Record Industry Suicide
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- Jaline
http://www.p2punite.org/?q=node/…
I posted this in the Oink thread but it seemed interesting enough on its own.
Long, but worth a read.
- Jaline0
By the way, I am interested in what other musicians have to say about this...
- M0NEYCIDE0
thanks, just reading it now but this caught my eye....
"Whether it was excessive production budgets or "business lunches" that had nothing to do with business, one of my first reactions to it all was, "so this is why CDs cost $18..." "
- horton0
dj /rupture posted a great response when oink went down.. sums it all up nicely:
- PonyBoy0
greed will always trump objective...
... that's why clients cut corners on projects...
... that's why we opt to take 'free' music as apposed to paying for it.
Also, I understand the 'major' labels, as the articles puts it, are LOADED w/cash. MONEYCIDE quoted something that 'seems' like a smoking gun proving such 'greed'...
... but let me ask this Q. That situation (the party described)... yes - happens often. But it's part of the promotion of the Band and the majority of the cost gets written off as a business expense.
Think of the other companies catering the party, promoting it (these parties often have elaborately designed (expesive) invitations)... decorating it etc...
... they're all making money too - lot's of people employed and put to work (and probably making a nice livable wage)...
... it's all about perspective.
'Big' companies keep a lot of people working - regardless of how much they make.
I suppose that's a bit of playing Devil's Advocate on my part...
*jumps to other side of the debate:
I understand that such parties/events... are excessive though - which in turn renders such events as self-centered and indulgent... aka greedy.
- Jaline0
bump for night owls
- mg330
printing it out to read on the way to work.
- TheBlueOne0
Long, but worth a read.
Jaline
(Oct 31 07, 08:22)Thanks Jaline. And the author makes soem great points, but I'd say he missed a glaring analogy. He was dead on in comparing the "distribrution model" monopoly that newspapers had and then goes into how the internet changed that..well he completely overlooked how paid newspapers dealt with the delivery of free TV news - a great analogy of how to look at this situation. INteresting how the newspaper publishing industry has dealt with technological challenges to it's product (news - who owns it really?) over the years...something to think about more deeply..
- TheBlueOne0
Also interesting his an insightful observation about the record industry trying to protect a metrics system (Billboard Chart ratings) to determine market value of product and that metric system isn't even valuable anymore because it doesn't measure anything accurate. The entire industry is like Waiting for Godot in business form...
I used to manage a little ma & pop music retrailer from 86 - 94..basically a college job that I stayed too long at only because it allowed me free time and beer money. It was a fun industry to work in and even at the ma & pop levels you were really tied into the major labels and you'd get perks...but by the mid-90's it was starting to die loong before the mp3 thing hit because the industry never dealt with CD pricing issues, and the nature of music changed as well. I worked in a shop in suburban new york and the kids went form wanting all the classic rock to wanting rap - which no ma & pop shop outside of urban centers understood at the time - and whose value was made up in dj mix tapes. Partr of my job becasme driving to the Bronx to buy mix rtapes on the street to resell in this shop because that's what these little suburban rapthug wannabes wanted and it still wasn't enough "Yo, this joint is soo last week, what else you niggers got." And I'd be like "kid you're a 15 year old white kid from Scarsdale, drop the ghetto lingo"...but the industry was already dying from that shit...
It's sad because I remember over those years working with other cats who were really into the music, you could come into our store and with any music related question and we'd dig it up for you. I miss that typw of interaction with people, even though I easily find plentry of new shit on the internets these days.
The labels were dinosaurs then and even moreso now..and the music business, as currently formulated, has no future in it...
Fun to watch it's death throes though...
- Jaline0
I always wanted to work at a record store. Not so much anymore.
Nice story, TheBlueOne.
- TheBlueOne0
I always wanted to work at a record store. Not so much anymore.
Nice story, TheBlueOne.
Jaline
(Nov 1 07, 05:40)Hahaha..no, you really didn't want to work at a record store...strange people inhabited them. One cat I worked with was a total non-gay Broadway buff. Dude would smoke a pipe, walk up behind people, give them back massages and say things like "I have Ethel Merman in a Steven Soundheim production that never got past previews from 1976...wanna listen?" Total freak. He was banned from calling into any NYC broadway radio shows because he always knew more than the hosts. He got christmas cards from Andrew Lloyd Weber though, so that was neat. And on top of it the store was owned by Ripley's (of believe it or not's fame) nephew who said he raised the cash to open the store in '69 by doing a drug run to Mexico. His brother would bring in all sorts of Ripley's memorabilia like lampshades made of human skin. It was a trip. And we had famous clientele - Matt Dillon and his bros used to shop there all the time, and the guy that owned Island records and the guy who managed New Kids or one of those boy bands...and I used the place as a late night "Where the fuck am I gonna have sex with this skank?" place....
