It’s great having friends who can help you get things done. I’ve been a bit lazy lately when it comes to posting on my blog. Too much golf I guess. My friend Kevin Carmignani from Hofstra University decided to help me with my blog today. In addition to being a low handicap golfer, Kevin works at the radio station at Hofstra University and had asked to interview me for a project he was working on. I was happy to help out. As it turns out, he had a question about this whole notion of charging the ISP’s some kind of fee to compensate artists and labels for the free downloading of music on their networks. This is exactly the topic that I’ve been meaning to cover for the last week so with Kevin’s help we can finally talk about it.
The notion of charging commercial users some of music is not new. Its been around for years. Radio stations, tv stations, bars, theaters, and all kinds of venues that play music in one form or another have been paying license fees to the ASCAP’s and BMI’s for years. That money is collected and split up amongst the artists, labels, and publishers.
With the development of the internet and its impact on the music industry it seems appropriate that these new networks (ISP’s) should be paying some kind of license fees. Paul McGinness, the long time manager of U2 made the point at a music industry conference a few months back and it seems that the idea is starting to get some traction.
Take a listen to Kevin’s interview and then weigh in yourselves.
Ok so its been awhile since I last posted. I took some time off to play in a few golf tournaments over the last couple of weeks.
For any of the visitors to this blog who are golfers you know that the Masters Tournament is the first call to arms for a new season of golf. No real golfer would miss it. Not one real golfer does not fantasize about playing great shots under pressure like they do at the Masters. Not one real golfer has not thought about how good he’d look in that green jacket. After a winter of honing your game and practicing religiously its time to see what you’ve got. For those of you who don’t know I love the game of golf! It’s been a passion/obsession of mine since I was 14 years old. And there’s nothing more satisfying or frustrating than testing your game in competition. So that’s what I did. So what did I get for all my trouble? One crystal vase (that’s good), and 84/86 (that’s really bad), and a 74/86/75 (who fucking knows). I’ve got golfing schizophrenia. The more you care the worse you get which leads me to today’s message.
People often ask me why I love golf so much. Only half kiddingly, I tell them its because it makes the music business look easy. The truth of the matter is that golf has been my sanctuary away from the craziness of the music business for years. When the music business got shitty I’d go play golf to clear my head. Now when my golf goes shitty I find myself ready to jump into the music biz again.
Now this morning while I was trying to figure out what to talk about I went thru my emails on my facebook page. I got a note from a young musician named Nick Haberer. He is in a band called the Broken Lyre from Canada. Nick has been corresponding with me for awhile now, sending me songs, and looking for advice from time to time. Today he sent me a link to a video on Youtube of a recent performance at a Catholic High School. I was actually very impressed on a number of levels. Over the time that I’ve been corresponding with Nick I’ve actually had a chance to watch his band develop from the comfort of my desk chair. Every new song they write seems to be better than the one before it. The video performance at this high school looked great. It was every bit as good as anything a major label would turn out on a new band. The guys in the band, who seem to be very young, definitely had a little ‘look’ going on. I was impressed at how well the band played and particularly impressed with the singer who really can sing. And, the old promoter and manager in me could not help but notice a loud chorus of screams at the end of the song. That’s never a bad sign.
Now, I don’t know what will happen with this band in the long term. But, I think they are a perfect example of how a young band can use the tools of the internet to reach and build an audience. In the office we often talk about what it would take to break a new band and get attention in this new world. Check out these guys who are actually doing it while I come up with something juicy to talk about this week.
When EMI Records was purchased last year by a UK based equity firm, Terra Firma Parnters, it caused a bit of a stir when its Chairman Guy Hands made some rather unflattering assessments of where he thought the company’s prospects were in this new digital age and what value they added to the equation for both artists and consumers alike. At the time, I thought nothing of it and figured he was just another music biz wannabe with a nice pinstripe suit and some fancy powerpoint presentations who wanted to polish up the old turd and sell it to somebody for a tidy little profit and be on his way. But, I recently read through the whole text of his letter to his employees which I thought was very interesting and in many ways right on target (http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2007/10/full-text-of-le.html). If you’ve not seen it you should check it out.
