The Industry Wants Their Hand Deeper In The Bands Pockets
November 26, 2008 by Scott
While CD sales are down, digital sales are up for some companies but it still doesn’t hold a match to what they used to make in CD sales before the Napster age. So what do the record companies want? They want to dip their hands deeper in to the pockets of the musicians and take money from ticket sales and merchandise, the only things that the bands can really make money off of.
They say they want a more fair percentage of the money they put in to promoting and launching a band. One of those record companies that is doing well with digital sales is Atlantic, a unit or Warner records and One of the biggest record companies in the business.
This is why everyone hates the record industry and why a lot of bands employ private PR firms. Some of these record companies dump loads of money in to promoting a band and sometimes a lot of that money is wasteful. Look at how much money was dumped in to the Death Magnetic and AC/DC campaign. How much hype was created for that. Now look at how much money was dumped in to Chinese Democracy press. A fraction of what was dumped in to the other two. Granted the hype behind Chinese Democracy has been present for the last 10 years or so, but Metallica and AC/DC are established enough that I don’t feel that it was necessary for as much promotion as there was.
The smaller, independent record labels are probably doing it right. They launch new bands as tour support and if the band is good they get the recognition. They don’t dump unnecessary money into hyping a band that they know will be more of an underground act and won’t sell as many records as one of their headlining bands.
Prime example of a label hyping a band that doesn’t appeal to as many as they thought would…Black Tide. Interscope Records dumped an insane amount of money in to this band with faith that the fact that they are young and metal, it would appeal to a lot of people. The music appealed more to a younger crowd of metal fans and Tiger Beat reading, obsessive teenie bopping girls and the more mature metal community bashed the living shit out of them. They put on a good live show and their debut album is alright, but I think they are in great debt to Interscope and will be for a few more years.
So do the record companies need to dip in to show ticket sales and touring merch? I don’t know a lot about the record industry but I know it’s not cheap to launch or promote a band but do I think they need to be diggin in to the musicians pockets? I don’t think so. What I think is the same thing I have said many times before. They need to learn to adapt to the new age and they might have to scale back some top officials salaries in order to make the company profitable instead of taking more money from the people that keep them in business in the first place.
Image©MetalMartyr.com
We’re watching it happen to the auto industry with the collapse of Ford, GM, and Chrysler, who are now begging for help from the federal government. The same will come to pass with the RIAA. “Hooray, let’s listen to multiplatinum Metallica in our SUVs!” we cried in 1993.
Well the bottom falls out eventually, and what we’re in now is the painful process of that fallout. The fat cats will burn through every bit of marketable talent and innovation until eventually there will just be the ashes of the music industry as we know it, and out of it will rise a new way for musicians to live.
Remember, this is a cycle: sure there are new factors thanks to internet distribution and marketing, but it’s just like in the 50s, when pop rock got really irritating and reached a ceiling, where everyone dressed and sounded the same, a tiny number of bands dominated the airwaves, and rock and roll became square as hell. Meanwhilst car companies churned out huge gas guzzlers, and baby boomers comfortably settled into childhood. Those children got older though, just like children of the 90s like me (I’m 24), and decided they were fucking sick of it, and what ensued gave birth indirectly to metal.
Hang on to your seats it’s going to be a bumpy ride, one that began with the death of quality mainstream rock, and will end with the dawn of a new era.
I think one of the Auto industries biggest downfall is that they tried competing with each other in the muscle car trade. Concepts are cool, but with the gas prices and the price of the cars, it’s stupid. They would have 1 or 2 different fuel efficient cars and would say “This is our fuel efficient line”, while the foreign makers entire lines are fuel efficient and not nearly as ugly as the efficient American car.
It’s like they say “Here’s a substandard product…but it’s American made so you can feel good about yourself.” Meanwhile their companies are going down the shit-hole while their CEO’s are still getting paid fat wages, perks and bonuses.
They say that shit rolls down hill…seems to be a pretty steep hill these days.
well, one thing is really killing the industry is the illegal downloading, but now days they have the best technology to have the best sound and audio, but to me personally and i’m talking about music in general, its running out if originality, i mean like pop and rock(mainstream music in general) is nothing but shitty stuff, i really don’t see great song or great albums like in the past, for example a great album from the 80’s still be played now days and an album from now days i really doubt will be play 10 years for now, why? obvious.
So maybe record companies have to start signing more original and creative bands and singers or start doing something about it with the ones already have.