Posted by Joel Weiss on Jun. 16, 2009, at 10:28 am
“Doing a Radiohead.” Big-box exclusivity deals. “360″ contracts. These and other new business models are side effects of the digital media revolution — a paradigm shift caused by the MP3. The days of $15 CDs are all but dead. Long live the $10 digital album and the 99-cent single, both still dwarfed by everyone’s favorite method of acquiring music: illegal downloading. I think in hindsight, considering the events of the past decade, the recording industry would have been happy for a fractional dip in revenue built into the transition from brick-and-mortar stores to iTunes, but factor in music piracy and the numbers aren’t even close.
Radio behemoth Clear Channel is one of the latest victims in the music business downfall. The official news is as follows:
US radio giant Clear Channel Communications has announced a new round of layoffs, with 590 workers in its radio division to be cut. The new layoffs, which follow a round of 1,850 in January, will include employees in programming, engineering and customer service. The January layoffs were primarily in sales. Shows canceled due to the layoffs will be replaced by nationally syndicated shows. Clear Channel also said that it has suspended matching contributions to employees retirement accounts, but would resume making contributions if the company is successful in reaching 90% of its internal cost saving targets.
It sucks that people are losing their jobs, but is anyone really surprised? Radio has been a corporate game for so long, that it’s no longer relevant. So what now?
My buddy Wes Price from Polysound Studios sold me on the fact that this handwritten note was created by Jazz God Thelonius Monk in 1960 as an advice sheet for his new drummer. I think that most of the advice here is valid for anyone in the music business. This is a great companion piece to Quincy Jones’ SXSW Keynote speech. Enjoy!
Touring is hard. With the current economy, its even tougher for independent bands to hit the road and actually make some money. Despite the financial constraints, touring is the most effective way to spread your music across the land. Sure MySpace will get you some ears, but nothing beats seeing the band live, seeing them sweat all over their instruments and meeting them after a gig. Touring is what the music business was built on and is a tradition that will never go away.
Many new bands ask me how they can go about booking a tour. Everyone is so eager to hit the road. I always tell them that it takes patience, perseverance and planning. Also, it takes money and self-sacrifice and its not for everyone. If your bass player needs to mommy and daddy (or his girlfriend) to tuck him in every night, or if your singer needs to eat sushi everyday and wash it down with Evian, chances are touring might not be the best for your band. If you get sick of a car after 2 hours of driving, don’t even THINK about touring.
Friday, March 20: Day 3 of this madness. Yesterday, Joran and I must have walked at least 5 miles trying to catch as many bands as we could, so my calves were a bit sore. Regardless of the bodily pain, today was the best day.
Taking advantage of all the free stuff you could get, I moseyed over to the Natural American Spirit cig table and got 2 free packs of smokes. I don’t usually smoke, but today I felt like it. While I was lighting up, I met two French filmmakers, in town to make a documentary for the French Government (so they said). I thought they were cool enough, so I did a quick interview with them.
Afterwards, I went to a panel discussion about how to survive as a musician in the current economic recession. The panel featured big wigs from Sub Pop Records, Jive Records and Atlantic Records. Also, Ian Montone of Monotone Inc. was on the panel. He is the manager for bands like The White Stripes, Cold Ward Kids and Dredg. The discussions themselves were standard: times are tough, the internet killed the biz and everyone has to work hard to make it.
The highlight for me was when I offered up an idea for a federated, regional music business model. After my statement and a follow up question, Montone and the guy from Atlantic looked at each other and I could read their lips, “That’s a good idea.” I hope they don’t steal it, but oh well. After the panel I met Montone and an old friend of Soulfound’s, producer David Eaton. I gave Montone props for sticking with Prog band Dredg through all these years and he invited me out to the show that night at Buffalo Billiards.
Clearwater-based Mohawk Bomb Records announces the release of No Lip Vol. 2. Available through www.mohawkbomb.com and via all major online music services (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody and Napster), the compilation features 14 songs from 14 artists spanning the entire Rock music spectrum.
No Lip Vol. 2 celebrates independent bands from all over the World, with bands from Florida, California, Texas, Canada, England and Australia. Among the songs featured are previously unreleased tracks by Soulfound, The Redlight Stare, Ascending to Avalon and Soul Destroyer. Also, returning are 900 Pound Gorilla, Bull Lee and Drew Street Mary (along with Soulfound) who were all featured on No Lip Vol. 1.
Portishead stands on a precipice in 2009, and endless possibilities lay before them. Their album Third, released last year, fulfilled their contractual obligations to Island Records – and as Pitchfork reported yesterday, Portishead are free agents. Here’s Geoff Barrow:
“with the world being the way it is, there are lots of options open … but if you lot have any bright ideas of how we should sell our music in the future, lets us know, why not! [...] i dont think that we’re into giving away music for free to be honest…it fukin takes ages to write and we have to heat our swimming pools…!!!”
I can’t imagine better circumstances for a band like Portishead. Although Portishead lacks the vast catalogue and consistent longevity of other bands that recently introduced new business models, they’ve still done more than enough to earn a decent following of rabid supporters – the type of fans who’ll wait 11 years for the band’s third album. They know how to make music – they just need to decide where to go from there.
So as Geoff said, if you’ve got an idea, pass it along. They’ve got pools to heat and music to write, and Portishead aren’t exactly known for doing things quickly. Here’s are a couple of good Portishead videos, one older, one new
Finding a new and profitable business model has eluded major record labels since the decline of recorded music sales began as MP3s took hold. In his presentation at MidemNet — one of the most elite music business event in the World — Techdirt’s Mike Masnick profiled Trent Reznor’s recent successes selling his music without the help of a major record label and condensed it into a simple formula. Masnick ventures to say that Reznor made over $1.6 million from his latest release alone. That notion definitely got my attention.
I came across an ad in Rolling Stone about slotMusic.org, a new music “format” that is being hyped by major labels as “a versatile new physical music format for the 21st Century”. In short, the new slotMusic format is a 1 Gig microSD card preloaded with DRM-free mp3s (properly tagged and 320 kBPs) and videos that consumers can load into their phones, mp3 players and computers without limitations, passwords or access to the Internet.
On their Website, www.slotmusic.org, you can read more about the limited numbers of artists they have available (Keane, MIA, Akon, Rise Against, Hendrix, thenewno2, Weezer among current artists available) and if yo ur Mobile device is microSD compatible (my cell is not). Currently, the only way to purchase slotMusic is online or at Best Buy and Walmart.
SlotMusic comes across to me as a beta program by a technology company to see if its sticks and an attempt for major labels to re-control the music distribution channel that the Internet took away. Will it make an impact? Probably not. Musicphiles and bloggers everywhere have been panning this idea since late September.
“Doing a Radiohead.” Big-box exclusivity deals. “360″ contracts. These and other new business models are side effects of the digital media revolution — a paradigm shift caused by the MP3. The days of $15 CDs are all but dead. Long live the $10 digital album and the 99-cent single, both still dwarfed by everyone’s favorite method of acquiring music: illegal downloading. I think in hindsight, considering the events of the past decade, the recording industry would have been happy for a fractional dip in revenue built into the transition from brick-and-mortar stores to iTunes, but factor in music piracy and the numbers aren’t even close.
Touring is hard. With the current economy, its even tougher for independent bands to hit the road and actually make some money. Despite the financial constraints, touring is the most effective way to spread your music across the land. Sure MySpace will get you some ears, but nothing beats seeing the band live, seeing them sweat all over their instruments and meeting them after a gig. Touring is what the music business was built on and is a tradition that will never go away.
