Results tagged “musicbiz”

Major labels function with the assumption that 90 percent of artists they sign are going to fail — that should have been a red flag for everybody. I mean that’s a bizarre business model in any arena. But particularly in the cultural arena, the idea that the system through which culture is transmitted is dictated entirely by profit should concern us, because that’s going to narrow the types of culture that are transmitted. And then, on top of that, the alternative venues of distribution are stuck in the shadows of these major labels.

That's Dr. Bethany Klein, in an outstanding interview about her research into the commercial licensing of pop music, and its impacts on artists and the music industry as a whole.

The interview is in support of her upcoming book As Heard on TV and you can read her dissertation on the topic as well.

If you're so inclined, a few years ago I'd ranted about Bob Dylan's appearance in a Victoria's Secret ad, which certainly marks a nadir in the realm of musicians licensing popular music for commercials. Not because he was "selling out" (I don't believe in that idea), but because he is so damn unsexy.

Spin Magazine's piece covering the rise and fall, and perhaps second rise of D'Angelo has been lingering in my mind for weeks. As you might expect, I was a fan of D'Angelo's from the start.

And that's true even though I was clowning him when he got arrested. To tell the truth, I hadn't quite realized just how far the man had fallen. If you look at the comments on my post from three years ago, you can see that even then people were saying they just wanted the man to get well so they could hear more of his work. ?uestlove articulates the challenge here better than anyone, though: "The new minstrel movement in hip-hop doesn't allow the audience to believe the artist is smart."

It's a particularly striking observation given that Spin's look at D'Angelo mentions in passing how that tension between art and commerce has affected so many of the acts I love. The world of R&B success demands either heaven or hell -- you either become a preacher and lose all of the sexiness and swagger that made you compelling in the first place. Or worse, you succumb to the demons.

While D'Angelo grew increasingly isolated, the rocky path he was traveling was, ironically enough, quite crowded with like-minded compatriots. At least three of neo-soul's other late'90s leading lights — Maxwell, [Erykah] Badu, and [Lauryn] Hill — have spent much of the new millennium on the sidelines.

Hill's struggles have been well documented: She followed her 1998 breakthrough, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, with an MTV Unplugged set four years later that felt like the soundtrack to a real-time nervous breakdown. She's yet to offer a second studio album and, apart from some aborted Fugees reunions, occassional shows, and involvement with a shady guru, much of her time has apparently been devoted to her family.

Badu released her triple-platinum debut, Baduizm, in 1997 and a successful follow-up, Mama's Gun, three years later, and then said she had writer's block and went on what she dubbed "The Frustrated Artist Tour" in search of inspiration. She eked out a slight EP in 2003 but then was largely silent, until the well-received release of New AmErkykah (Pt. 1 4th World War) last February.

Maxwell's journey probably parallels D'Angelo's most closely. The Brooklyn-born singer released three platinum albums between 1996 and 2001, earning frequent comparisons to D'Angelo, then seemed to disappear entirely. A new album, Black Summers' Night, was originally slated for spring 2004 but has been delayed repeatedly. Some close to him suggest that, like D'Angelo, he's been wrestling with a rather ill-fitting public image as a sex god.

There's much, much more in the story, but it's almost impossible to overstate how much a lot of us had put our faith for the future of soul music in a small group of talented artists. A decade later, it almost seems as if no one's even trying to carry the torch anymore.

We'll see how it goes; I've got tickets to see Maxwell in concert next month, and I'm still holding out for that new D'Angelo record.

• If you like music, you should own D'Angelo's Voodoo.
• Maxwell is active on MySpace.
• ?uestlove, the heart of The Roots and the standing leader of the neo-soul movement, is a born blogger.
• And Erykah's "Honey" is one of the best videos of the year:

In the New York Times, Jon Pareles gets it exactly right:

Prince's priorities are obvious. The main one is getting his music to an audience, whether it's purchased or not. "Prince's only aim is to get music direct to those that want to hear it," his spokesman said when announcing that The Mail would include the CD. ... Other musicians may think that their best chance at a livelihood is locking away their music -- impossible as that is in the digital era -- and demanding that fans buy everything they want to hear. But Prince is confident that his listeners will support him, if not through CD sales then at shows or through other deals.

