I just wanted to post this from LefSetz.com which is a ex-music critic turned Music Anylyst. Honestly as an artist I've taken alot of my ques from his blog and his emails because alot of what he says makes sense. One of the remaining dinosaurs from the 60's heydey who can see the future even now. When I need career advice I go to my usual standbys but what he says rings just as true. So, for all my fellow artist, his site is definitely worth checking out.
What it comes down to is: Truth
From Lefsetz:
CONCLUSION
No one seems to realize you can’t get rich anymore.
You can’t sell enough albums, you can’t sell enough high-priced tickets.
The music industry is functioning like it’s still the 1990s when a revolution has taken place.
It’s not about stopping P2P theft, that won’t make album sales go up dramatically. The public just doesn’t care. Who could, about manufactured crap or stuff that’s too hip for almost anybody’s room.
And they may never care, not for years.
So it’s back to the bunker.
Yes, you’ve got to be in it for the music. You’ve got to love to play. You can’t want to become rich, because even a Top Forty hit generates little cash. It’s about having a career. But those with careers are not flying private and buying Lamborghinis unless they made it in the seventies. And no one wants to overpay to see those dudes one more time.
Major labels have fired the worker bees. It would be like Facebook being run by an overpaid Mark Zuckerberg, and him alone. But these big tech companies have tons of infrastructure. There’s no infrastructure at a major anymore.
And with a tech company it’s all about scale. Can it grow?
The majors are anti-scale. It’s how can we cut enough overhead and get enough rights so we can still pay our presidents millions? This is a recipe for the future?
And the formerly brain dead touring industry can’t see there’s a problem. Used to be the agents and promoters lived on the backs of the record companies. The labels spent to build stars that people wanted to see. Now, the labels don’t have that kind of money, albums don’t sell well enough, hell, they want some of that touring industry money themselves!
So what does the touring industry do? Raise prices!
But the audience has had enough. And they don’t want to see new bands, why should they? It’s more fun to play games on your iPhone, cruise for dates on Craigslist, which is positively free.
If the money is coming back, music has to drive the culture. Going to the show must be a monthly occurrence, not a once a year event.
Breaking bands takes a long time. Oh, you can try a short cut, with a hit single, but that doesn’t generate a career.
So, the turning point has come. Everybody in it for the money is experiencing his last hurrah. Finally, the stage is set for new players, doing it only for the music, to rebuild the industry. Because there’s just not enough money in it for the old powers to continue to reign. And only interested in the biggest sellers, who don’t sell crap anymore, they’re leaving a ton of crumbs on the table.
Majors should get out of new music production, they do it poorly, the risk to reward ratio is horrible. They should just be catalog houses. When will they admit this to themselves?
Live Nation’s problems are worse. There are no stars to fill their buildings. A merger with Ticketmaster brings talent, but does one expect Irving to just hand over acts on bad terms? And those ancient acts can’t sell tickets like they used to.
Holy fuck. While everybody’s been focusing on people stealing the music, the whole business imploded. The album model has been destroyed. You’re better off selling one hit single on iTunes and having no album! The concept of a hit driving fans to hear the other nine tracks is laughable. People know the rest is crap. They’ve learned this over decades. It will take years to convince them otherwise. But you’ve got to start with great music, that’s the only way out of this. And there’s just not enough of it. Because the industry is leaving the consumer out of the equation. Labels sell to radio and indies are so busy trying to look hip, most people don’t pay attention. A sorry state of affairs, but not terminal. Just like Facebook eclipsed MySpace almost instantly, music could be revived again. But not by Rupert Murdoch and those fucks at MySpace, they’re too old wave, but by innovators. You might decry Twitter, but there’s more action there than there is on this chart. Twitter is everything music used to be…immediate, thrilling, satisfying, educational…and you could be a part of it! Interscope doesn’t care about fans, it cares about lifestyle, that of its executives, and the fans know it. I don’t see Jimmy inviting Black Eyed Peas fans into the building to romp and participate. It’s us versus them in the music business whereas online we’re all in it together, the customer is truly king.
History has wiped the landscape clean. We’re at the dawn of a new age. Thank fucking god.
No comments:
Post a Comment