In any event, the topic came up at my recent visit to USC’s Thornton School of Music and I’ve posted a little clip of the discussion here on our little blog. Whether you are an artist, record label employee (current or former), or just a fan of music I’d love to hear your comments.
I’m oftened asked what it is that a manager does all day. Alot of it depends on exactly what your client is working on at the moment. Its certainly not rocket science but it does require some effort. With the help of my associate Seth Allen I try to explain exactly what goes on at the REN Management world headquarters.
As I like to say, it’s good work if you can get it. Feeel free to tell me what you think.
This past week I got a chance to do a return engagement to my old college alma mater, the University of Southern California, to speak with a room full of college students at the Thornton School of Music. Now for the record, I never quite managed to finish my degree and I’m secretly hoping that if I show up enough the Dean will be kind enough to reward me one of those ‘honorary’ degrees that I’ve heard about but never received. To spice things up a bit I took along my young associates Seth Allen and Jake Versluis to prove that you can in fact get a gig in the business and to offer their insights as well. The class was full of enthusiastic Trojans and we covered alot of territory. For those of you out there that could not attend the class but who have dreamed of working in the music biz we’re going to put some clips up on our little blog to let you sit in so to speak. Thanks to my friend Professor Richard McIvery for inviting me. I hope you enjoy it.
As I mentioned in my last video posting, I will be interviewing my long time friend Marc Geiger this coming week. Marc is a true music industry visionary with a broad experience in the music business who is never short of opinions. I’ve included a link (http://www.inthecityofnewyork.com/panel_marcgeiger.php) to a brief bio of his career. Here’s your chance to ‘take a meeting’ with Marc so if you’ve got a question for him this is the place to post it.
Renman talks about the recent trend in the recording industry for labels signing artists to deals that require the artists to share income from music publishing, merchandising, and touring. Labels say these deals are necessary to offset the decline in recording income and to justify their investment in the artists. Some would argue that its just another example of how labels have found a new way to stick it to the artists. What do you think?
Also, Renman will interview music industry veteran Marc Geiger next week. If you have any questions for ‘the Geigs’ , post them here and we’ll try to get them answered.
Renman waxes philosophical about the evolution of our little blog and asks the question, “How are you buying your music these days. Do you like it digital, on cd, vinyl, or just free. One sugar or two?.
Breaking new artists is the Holy Grail of the music business. Without new artists the music scene stagnates, atrophies, and eventually goes away.
As a music biz professional I’ve spent the better part of thirty years trying to figure out the magic formula for success. But, it still seems as fleeting today as it did when I was booking shows at USC back in the late 70′s. Now I’ll have you know that the music business is full of geniuses who will be happy to tell you how many big artists they spotted before anyone else and what their formula for success was. More often than not those folks have a penchant for re-writing history from the end of the story (success) back to the intro (who knew?). But for me, when it happens it feels almost heaven sent.
While so much about the music industry has changed in terms of distribution, pricing, formats, and marketing the million dollar question is still “What does it take to break a new artist?”. Everybody has a theory. In this final excerpt from my interview with Epic Records President, Charlie Walk, we discuss what it takes to break an artist these days.
Tell me what you think it takes to break an artist today. Tell us what you would do if you could be King or Queen for a day. We’ll decide later if you are a genius.
For years, the mantra of artist development has been preached inside all the major labels and around the music industry in general. In layman terms, it meant that most of the major labels took a more measured approach to artist development and often waited years for certain artists to put out 2-3 albums and tour extensively before those artists ‘broke’ big. To do that took patience, vision, and a fat wallet. But that was in the days when the labels were making alot more money.
Clearly times have changed. Labels are spending less money, signing less artists, and cutting back on staff.
In today’s world there is a perception as reflected in many of the posts on this blog that labels are no longer in the artist development business. Some of the folks here believe that labels are in the business of molding artists in their own vision and that is what is killing off real artists. I discussed this perception with our guest Charlie Walk and here’s what he had to say. Feel free to tell us what you think.