Prince's latest album Planet Earth was bundled for free with newspapers in the U.K.; His 2004 album Musicology was given away with all of his concert tickets that year, as he's doing again this year. And in his 1993 track "Pope", Prince said, "Every time u want it, I'll be live -- bring a date, I mean a computer; When it's over, press save." -- I think he meant it. Somehow the record industry thinks that giving music away for free is unsustainable, but I suppose that depends on what you're good at.

The Times story has a bunch of MP3 samples of Prince's biggest hits, too.

Over at HipHopMusic.com, which Jay Smooth has relaunched as a group blog, Brandon Soderberg offers When They Reminisce Over Mixtapes. The same industry that makes millions from “Now That’s What I Call Cherry-Picking Hit Singles! Vol 42” tries to throw black artists in jail for making mixtapes that were commissioned by the labels themselves. And an artform dies in the crossfire.

See also: Holding a Gun to Dick Clark’s Head.

As much as we like to blame the RIAA for all the evils of the recording industry, leave it to my boy Prince to bring out the best in the execs over in the U.K. And mind you, these are music retailers, not even the people who, despite their extortionate ways, might actually have once helped an artist with production or distribution.

The Entertainment Retailers Association’s co-chairman Paul Quirk couldn’t help himself at an industry conference:

“It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday.”

So, what’s the transgression that made this guy lash out at Prince, and threaten “artists who may be tempted to dally”? Prince is giving away free CDs with the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Oh, the humanity! And he’s done this before, of course; His 2004 CD Musicology was given away for free at all of his concerts that year, though U.S. retailers were a lot more quiet with their grumblings. I do like that the tension between the death of the record industry and the decline in circulation of print has pitted these two behemoths against each other, however.

Keep in mind — this isn’t some low-level spokesperson for this industry group, this was the co-chairman of the organization, one of the guys in charge. Thus, when I read this story, I realized the only one who could possibly be cackling more loudly than me was Prince himself. Aside from performing, I think his greatest joy in life is to make stodgy old guys so mad they get flustered and start sputtering.

Oh, and the new album Planet Earth features the return of Wendy & Lisa and will probably actually have some good songs, too. I am tempted to dally with it.

Update: I put up a setlist and mini-review of Prince's Superbowl performance on Vox, and as I find videos of the performance, I'll put them up there, too.

Most everybody who knows me well knows that I've been a fan of Prince for pretty much my entire life. So when casual fans or non-fans hear that Prince is playing the halftime show at the Superbowl this year, they ask me, "What's up with that guy?" or "Is his name still a symbol?"

So I figured I'd put together a quick primer on Prince, at least what he's been up to since he was at his most prominent back in the 80s.

• Prince's name is Prince. Legally, it always has been, but he did go by the symbol (which is usually typed out as "O(+>") from 1993 until 2000. But his public name is now again the same as his legal name.

• Though he's not commercially or culturally dominant like he once used to be, Prince is not a has-been, either artistically or on the charts. His "3121" album last year debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, and followed the success of his Musicology tour and album in 2004, which had a great run on the charts and grossed over $90 million dollars as the most lucrative tour of the year. And his single, "Song of the Heart" from the "Happy Feet" soundtrack won a Golden Globe for best original song just the other day.

• 3121 is also his most consistently interesting and listenable album in years, so if you have his greatest-hits box set with b-sides or the recent, excellent "Ultimate" collection, it's a good place to start. Oh, and buy "Sign O' The Times", if you don't have it. There's just no excuse not to.

• Overall, Prince has had dozens of top 10 singles, he's released over 20 albums with almost all of them going at least platinum, he's made 3 or 4 films with nearly 50% of them watchable, and even as he nears 50 years old there just aren't any live acts that are better than him. Maybe, now that he's slowed down a bit, somebody who's at their prime can be as good in concert as Prince. But since James is dead, nobody can beat him.