Ah...good times...and I have about 100 retail promotional posters from record labels from back then probably worth a grand or so...
See, you kids with your fancy mp3s and ipods are missing out the real fun that was at the lower level of the music industry...all gone...
- Jaline0
I know, I had a stereotypical view of it ;)
But I think it the ones in NY would be different from here anyway. You would hardly see famous people over here.
- TheBlueOne0
Ha. After writing that I had to search for my old store (Mostly Music) to see if it was on the internet - considering it shut down in the mid 90's. Got name dropped in a NY Times piece...kinda cool I suppose...:
- madirish0
"Dude would smoke a pipe, walk up behind people, give them back massages and say things like "I have Ethel Merman in a Steven Soundheim production that never got past previews from 1976...wanna listen?"
LOL
that is so fiucking awesome
- TheBlueOne0
And see..I despise Broadway, yet I know so much about it..at least through the mid-90s..the system in the store would be blasting either Slayer, Miles Davis, or the 1960 production of "Camelot" depending whose turn it was on the turntable...Pipe dude would sing and act out every part...he was a total trip..and the funny thing was everyone thought he was gay - he came across that way..but I remember talking to him one night and he told me this whole story about being left at the altar by his fiance and he swore off women. He was really this bitter little man inside a Broadway loving touchy feelie pipe smoking body. Oh, and he was a huuge stoner as well and when not waxing poetically about Broadway he'd tell you stories working at the Fillmore in NYC in the 60's and getting high with Led Zeppelin...anyway..sorry..didn't mean to hijack the thread..
- morilla0
I am on both sides. For 2 reasons, I am a musician and I hate labels.
1. Signed acts generally make all of the coin on CDs and merch. You usually end up breaking even on touring or end up owing $$. So piracy in the long run ends up hurting signed acts that are not that established.
2. I hate the F-in industry and want to see it go down. I have seen them rip me and friends off, chew people up and spit them out with no concern other than the $$. We are starting to see what can be achieved by the actions of such bands as Radiohead and NIN ( but those guys have the cash to drop their labels). Hopefully it will be a growing trend.
- Redmond0
From what I gather, Music labels are really loan sharks for musicians. They only really have the ability to distribute their product, on top of loaning an insane amount of cash. Right? So all you'd really need from them is a distribution deal.
It's pretty awkward that the musicians have to bear the financial brunt of it and still not own all of their music.
- TheBlueOne0
Well the whole industry has to change really. The concept of a manufactured Super Star act is going to go away. You'll still get super star acts but they'll be more organic I suppose and far more middle of the road acts who earn a living wage doing what they do but not much more than that. It's interesting times for music, both good and bad. And I think the Western centered world will die as well - rock, rap etc will start losing market share more and more as global artists really gain more noteriety and different revenue streams open up. My p[al has been in one of the premeire detah metal bands fo rthe last 20 years - a niche act - but estableshed and he tells me they make enough to fund the band recording and touring, but he makes his living wage from owning a couple of truck delivery routes. I'm guessing that's the future of most acts...label supported livelhoods are going to disappear...
- TheBlueOne0
Music labels are really loan sharks for musicians.
Redmond
(Nov 1 07, 06:24)Exactly. And Loan sharks aren't the friendliest people when you take their money away form them.
I'll let Morilla support me on this but the music industry (business end) is filled with the most dysfunctional fucktards the human race can produce.
- morilla0
I'll let Morilla support me on this but the music industry (business end) is filled with the most dysfunctional fucktards the human race can produce.
TheBlueOne
(Nov 1 07, 06:28)Amen to that.
I do not want to come in contact with any of those people anymore. They are the devil.
- rylamar0
When my friend and his roommate lived in Austin about 10 years ago the roommate said, "Hey, I've got a friend that needs to move in for a few months". My friend didn't care so he said whatever.
So this guy is like late 30's and works for a major label as an A&R guy but he was the biggest douche.
Anyways, we used to listen to him stumble home wasted at night and go into his room and try to booty call chicks. Haha! He would be slurring a joke out and I'm not kidding he would giggle and say, "hehehe, yea baby. Rock out with your cock out. Hehe!"
That was his drunk response to anything the girl would say. It was a broken record of that all night until he passed out drunk with his phone on his ear.