Topic: Bob Lefsetz on Saving the Music Business
- Jun 25, 2008 05:58pm by NRG - livin the art that is life !
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Saving The Music Business
Want to save the music business? Manage a band. Nurture talent. Do everything in your power to get it exposed. Don’t sit in front of your computer dreaming of new schemes of distribution… You’ll never get the rights!
Talent. That’s where the business is focused today.
Kind of funny if you think about it, because talent has never been so confused. Do you follow your own muse, or deliver the Top Forty hit the major label wants? Do you record other people’s material? Do you try out for "American Idol", hoping to be rocketed to fame? Do you believe your parents and girlfriend when they say you are good, or are you willing to go to an independent expert for a more honest appraisal?
Come on. If you want to be in this business, you know what’s good and you know what sells. Put your time in. Don’t try to piggyback on other people’s efforts, they don’t need your help. Foster new music.
Believe me, Doug Morris doesn’t need your help. Your distribution paradigm is worthless without a ton of cash to pay Universal and the other label groups. And, they’re not going to let you do it your way, no matter how good you think your idea is. They’ll cripple you from the outset. You’ve heard of Apple, right? And MTV? The labels are so fearful of being screwed, they’ll kick the tires forever. And mandate a governor on your engine.
AEG and Live Nation? If you want to go be a pawn in their game, be my guest. It’s like working at the label decades ago. Start at the bottom, and if you’ve got a good nose for what sells, if you can make them money, you might move up the food chain. Don’t start your own promotion company. Unless you have little financial ambition. You can promote acts that will never break through in venues no one wants to play in, but if you want name talent, the agents will cripple you, put you out of business. And, if you manage to have a successful show, said act will suddenly be in business with Live Nation or AEG…
As for management… Irving Azoff will make a deal with you every day of the week. If you come in with an act. He doesn’t need some brilliant twentysomething to teach him how to revolutionize the business, he’s already revolutionizing the business. By neutralizing power, by getting the big boys to play into his hand, play his game. He did this by leveraging talent. Where’s your stable of talent?
You might criticize Front Line and so many of the big management companies for not developing acts. Hey, these guys could be your parents, they want to make money, first and foremost they’re businessmen. They risked decades back. Now it’s time for you to risk!
Finding good talent is the hardest job in this business. Exposing it, breaking it through, is almost as difficult. But this is where the opportunities lie. There will be a new Irving Azoff, a new David Geffen, but he won’t start off working for a public company, an established player, he’ll work for himself. He’ll have an eye for talent and a cunning personality that bonds said talent to him. He’ll see the talent as number one. Not radio, TV or the retailer. That’s why there’s such an opportunity. The major labels are not about talent first, they’re about money first. They’re about keeping up their relationships with the infrastructure. Acts come and go, but the infrastructure remains. Their goal is to eliminate risk, not enhance it. Whereas you must be all about the risk.
There is no easy way out. If you’re looking for someone with copyrights to help you make your millions, you’re a sorry-assed loser. And, a hint, just in case you go this route. Steal the music first. That’s the only way you can get the majors to make a deal. Can you say YouTube, MySpace…
But really, that’s the past. The future is new acts. Maybe niche, maybe more mainstream. You determine this, not the crusty old infrastructure of yore. Utilize new communication/word of mouth techniques. Use technology to your advantage. But bring us more great acts. That’s what we’re lacking, not business insight.
- Jul 7, 2008 06:47pm by NRG - livin the art that is life !
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Bob on Careers
If I hear one more "artist" complain that he can’t make any money selling recorded music I’m going to explode.
You shouldn’t be in the business of selling recorded music, you should be in the business of establishing a CAREER!
Oh, then there’s the professional songwriter, bitching too. Maybe he should go into advertising, shit, that’s where the acts seem to be going. And, for the mainstream crap they write, there are still radio performance fees and ringtones and… So, it’s not like they’ve been completely fucked in the ass. And the record companies? They’re part of the problem, not part of the solution. If the record companies were so damn good, they would have built some career artists over the last decade and a half instead of making one hit wonder crap and burning out via overexposure anyone with a chance of a lasting career.