Since most of my readers are geeks who like technology, and care about issues ranging from DRM to artist's rights to the tyrrany of the RIAA, there's some other things that might appeal to you about Prince's career. A short list of highlights:

• Prince has distributed much of his own music independently since 1994, and his major label deals since then have largely been promotion-and-distribution deals where he retained ownership of his master recordings.
• Prince is the first artist not signed to a major label to perform during the Superbowl halftime show, not counting accessory marching bands and child choirs.
• He's had a continuous presence on the web since 1995, and last year won a Webby for his work online
• There are a number of really great prince fansites like prince.org, though Prince's control freak tendencies have resulted in a lot of stupid legal threats towards them
• Prince distributed an online-only album back in 1997 with the liner notes available as a website
• Prince published an interactive CD-ROM in 1994, and it didn't totally suck
• He has distributed several albums' worth of material exclusively online through his own music label (though much of it was DRMed) as well as a number of videos and some really bad poetry
• Prince's webmaster maintained a now-defunct blog, largely ghostwritten by Prince, starting back in 2000.
• Prince and some of his studio staff used to actually join in on AOL chat room discussions with fans as late as 1995, talking about recording work in progress
• His current official site, 3121, should have a song available for download today

There's a lot more trivia I can spout, and I love the man's work because it's funky, not because he's been a pioneer in digital distribution. But my geek friends are always surprised to find out that "that guy who wrote Kiss" is also seriously on the edge of technology and tech culture in many ways.

If you want a sneak peek at what he's going to be performing at the Superbowl this Sunday, ther are some great video clips from the CBS affiliate in Miami. Prince had told reporters he'd be answering some questions in a press conference, but played 3 songs for them instead. The station then staked out his rehearsal stage (shaped like the symbol!) with a helicopter and shot footage from the chopper. Judging by the lighting and choreography, since there's no sound, it looks like we'll see a medley of 5 or 6 songs, with Purple Rain thrown in towards the middle. There's a marching band, the Florida A&M University Marching 100, and if they actually release doves then he'll probably have to play "When Doves Cry". And Tipper Gore will have to apologize to us all for saying he was offensive, because Prince isn't offensive, he's cheesy.

I get excited about this stuff because I forget most people have never seen him play. (From a jaded reporter: "I've never been to a Prince press conference before, but after Thursday, I would recommend them to all my friends. In fact, I'd give it a 9 out of 10 because you can dance to it.") Anyway, I have a pretty exhaustive storehouse of otherwise-useless Prince knowledge, so feel free to ask any questions if you want in the comments.

Earlier this year, the New York Philharmonic started distributing some recordings of their works through the iTunes music store. On its own, that's not a particularly revolutionary achievement; These days, it seems downright obvious.

But what's remarkable is the culture of respect for the artists and thoughtful consideration of the future of their genre that the Philharmonic's president Zarin Mehta seems to have adopted as part of his embrace of new technologies. From a recent interview in Hemispheres magazine:

Q: Downloading from digital music jukeboxes is very popular. How did you arrange to use new media?

A: In order to make our live performances available for downloading, we had to work out our musicians’ remuneration. Music distribution is a question of marketing. If people are not buying it in the thousands, you’re wasting your time. So we’re excited that our musicians agreed to a revenue-sharing deal, rather than a flat payment up front for the recording project, as has always been the case. I believe our orchestra is composed of very, very smart people who are aware that this appearance on the Web is the wave of the future.

What we did led the national musicians’ union to initiate negotiations with the orchestra community. Most other orchestras may be able to do what we’re doing. And revenue sharing could apply not just to new technology, but also to a new CD or DVD. The next thing I would hope to work out with the musicians is videocasts.

The emphasis above is mine: orchestra members are still typically paid on a flat payment basis for their performances on classical recordings, as a vestige of the current royalty scheme which is designed to reward composers. Those composers, of course, have often been dead for dozens or even hundreds of years, which weakens their bargaining position with the record labels somewhat.

There's a modern counterpart here, too -- the many stories of pop acts, especially R&B groups, ending up broke after selling millions of records are a vestige of the fact that the music business has never rewarded its participants based on the value that they bring to the table. From the standpoint of the music business, it's a short step from being a member of TLC to being a first-chair violinist.

The good news is that Mehta also understands that improved distribution will benefit attendance at performances:

Until the advent of Web-based broadcasting, where did people hear concerts? On the radio, at the concert hall, or on CD. In the early days of television, in the ’60s, there was some exposure to classical music on regular shows—late-night talk shows or music variety shows. You had people like soprano Beverly Sills on the Tonight Show. You don’t see that anymore, so people have not been as exposed to it. But I think the Web is changing that. The fact that listeners can go to iTunes and see Madonna next to cellist Yo-Yo Ma says something.

