I think recruiting from music schools is a brilliant idea. That's how everything else works! Why not music? Publicize those signings like the pro sports leagues publicize their newly-signed rookies.
I worked in the record industry for 30+years. (14 at Capitol Records, 10 at MCA, consulting the remaining years)
I wrote a widely respected newsletters for 17 years called Disc&DAT. (DAT meaning Digital Audio Technology) It was also posted on the industry’s most respected resource, AllAccess.com (If you Google my name with Disc&DAT, you’ll see many of the articles I wrote.
My editorials were in many cases about suggestions for labels to navigate the shifting tides of technology.
One of the constant issues I frequently wrote about was the fact that labels sacrificed long term artist development when MTV was born in 1981. Artist development monies previously used for press junkets, showcases, tour support, radio ads, were eradicated for funding videos.
That was the beginning of the end of labels seeking to secure artists for long term success. Every label’s Artist Development department was gone. It was all videos and marketing. And today, no label would sign an artist hoping to break them in two to three years. They look for immediate action. And where do they find it? On TikTok, YouTube, etc., where the audience is now.
My other reason for starting the newsletter was to hopefully communicate with label execs about how they were completely missing the Internet and all its potential.
Instead, they had me RIAA sue people for downloading. (Which of course did nothing due to darknets and networks offline)
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy said the Internet wasn’t an enemy, and in fact he used it to foster Wilco’s success after the label he was on refused to release an album. That album, ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ became a hit when Tweedy put it online for people to download for free. (Google Jeff Tweedy and the Wilco story to read about how he utilizes the Internet for long term success)
Old music is outselling new music in BIG percentages. Labels are generating billions by licensing old catalog they’ve bought, and by collecting streaming monies globally.
For artists today, the big money is in licensing, touring, and merchandising. They make gobs more from those areas, than they do from record sales.
Pull songs fromSpotify and elsewhere? If you’re an artist today, it’s all about ubiquity. More online platforms for music=More potential revenue.
One need only look at any charts showing today’s hit artists to see how temporal they all are. (Taylor Swift is the exception) What artists are there today that will be able to sell out arenas and stadiums in 10-20 years? That list is going to be very small.
#4 really hits home; in my field of mental health counseling, so much of the team of people who call the shots are people who have never come close to counseling clients (or have done so, but years prior). These are people who largely don't have the passion or empathy to make decisions based on the client's best interests. It's dominated instead by fear of liability, CYA measures, and "best practices" sent down from on high in academia (who mean well, for sure) but have spent little time wondering how it actually applies to humans outside perfectly controlled variables.
We need people who love music running music, just like we need people who love humans taking care of other humans.
There were and are elements of your points in place at some of the labels I've worked at or with over the years. This looks like a "best of " compilation of those labels and it's exactly what the industry requires to not disappear in a morass of corporate, computer operator driven nonsense.
The idea of an A&R person studying quantitative data, rather than going out and listening to music to discover new artists would have been unthinkable only a few short years ago. But then again… so much is unthinkable! Ch ch ch changes…
How is studying data - let's presume for an A&R person that means mostly to gauge popularity - any different from him going to clubs and seeing how full they are? Ideally he/she does both. And uses their ears for which they were hired.
I’m not sure they are entirely different. It’s more a question of proportionality: studying data in this era, checking out how full a club is in bygone era — versus, using taste, intuition, and discernment to envision the potential success of an artist. I may be mistaken, but my sense is that these days, there’s too much of the former and too little of the latter.
This reminded me of being in the lobby of Universal Records (London) a few years ago. On the wall was a large poster promoting a concert at a trendy hall for the label's new signings. There were 17 artists being promoted. The concert date was January and it was now late September. A quick google while I waited showed that of the 17 five were still on the label.
That's quite a statement of faithlessness, mistrust, and fear. The old, "throw it against the wall and see what sticks." One wonders how long it took to dispense with the other five!
The idea of the labels collaborating on a distribution platform is interesting, but I suspect unworkable for a number of reasons.
They were already trying to do this in the late 90's/early 2000's but couldn't agree on anything--everyone had their vision or already being worked on version of a way to sell people mp3's, but no-one was willing to budge (looking at you Sony). Plus you know it would have been a terrible interface and user experience (again: Sony) because they were completely obsessed with heavy DRM and the big tech talent was not working for the labels.
This allowed someone with vision, a genuine passion for music and a huge archest to call a meeting and say "Hey, how about you just have my company handle all that for you and you guys just sit back and collect the checks?" They all said "YES!" and that's how Steve Jobs sold the original iTunes music store concept. Even it didn't make a profit for Apple--it was a marketing move to sell iPods, and boy did it ever. At best, it broke even, but Apple was so swimming in cash they could live with it.