The game has changed. Please stop worrying about instant monetization and start thinking how you can play music for a living for your entire life. Unless, of course, you don’t want to. If you want to whore yourself out to everybody, not write your own songs, probably because you’ve got no talent, and be auto-tuned to death, follow J. Lo into the public eye. A public eye where she’s been usurped in fame by talentless twits like Paris and Nicole and Kim K., who can’t dance or act.
How many people want to go see J. Lo live? Come on? Almost none!
Maybe if the label ran another single up the chart. But shit, does she still have a deal? And those singles don’t mean much anymore. You can have a hit and not sell tickets for shit.
If you’re playing the old game, you’re gonna LOSE! It’s just that simple.
What you need first and foremost are fans. Establish the fan base, then you’ll get paid. Don’t do it in reverse, don’t try to get paid up front. That’ll KILL your career.
When you’re nobody, almost nobody wants to buy your music. So, why in the hell aren’t you giving it away? Making it easier for people? Sure, sell it too, for those who want to own it as a badge of honor. The more tools you give fans, the easier it is for them to spread the word, all the while bonding them to you.
And you’ve got to play live. Not only for the performance fees, but the merch fees. It would be as if you could sell during sex. Yup, the company that figures that one out is going to make ALL the money. You’re in the middle of coitus and a firm wants to sell you a DVD, some memory of the experience, something that will remind you how fucking great this lay is, YOU WANT THAT! That’s what selling merch at the gig is equivalent to. High on the show people will blow money they’d keep in their wallet the next week, if not the next day. And, having spent their money on merch, they’re going to utilize it, wear it, spreading the word.
So, you don’t want to play live?
Fuck you. Even Steely Dan went back on the road.
Records have become so formulaic, so tweaked in the studio, that they slide right off of people. It’s the live experience that’s memorable, that’s special. Don’t worry about perfection, don’t put the gig on hard drive, we’re selling love here, and love is all about IMPERFECTION! The flaws are what make us lovable. Take a risk, do something different. Don’t be worried it sounds bad. Ever listen to a boot of your favorite concert? You can be stunned how bad it sounds…but at the gig? IT WAS FANTASTIC!
The Internet is not your enemy, it’s your friend. The more people you can drive to your site, the greater potential fan base you’ve got. And, your site must first and foremost be about the music. Traffic is not enough. If traffic made musical stars, Tila Tequila would have a Top Ten record. Sure, she’s got a TV show, but you just know she’ll be snorting cocaine as an Orange County housewife in mere minutes. Tila is selling the train-wreck. You’re selling the road trip. Something long, but satisfying.
We’re never going back to the past. I think recorded music should be monetized online. But, unless everyone’s got a subscription, nascent acts are STILL going to have to give their music away. Your music is your calling card. You’re gonna give away your image, your bio, but hold back the one thing that seals the deal?
Furthermore, your music must be GOOD! All those fired A&R execs should set up shop where they charge acts money to tell them they suck. So we won’t hear these people whine and bitch that the system is unfair. Oh, don’t complain about overpaid fucks. One meeting with John Kalodner will tell you more than endless sessions playing your music for your relatives. There are experts that will tell you to keep your day job. You just don’t want to know the truth… You can’t HANDLE the truth!
So, learn how to play. Like everybody did after seeing the Beatles. Stop planning your career arc, and start practicing. You won’t have enough TIME to do your finances and plot out the day to day if you’re truly good and make it. That’s why they invented managers, lawyers and accountants.
But, you might not have all of those for a while. Not that you’ll need them. Because it’s going to take you a long time to get traction. The slower the build, the more you hold back if you get a break, the longer your career.
Everything fast shortens the length of your ultimate time on stage. Every endorsement, every sponsorship, takes years off your career, just like smoking takes years off your life. Your audience needs to believe that THEY own you, not the man. That if you’re beholden to ANYBODY, it’s them!
You’re no longer owned by the label. You’re a free agent, forever, if you’re willing to take the challenge. But that requires you to believe in yourself, that requires a lot of hard work, that requires it to be all about the music, not the trappings. All the old established farts are so eager to get paid, soon, in prodigious amounts, that they’re going to tell you otherwise. Shit, they want you to do that sponsorship deal primarily because THEY CAN COMMISSION IT! Listen to YOUR heart, not that of someone who can’t play and is more passionate about lifestyle than music. The man is no longer holding you down, keeping you back, that’s a construct in your mind. The world is your oyster. Go out and eat it!