(Thanks to Magnus for the image of Avery Fisher Hall, home of the Philharmonic.)

For a long time, I've been enamored of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. There's a lot of reasons, from their music to their various art projects and media hacks. But the one that's struck me as most compelling lately is The Manual. I'd guess the advice contained within would still be effective.

My reign as most verbose Justin Timberlake fanboy on the Internet is not yet complete. Thus, some links to augment the review of "SexyBack".

• The Observer has a lengthy review/interview on the eve of the publicity tour for FutureSex/LoveSounds:
  

  He's off again. 'SexyBack', an urgent, pulsing track, a cocktail of soaring, distorted vocals and heavy, electronic chords threaded together with rap, seems to be the album's mission statement. Like many of his new songs, it is musically complex; a fusion of rap, rock, funk, soul, gospel, new wave, opera, world music... everything, really. But it certainly does sexy alright: everyone's nodding their heads and mopping their brows, and it's only 8.40am. While the futuristic element looms large - 'the musical landscape of Tron', as someone rather lyrically describes it - Timberlake's familiar percussive beats and high, soulful voice are all still very much in place. 'That's the Prince influence,' he says of the vocals.

• Kelefa Sanneh in The New York Times points out that pop music is supposed to be sexy. Let's see here...
  

  Plenty of male pop stars through the ages have flaunted their own appeal. But it’s been nearly two decades since Prince posed naked on the cover of “Lovesexy” (perhaps that coinage helped inspire “SexyBack”), and the taboo against male preening is stronger than ever. For example, “Sexy Love,” a hit by the R&B singer Ne-Yo, conforms to the current status quo: unlike Mr. Timberlake, Ne-Yo goes out of his way to let listeners know he’s describing a woman (“I’m so addicted to how she’s the sweetest drug”), not himself.

• The requisite link to Justified, Justin Timberlake's debut solo album. Highly recommended.

• An interesting Stylus Magazine article reassessing Wham's Music from the Edge of Heaven. Money quote: "The ‘80s analogue to Justin isn’t Jacko, but George Michael, and not (just) ‘cause he’s a whiter shade of pale." I disagree, but it's worth a read.

• I mentioned Pitchfork and ILX (a.k.a. I Love Music). I didn't realize a significant number of my readers don't know these sites; They're the web's best sources for pretentious record reviews and pretentious record reviewers, respectively. I say that with no small amount of admiration, since I spent some time with music critics in one of my past lives. At least the ILM crew tends to have a sense of humor. I figured there'd be a thread for me, and hey whadaya know? Here it is.

• Oh, and despite my hate of jargon, some slipped in last time. "EPK" is the record-industry abbreviation for an electronic press kit; When you see stock footage of an artist plugging their record to an anonymous interviewer, or see the same 3 quotes about their new album show up in every press review, you're seeing the results of a well-constructed EPK. Think of it as a very elaborate multimedia press release.

Lots of people in both the music/media and technology businesses are obsessed with beating Apple's work on the iPod and iTunes. With the CES show being this week, that obsession will reach its annual peak, so I figured I'd take the time to post a list I'd made some time ago. Herewith, a list of the key dos and don'ts for beating Apple's iPod and iTunes, in no particular order.

• Do: Be Rock and Roll. Have an attitude, be All About The Music, and express yourself. Now, that doesn't mean you have to have faux-edgy marketing copy for your service or device, but just that you should make decisions for your products based on what a music fan would want.

• Don't: Try to teach kids about DRM. Now, if and when iTunes eventually loses in the market, it will be because of DRM. And you can get significant advantages by just embracing unprotected MP3s, since that's what most people want and they work with everything. But the thing is, DRM is boring. Teaching consumers about DRM is like giving your cat a bath: You're only going to piss her off, and she'd do a better job of it on her own anyway. Explain your lack of DRM in terms of user benefits instead of technology, and you'll avoid disgruntled customer testimonials.

• Do: Make something that breaks in, instead of breaking down. The iPod's greatest flaw is that it's designed to inspire reverence and requires being coddled. Remember being rock and roll? Rock is about leather and denim, which wear with time and get more personality as they're used. Kind of like a good guitar. And being able to drop an MP3 player in a crowded high school cafeteria without everyone laughing that your expensive device is destroyed is a killer app.