These days, again, the labels can't agree on anything and don't have top technical talent on their roster. Running a streaming service is really expensive, which is why Spotify loses tons of money--and that's even with not paying the labels more than dust. The idea that the labels would be able to cooperate, build a great product and find a way to not lose a ton of money in the process seems really far fetched given the last few decades.
You are spot on Ted! I think your chances of being recruited to head a label are pretty slim. But let me know when you'd like to start raising money for the new label!
I really appreciated your article. It would be great if someone would implement it. I really feel compassion for musicians trying to make a living. If everyone had to jump through all the hoops that musicians do to get paid for their work everyone would be starving and homeless.
It’s truly a wonder. I suppose it’s because music is considered tangential to life, a pleasantry, an add on. I’d love to see what would happen to people living in the complete absence of all music for say, a year. My guess is the results would border on the catastrophic.
I am tempted to claim the opposite—that people’s inability to appreciate silence is the yin to the yang of musical appreciation, which is not really enhanced by having music blare into one’s ears all day long, and that a development of the public’s music taste will coincide with a new appreciation for the importance of silence in their lives.
You make an excellent point. It’s possible we are overdosing on music. In its ubiquity, we’ve come to devalue it. Perhaps, as you’ve suggested, we need a reset; a break from recorded music — say, one day a week. I’ve been doing that without fail for over thirty-five years. From Friday at sundown, until Saturday evening at sundown.
I’m still a believer in the power of good music, however one defines it. For me, a year without music is unthinkable.
I think this statement is slightly off topic but one I truly appreciate. I’m terribly noise distracted. I applaud the sound design awards at the Oscars because it truly kills a movie for me. Not bragging- it’s like spectrum or something.
I take in everything like a tunnel. Chaotic sound can be hard on me. I adore silence and can’t believe this world is so noisy. The pauses are as important as the notes, right? I’m as shocked as you are that most people can’t hear that.
Hi Peter, for myself music is one of the most wonderful things of life.
My car radio stopped working about 6 months ago. Driving the car with the radio or CD player made driving a very enjoyable experience, without a working radio or CD player I know for certain that I need music in my life.
What? No discussion of the deteriorating quality of the music itself? Ever since the dawn of recording, there have been singers or bands that have, periodically, broken new ground and injected new life into the industry. Over the last couple of decades, that hasn't happened and as result, from a talent perspective, the industry is all but moribund.
Are you sure that what you're perceiving isn't a side-effect of greater accessibility and, perhaps, saturation (not a bad thing)? I would argue that there's an incredible amount of new and interesting music out there - more than ever - but it's not generally promoted by "the industry" because the industry isn't necessarily about music anymore. It's about capital and mass appeal.
That's on the nose, Corey. Perhaps David was referring to pop music, what they play on the radio and what makes the charts. There I would agree 100%. I've heard some damn good new music over the past few years, but it has to be ferreted out.
Yes...that's what I had in mind. However, allow me to temper that thought with another. Given the state of popular music, finding those diamonds on the beach amongst all the detritus is much more difficult as is the incentive to seek it out.
My dismal attitude towards the state of modern popular music has been somewhat moderated by listening to some great radio stations--KXCI in Tucson, KEXP out of Seattle, and New Orleans’ WWOZ.
Thanks, Ted, for having the rare blog that is smart and courageous when it comes to the world of music. I feel confident that none of your suggestions will be implemented by the big labels, but you lay out a roadmap to success that could work and should at least be considered. I'm flummoxed that people berate you for looking to music schools, and I wonder if it's an extension of the distrust of "experts" and "elites" that has permeated our culture and poisoned our political landscape. Probably yes.
Hi Ted. These ideas are legendary. The music biz is stuck in old ways of thinking and really deserve the position they are in.
In addition, it amazes me, being an internet music publisher, how few musicians reach out to get noticed to my readers. Artists need to take some ownership too of their own brand building.
Agreed, in part. Yes, it’s important to the extent that we were involved in “brand-building” when we were on major labels (although, god knows we never called it that!) Today too many artists are primarily building their brands, and secondarily involved in creating their actual music.
Thank you for the reply. I bet is is a battle between the two. With kids growing up online and on their phones, hopefully artists have freinds that could help with these remedial tasks like promotion.
