I SO GET IT NOW!

Paul McCartney will live forever. Bono and Jay Z are trying to get in on the action. Chris Martin scrapping at the heels. It is a very exclusive club, the Live Forever Club. You have to prove yourself dedicated to the core. Anti-human. Pro-Highlander. THE QUICKENING COMETH!

Re the subscription idea, I’ve been toying with it for a few years. Working out how to implement it and balance it with the way the rest of the word operates is the tricky thing.

And Tego has a point.
I totally got a whole bunch of shit out of my time at Interscope. Like the keyboard I’m tapping this message to you with, just for starters. HOWEVER: most of what I got out of Interscope was wisdom. And I shall pass all of it on to youse, in time. Then all you’ll need is a bank loan. And talent. Of course.

The anti-capitalist consumer perspective on major labels doesn’t tell half of the story. In a lot of ways they don’t know the half of the evils, in the same breath they don’t know the good within the system. There will need to be a system of major label forever, with no overground there will be no underground, how many MySpaces are their in the world now? What stops you from downloading everything? What makes you download what you download? If you have the time to trawl through every MP3 on the internet then more power

The biggest acts of 30, 20 and 10 years ago, signing a recording deal with a CONCERT PROMOTER keeping them in international stadium/ festival work for another 30,20.10 years.

Its evil genius. Those acts make more cheddar out of touring than sales anyway (U2, Madona etc), but by opting out of the major rec-company system it causes two effects. Firstly, it means that older acts who had hits back when records sold continue to have profile and constant revenue stream from concerts/ festies etc. The fan base is already there. They bought the records for the last 2 decades.

Secondly (this is the bad one!), outside of the old major label system, there is no trickle down of money. Currently, huge, major platinum acts fund the smaller ones at a label. Without Madona or U2 or Jayz or REM at the major, there can be no new entry level artists.

So, oldies got the monopoly on the next decade of music industry cash.

Clever fucks.

(p.s Paul McCartney is signed to Starbucks. Exactly the same thing)

The assurance thing though comes back to what we were saying the other day about proper editorial online (in print as well but that’s a whole mess of branding, investment and pressure). An actual stop gap between recommendation and purchase. The Playlouder reviews were one of two British based review sites that seemed to influence opinion. We’re now down to one (Drownedinsound) and because it’s existed since before the full on collapse, they’re not ready to accept their roll in the redesign of the industry. I’m drumming home the point to the people I work with at magazines and online that when the industry collapses, they’ll be fighting over the corpse, at the moment they’re sure the non-industry brands will protect them, but there’s no guarantee of that. You only have to go back 10 years to see how “Uncool” music in this country can be.

I don’t think it’s revolution we need. I think that plays into the hands of the desperate few. Right now we need Sony, Universal and Warners to take their hits like men and develop the next phase. Ultimately, we need to let the people decide.

Tego, your “assurance in music” point is an excellent one.

unfortunately my cd didn’t come with it. =[

I was wondering whether it is coming separately?

x

Never mind what would happen to Lennon/Hendrix/Lydon – what about Elton John? Or Warren Zevon? Or Phil Collins? They’d never get past the gateposts for looking like pedophiles!