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The New Music Industry I Thought I'd Never See Feb. 13th, 2008 Share on Facebook

Yes it's been a while and I still haven't managed to develop enough discipline to keep regularly coming up with things to write about. But a few people asked me what I've been thinking about things like the recent layoffs at most of the major labels, and the recent non-traditional marketing efforts by the likes of Radiohead and Madonna. So I thought I would comment on this. I know my words are probably just "more of the same", but they come from the point of view of someone who has felt from a very early age that the recording industry was always against the true aims of artistry. Last year, Rick Rubin joined Columbia records as the head of their A&R. This was groundbreaking in that it showed that a very large major music corporation, one which had now become a very small part of a huge music marketing machine (Sony / BMG Music, whose merger essentially amalgamated several smaller labels into one big... music... "thing") was in dire need of two things: 1) Street cred 2) Ears I'll do my best not to sound old here. When I was growing up, labels were known for their A&R. Their "ears". The people who would pound the pavement and hit the nightclubs and coffee shops and weed out the truly talented from the ordinary. Rick Rubin is arguably one of those types of people. If you read any interviews with artists on the subject of how they got signed or how they got noticed by a label, very little has to do with the musical tastes of the A&R team that signed them. Indeed many artists (notably David Crosby, speaking of old) have repeatedly referred to the current staffing choices of nearly all the major labels as a "bunch of bean counters", more focused on the bottom line than anything concerning the actual musical content of a CD. As recently as a few weeks ago, most of the major labels began deeply cutting their staff numbers, and I was not surprised to hear that even their most successful A&R representatives were among the casualties. It's still a monumentally stupid mistake for the labels to make, but I'm not surprised by it at all. (Also: I'd hate to be a band like Fall Out Boy right now, for whom none of the A&R team remains that brought them aboard their label, Island / Mercury.) So I was far from surprised when I heard that Radiohead was (a) not going to renew their contract with Parlophone and (b) deciding to boldly release their most recent collection, "In Rainbows", via the internet, and then later as a physical release. I paid for my download. $7.99 Canadian. This is the price I've been saying for many years should be the "fair" price for a CD. (We're still regularly seeing $22.00 CD's in Canada. Only new, big releases ever dip down to the $12 - $14 range.) Even though the mp3's were what I (and others) would consider to be sub-par in terms of quality, I still feel I got my money's worth. Of course it was successful. Of course it raised eyebrows. But also: of course only someone of Radiohead's stature could get away with a stunt like that. My personal opinion is that even if it had failed miserably and only a handful of people had downloaded the collection, all of them choosing to pay nothing, it would still be considered "successful", or at the very least, groundbreaking. The problem is: how does the next basement-dwelling demo-recording newbie get the same kind of marketing horsepower out of something like that? I have a big problem with the repeated lawsuits which Apple Corps., the business entity which represents the Beatles catalogue, estate and management, and Apple Computer (now known as Apple Inc.) Their repeated out-of-court settlements means that iTunes and Apple cannot act distinctly as a music label or A&R wing. Which in my mind is an absolute shame. iTunes could, if it were allowed to, become the truest revolution there is in the music industry. [Please note that I am not an Apple fanboy, though I definitely do appreciate a lot of their more recent technologies.] Signing artists to record individual songs instead of albums, making those songs available mere hours after being recorded, exposing new artists to a very wide (and arguably captive) audience. Thanks to the rigid terms of their settlements with Apple Corps., that's unfortunately never going to happen. And in my opinion there isn't a single other entity out there who could perform any of those tasks with anything approaching the level of efficiency that itunes could bring to the process. It's clear to me (and probably most people) that the major labels will never consider this as an option. So we're stuck with retarded replacement "solutions" like DRM'd downloads given to you for free when you purchase certain copies of certain CD's. Or single songs available from a website download which you can only access by entering a code from a purchased CD. It might as well still be 1995. So of course major artists are fleeing in droves. (Well: "droves" is maybe too strong a word. Robbie Williams and Coldplay may both leave EMI in light of their cost-saving cuts. But certainly witnessing Madonna and Radiohead remain "label-less" is a big wakeup call to the majors.) They want to live in the current era, and have their music be marketed in innovative and effective ways. Major labels largely still fund some very old-world entities. Why on earth should a label maintain a large staff to address terrestrial radio anymore? I don't know anyone who listens to radio. Why should an artist still be expected to produce a music video, especially considering the cost of doing so (which they would owe back to the label) when next to nobody plays music videos anymore? No wonder Madonna switched over lock, stock and (two smoking) barrel(s) to Live Nation. Live Nation has my kudos for being the only real competition for Ticketmaster, whose monopoly status in the live music industry is now legendary and still unstoppable. I'm sure that iPods won't be the only game in town for all time. Who knows how we'll all be digesting our favorite music in the next 30 years? Who knows how we'll all hear about new artists? I think it's possibly the most exciting time for new music and new artists, because for once not everybody should have to sell 10 million copies of their debut album. People are constantly "shocked" that a number 1 is now measured at a "mere" 200,000 copies sold. That's still a lot of CD's. In light of all the media available to consumers, it's a very respectable amount. I feel the major labels' days are definitely numbered. Which only makes me more excited to see who steps in to take their place. I'm excited to support this new industry. (I'm still fiscally supporting the existing one, against my better judgement.) It started - for me at least - with the download of In Rainbows. I'm extremely interested to see where it goes from here. As always I .

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