I picture playing cards with nice art on one side and words on the back, with the data inside stored losslessly in multiple channels in read only memory and accessed by the player with an NFC wireless connection. No deterioration from scratches or other damage. Cards make it easy to store large collections and enable players that can shuffle or stack many cards. The data could include text, videos and images. I would also love to see all the pre mastered tracks stored on the MusiCard (I guess I can call it something, since I’m inventing it here) with the mix as an additional track and the playback device could allow the user to listen to isolated tracks, remix themselves, or download remixes that other share online.
Even with your spot-on 5-year plan...I suspect that the deterioration/damage to listeners' musical taste since the 80s would require a significantly longer period from which to recover, even if artists were given the overdue leg up you describe.
But...what if algorithms churning out countless yottabytes of the contents of their prediction pattern-matching permutations as "music" could actually BENEFICIALLY accelerate the decline of listeners' ability to discern real, meaningful, resonant, and authentic art...such that the broad resurgence of music made from heart & soul & passion would happen all the sooner? Could the wide-ranging return of vital, honest music depend on letting people have what they've been trained to want until they recognize on their own how badly they've been beguiled & defrauded of their innate capacity to appreciate depth of meaning and connection? Mind you, I'm looking at this on a time scale beyond 5 years...I'm thinking of a decade, at least.
From a song I've been sketching: "Fuckery eventually eats itself..."
So, what if we helped it along?
And from my notebook of quotes from my dear old Dad: "Son, that door is locked from the inside."
The music biz isn't alone in its decline; it's part of the widespread social exhaustion--seen anything actually new from Apple? From politics? From the other arts?
Wow! I love everything you are saying! The current approach to running the industry is running it into the ground. The lazy, do nothing, don't invest in the future thinkers running things now are cutting their own throats with their greed. Everything you've said makes a heck of a lot more sense than what these lazy and criminally greedy fools are doing to the industry now. Any current successes occur in spite of these people, not because of them.
New hymns and echoes upon an unsuspecting era ! Pick up thy sepulcher and walk ! Thanks Ted .. decent article.. it’s why we pay you the big bucks.. or .. morsels
I think recruiting from music schools is a brilliant idea. That's how everything else works! Why not music? Publicize those signings like the pro sports leagues publicize their newly-signed rookies.
Absolutely!
I worked in the record industry for 30+years. (14 at Capitol Records, 10 at MCA, consulting the remaining years)
I wrote a widely respected newsletters for 17 years called Disc&DAT. (DAT meaning Digital Audio Technology) It was also posted on the industry’s most respected resource, AllAccess.com (If you Google my name with Disc&DAT, you’ll see many of the articles I wrote.
My editorials were in many cases about suggestions for labels to navigate the shifting tides of technology.
One of the constant issues I frequently wrote about was the fact that labels sacrificed long term artist development when MTV was born in 1981. Artist development monies previously used for press junkets, showcases, tour support, radio ads, were eradicated for funding videos.
That was the beginning of the end of labels seeking to secure artists for long term success. Every label’s Artist Development department was gone. It was all videos and marketing. And today, no label would sign an artist hoping to break them in two to three years. They look for immediate action. And where do they find it? On TikTok, YouTube, etc., where the audience is now.
My other reason for starting the newsletter was to hopefully communicate with label execs about how they were completely missing the Internet and all its potential.
Instead, they had me RIAA sue people for downloading. (Which of course did nothing due to darknets and networks offline)
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy said the Internet wasn’t an enemy, and in fact he used it to foster Wilco’s success after the label he was on refused to release an album. That album, ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ became a hit when Tweedy put it online for people to download for free. (Google Jeff Tweedy and the Wilco story to read about how he utilizes the Internet for long term success)
Old music is outselling new music in BIG percentages. Labels are generating billions by licensing old catalog they’ve bought, and by collecting streaming monies globally.
For artists today, the big money is in licensing, touring, and merchandising. They make gobs more from those areas, than they do from record sales.
Pull songs fromSpotify and elsewhere? If you’re an artist today, it’s all about ubiquity. More online platforms for music=More potential revenue.
One need only look at any charts showing today’s hit artists to see how temporal they all are. (Taylor Swift is the exception) What artists are there today that will be able to sell out arenas and stadiums in 10-20 years? That list is going to be very small.
#4 really hits home; in my field of mental health counseling, so much of the team of people who call the shots are people who have never come close to counseling clients (or have done so, but years prior). These are people who largely don't have the passion or empathy to make decisions based on the client's best interests. It's dominated instead by fear of liability, CYA measures, and "best practices" sent down from on high in academia (who mean well, for sure) but have spent little time wondering how it actually applies to humans outside perfectly controlled variables.
We need people who love music running music, just like we need people who love humans taking care of other humans.
