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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Best ideas possible. Everything you say would renew and transform culture and humanity. Ted for President.
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.
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.
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.
I wonder what these futuristic physical media might look like...
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."
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