re pre-sold with campaigns, and you know
in most cases in a week, certainly a month, if they have legs.\u00c2\u00a0 And most
don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, like I just stated, they’re just not real.<\/p>\n
So, you’ve got majors fighting over an ever-dwindling marketplace.\u00c2\u00a0 And the
lack of success they’re having is blamed on the consumer, who has tuned out
their game, isn’t listening to terrestrial radio, thinks MTV is a joke, thinks
even "Rolling Stone" is a joke.<\/p>\n
The problem with the above paradigm, the major label paradigm, is breaking
acts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just too damn expensive.\u00c2\u00a0 The lawyers have to get paid, so they
demand huge contracts.\u00c2\u00a0 The records and videos have to be remade to perfection, in order to compete.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a supermodel competition.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that there
are no slots for new acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, all the outlets say they want stars, but the
only way to make an instant star is to overhype the act, which kills it.<\/p>\n
So, in order to have success, in order to survive the ultimate disaster,
you’ve got to play by different rules.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to give the music away.<\/p>\n
We’ve established it’s about breaking acts.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve established it’s expensive
to do so in the major label way, and the acts end up being laughable bland
pussies.\u00c2\u00a0 So how are YOU gonna compete?<\/p>\n
By making the record cheaply.<\/p>\n
That’s how Dell succeeded.\u00c2\u00a0 Drive down the price of parts, lower the cost to
the consumer, reap market share and sales.<\/p>\n
The records can’t even cost $100,000.00.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say $50,000.00 must be the
limit.\u00c2\u00a0 A record at this cost sounds just about as good as the major label
turkeys, and the audience doesn’t hear the difference, they’re just looking for
something that RESONATES.<\/p>\n
And it’s the audience that’s going to help you out, gonna break your band.<\/p>\n
In the not too distant future, file-trading will be legal.\u00c2\u00a0 People will pay
to trade, and they won’t get sued for doing so.\u00c2\u00a0 This is going to be the major
labels’ savior.\u00c2\u00a0 When they can reach more people at a lower aliquot cost per
track.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to beat them to the punch.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to get your music in
the system NOW!<\/p>\n
How do you get your music in the system?<\/p>\n
By giving away MP3s on your Website.<\/p>\n
Every band should give away its whole album on its Website.<\/p>\n
I KNOW, sounds RIDICULOUS!<\/p>\n
But there are a couple of realities.<\/p>\n
One, some people are so dumb they don’t know you’re giving the songs away,
they buy the CD anyway.<\/p>\n
Two, people who download the files often buy the CD.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t make sense, I
know.\u00c2\u00a0 And it won’t happen forever, the CD’s days are numbered.\u00c2\u00a0 But, they want
better sound, they want the photos and lyrics, and they want a piece of what
they believe in.<\/p>\n
You can’t believe in a file.\u00c2\u00a0 You need something TANGIBLE!\u00c2\u00a0 That you can HOLD
ON TO!\u00c2\u00a0 Like a T-SHIRT!<\/p>\n
THAT’S what the CD is now, a t-shirt.<\/p>\n
Oh, let’s say you lose some sales.\u00c2\u00a0 To people who only need the file.\u00c2\u00a0 But
now, your audience is MUCH LARGER, and ultimately you sell more CDs.<\/p>\n
It’s economic reality.\u00c2\u00a0 The more people who hear something, the more you sell.<\/p>\n
And you can’t hear good new music on terrestrial radio.\u00c2\u00a0 So, people go to the
Web and discover things, which they then tell OTHERS about!<\/p>\n
Doesn’t matter where you hear it first, where you get wind of something.\u00c2\u00a0 I
mean you must seed the system somehow.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got some reasonable print,
Websites like pitchforkmedia.com, satellite radio, Internet radio…\u00c2\u00a0 ALL of these
outlets take a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 Get somebody to say SOMETHING good about your record
or better yet, PLAY IT!\u00c2\u00a0 If it’s good, people will research it.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll Google
the act.\u00c2\u00a0 And then they’ll download the files from the Website.\u00c2\u00a0 And become
fans.\u00c2\u00a0 And one thing about fans, they spread the word.<\/p>\n
Let’s look at the way it is now.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost impossible to hear good new
music.\u00c2\u00a0 But, when you do, you go to the band’s Website, where AT BEST, you can
stream some songs.\u00c2\u00a0 You MIGHT tell friends to go to the Website, but streaming
is ultimately unsatisfying, you want to possess the tracks, you want to put
them on your iPod, you want to e-mail them to your friends.\u00c2\u00a0 But, you CAN’T DO
THIS if the tracks aren’t THERE!\u00c2\u00a0 You hit a dead end.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like being back in
the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 You have to tune into XM to hear the same damn song again, and
that could be MONTHS!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you load your P2P software, but the files have to
start somewhere, if the band is obscure, the songs usually AREN’T THERE!<\/p>\n
But if the songs are free on the Website, then they end up in your iTunes
library, then they’re shared when you load your P2P software, then people peek
into your hard drive after finding you’ve got similar tastes and they take the
tracks of this band they’ve HEARD OF, but have never actually heard.<\/p>\n
The major labels could employ this technique.\u00c2\u00a0 They should actually.\u00c2\u00a0 But it
doesn’t square with their philosophy.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, sometimes they’re like
anti-abortion crusaders who get pregnant, they insert tracks into P2P services.\u00c2\u00a0 But
that’s like a back door abortion.\u00c2\u00a0 Come into the light, give the tracks away RIGHT
UP FRONT, on the WEBSITE!<\/p>\n
But that would involve admitting that the iTunes Music Store is a failure.\u00c2\u00a0
And that streaming services are a failure too.<\/p>\n
They are.\u00c2\u00a0 500 million iTunes downloads in two years, worldwide?\u00c2\u00a0 Ooh, I’m
pissing my pants.<\/p>\n
You see the majors have to believe their own b.s.<\/p>\n
The guys in charge have never used P2P, never surfed the Web for hours, they
dictate it must be the way it’s always been.\u00c2\u00a0 Middle management loves its
salaries and the bottom level workers, the young ‘uns who are conversant with
reality?\u00c2\u00a0 They either drink the kool-aid to maintain their jobs, or get fired or
quit.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean who can work at such a FUCKED UP PLACE??<\/p>\n
No, get your head out of your ass.\u00c2\u00a0 This isn’t about giving away music, this
is about breaking bands.\u00c2\u00a0 People have to be exposed to the music SOMEHOW!\u00c2\u00a0 If
you don’t seed the system, HOW WILL THEY?<\/p>\n
SoundScan new bands.\u00c2\u00a0 If radio doesn’t go on them, they can sell under 1,000
records.\u00c2\u00a0 After all that investment.<\/p>\n
Please.\u00c2\u00a0 Every one of you new and developing acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether you’re selling on
CDBaby or are signed to a major.\u00c2\u00a0 Give your music away.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll give you a leg
up on the competition.\u00c2\u00a0 It will allow people to spread the word.\u00c2\u00a0 It will
build your act.<\/p>\n
And one thing we know about successful acts, fans will give them ALL their
money. <\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Call it the Metallica Rule.\u00c2\u00a0 When you can’t get arrested, give it away.\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re a star, arrest people for stealing your music. Radio’s over.\u00c2\u00a0 The model is done.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless iPods start coming with commercials and every Internet radio station has to have twenty minutes of ads, terrestrial radio is done.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it will survive […]<\/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-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-1x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","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=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}