This is a very fine article.
There were and are elements of your points in place at some of the labels I've worked at or with over the years. This looks like a "best of " compilation of those labels and it's exactly what the industry requires to not disappear in a morass of corporate, computer operator driven nonsense.
The idea of an A&R person studying quantitative data, rather than going out and listening to music to discover new artists would have been unthinkable only a few short years ago. But then again… so much is unthinkable! Ch ch ch changes…
How is studying data - let's presume for an A&R person that means mostly to gauge popularity - any different from him going to clubs and seeing how full they are? Ideally he/she does both. And uses their ears for which they were hired.
I’m not sure they are entirely different. It’s more a question of proportionality: studying data in this era, checking out how full a club is in bygone era — versus, using taste, intuition, and discernment to envision the potential success of an artist. I may be mistaken, but my sense is that these days, there’s too much of the former and too little of the latter.
This reminded me of being in the lobby of Universal Records (London) a few years ago. On the wall was a large poster promoting a concert at a trendy hall for the label's new signings. There were 17 artists being promoted. The concert date was January and it was now late September. A quick google while I waited showed that of the 17 five were still on the label.
That's quite a statement of faithlessness, mistrust, and fear. The old, "throw it against the wall and see what sticks." One wonders how long it took to dispense with the other five!
Best ideas possible. Everything you say would renew and transform culture and humanity. Ted for President.
Aaaahh, the sweet sound of ingenuity and common sense. Thanks Ted!
The idea of the labels collaborating on a distribution platform is interesting, but I suspect unworkable for a number of reasons.
They were already trying to do this in the late 90's/early 2000's but couldn't agree on anything--everyone had their vision or already being worked on version of a way to sell people mp3's, but no-one was willing to budge (looking at you Sony). Plus you know it would have been a terrible interface and user experience (again: Sony) because they were completely obsessed with heavy DRM and the big tech talent was not working for the labels.
This allowed someone with vision, a genuine passion for music and a huge archest to call a meeting and say "Hey, how about you just have my company handle all that for you and you guys just sit back and collect the checks?" They all said "YES!" and that's how Steve Jobs sold the original iTunes music store concept. Even it didn't make a profit for Apple--it was a marketing move to sell iPods, and boy did it ever. At best, it broke even, but Apple was so swimming in cash they could live with it.
These days, again, the labels can't agree on anything and don't have top technical talent on their roster. Running a streaming service is really expensive, which is why Spotify loses tons of money--and that's even with not paying the labels more than dust. The idea that the labels would be able to cooperate, build a great product and find a way to not lose a ton of money in the process seems really far fetched given the last few decades.
You are spot on Ted! I think your chances of being recruited to head a label are pretty slim. But let me know when you'd like to start raising money for the new label!
I really appreciated your article. It would be great if someone would implement it. I really feel compassion for musicians trying to make a living. If everyone had to jump through all the hoops that musicians do to get paid for their work everyone would be starving and homeless.
It’s truly a wonder. I suppose it’s because music is considered tangential to life, a pleasantry, an add on. I’d love to see what would happen to people living in the complete absence of all music for say, a year. My guess is the results would border on the catastrophic.
I am tempted to claim the opposite—that people’s inability to appreciate silence is the yin to the yang of musical appreciation, which is not really enhanced by having music blare into one’s ears all day long, and that a development of the public’s music taste will coincide with a new appreciation for the importance of silence in their lives.
You make an excellent point. It’s possible we are overdosing on music. In its ubiquity, we’ve come to devalue it. Perhaps, as you’ve suggested, we need a reset; a break from recorded music — say, one day a week. I’ve been doing that without fail for over thirty-five years. From Friday at sundown, until Saturday evening at sundown.
I’m still a believer in the power of good music, however one defines it. For me, a year without music is unthinkable.
Thanks for your thoughtful response.
I think this statement is slightly off topic but one I truly appreciate. I’m terribly noise distracted. I applaud the sound design awards at the Oscars because it truly kills a movie for me. Not bragging- it’s like spectrum or something.
I take in everything like a tunnel. Chaotic sound can be hard on me. I adore silence and can’t believe this world is so noisy. The pauses are as important as the notes, right? I’m as shocked as you are that most people can’t hear that.
Hi Peter, for myself music is one of the most wonderful things of life.
My car radio stopped working about 6 months ago. Driving the car with the radio or CD player made driving a very enjoyable experience, without a working radio or CD player I know for certain that I need music in my life.
Dan
What? No discussion of the deteriorating quality of the music itself? Ever since the dawn of recording, there have been singers or bands that have, periodically, broken new ground and injected new life into the industry. Over the last couple of decades, that hasn't happened and as result, from a talent perspective, the industry is all but moribund.
Are you sure that what you're perceiving isn't a side-effect of greater accessibility and, perhaps, saturation (not a bad thing)? I would argue that there's an incredible amount of new and interesting music out there - more than ever - but it's not generally promoted by "the industry" because the industry isn't necessarily about music anymore. It's about capital and mass appeal.
That's on the nose, Corey. Perhaps David was referring to pop music, what they play on the radio and what makes the charts. There I would agree 100%. I've heard some damn good new music over the past few years, but it has to be ferreted out.
Yes...that's what I had in mind. However, allow me to temper that thought with another. Given the state of popular music, finding those diamonds on the beach amongst all the detritus is much more difficult as is the incentive to seek it out.
My dismal attitude towards the state of modern popular music has been somewhat moderated by listening to some great radio stations--KXCI in Tucson, KEXP out of Seattle, and New Orleans’ WWOZ.
Thanks, Ted, for having the rare blog that is smart and courageous when it comes to the world of music. I feel confident that none of your suggestions will be implemented by the big labels, but you lay out a roadmap to success that could work and should at least be considered. I'm flummoxed that people berate you for looking to music schools, and I wonder if it's an extension of the distrust of "experts" and "elites" that has permeated our culture and poisoned our political landscape. Probably yes.
Hi Ted. These ideas are legendary. The music biz is stuck in old ways of thinking and really deserve the position they are in.
In addition, it amazes me, being an internet music publisher, how few musicians reach out to get noticed to my readers. Artists need to take some ownership too of their own brand building.
Agreed, in part. Yes, it’s important to the extent that we were involved in “brand-building” when we were on major labels (although, god knows we never called it that!) Today too many artists are primarily building their brands, and secondarily involved in creating their actual music.
Thank you for the reply. I bet is is a battle between the two. With kids growing up online and on their phones, hopefully artists have freinds that could help with these remedial tasks like promotion.
I wonder what these futuristic physical media might look like...
I enjoyed this T Bone Burnett talk on the topic of future physical media:
https://americanamusic.org/news/t-bone-burnetts-keynote-speech-americanafest-2022
Shit, the guy is saying exactly the same things as Ted
I picture playing cards with nice art on one side and words on the back, with the data inside stored losslessly in multiple channels in read only memory and accessed by the player with an NFC wireless connection. No deterioration from scratches or other damage. Cards make it easy to store large collections and enable players that can shuffle or stack many cards. The data could include text, videos and images. I would also love to see all the pre mastered tracks stored on the MusiCard (I guess I can call it something, since I’m inventing it here) with the mix as an additional track and the playback device could allow the user to listen to isolated tracks, remix themselves, or download remixes that other share online.
Whoa amazing, I’d totally buy that.
You have to ask yourself, why would you buy a physical item on the age of streaming?
Even with your spot-on 5-year plan...I suspect that the deterioration/damage to listeners' musical taste since the 80s would require a significantly longer period from which to recover, even if artists were given the overdue leg up you describe.
But...what if algorithms churning out countless yottabytes of the contents of their prediction pattern-matching permutations as "music" could actually BENEFICIALLY accelerate the decline of listeners' ability to discern real, meaningful, resonant, and authentic art...such that the broad resurgence of music made from heart & soul & passion would happen all the sooner? Could the wide-ranging return of vital, honest music depend on letting people have what they've been trained to want until they recognize on their own how badly they've been beguiled & defrauded of their innate capacity to appreciate depth of meaning and connection? Mind you, I'm looking at this on a time scale beyond 5 years...I'm thinking of a decade, at least.
From a song I've been sketching: "Fuckery eventually eats itself..."
So, what if we helped it along?
And from my notebook of quotes from my dear old Dad: "Son, that door is locked from the inside."
Bret .. you had me until the song sketch
Fair enough, Jerry.
Brilliant column.
The music biz isn't alone in its decline; it's part of the widespread social exhaustion--seen anything actually new from Apple? From politics? From the other arts?
Wow! I love everything you are saying! The current approach to running the industry is running it into the ground. The lazy, do nothing, don't invest in the future thinkers running things now are cutting their own throats with their greed. Everything you've said makes a heck of a lot more sense than what these lazy and criminally greedy fools are doing to the industry now. Any current successes occur in spite of these people, not because of them.
New hymns and echoes upon an unsuspecting era ! Pick up thy sepulcher and walk ! Thanks Ted .. decent article.. it’s why we pay you the big bucks.. or .. morsels