gah
This is fucking ridiculous, you guys. Please, if you’re so head-up-your-ass that you haven’t been paying attention to the stuff that Idolator talks about every goddamn day, try not to embarass yourself in public, OK?
This is why the major label record company must cease to exist in its current format. They will always, ALWAYS, look for the opportunity in which they can amass the most amount of money.
Major labels are in trouble because they made a strategic blunder in trying to supress downloading rather than embracing it, but even under the iTunes scheme the old model wouldn’t work. Their error wasn’t in trying to make lots of money—that’s actually how businesses stay in business—but in the path they went down in attempting to do so, which caused them to make far less money than they were before. But no matter what happened, they were always going to make less money. The problem now is in figuring out what to do about that, and nobody has the faintest fucking clue.
Right now we’re in a particularly interesting time. I have never been so exposed to so much new music at such a rapid pace. It’s not just because I work in music journalism, either.
Yes, it is.
The programs and platforms that the internet gives to the general public means that anyone with a little creativity can become an overnight star and cultivate their own career on their own terms. Think of Lily Allen
Famous daughter of a famous person.
or Katy Perry
Former Christian pop artist.
on a larger scale
Larger than KATY PERRY?!
and anyone Pitchfork has ever hyped on a smaller scale.
The vast majority of Pitchfork hypees are not making a living off their music. No offense intended to Pitchfork, which would be very happy if their favorite artists became successful. But 30,000 units shifted ain’t a living, nor is touring small clubs.
Anyone can be a musician! You can be Greg Gillis, former scientist by day and mash-up DJ by night until you’ve finally created a career, all on your own, without the “help” of the big boys. Think about that! Think about it!I sure hope someone thinks about Greg Gillis!
That’s amazing, and for a major label, that’s pretty fucking frieghtening. They no longer get to control who you listen to, and how you find your music.
If you think major labels are worried about losing their market shares to indie labels, you are fucking insane. Music as a whole has fallen far behind other forms of entertainment in terms of absolute sales and in terms of attention, interest, and involvement. Music doesn’t matter as much anymore in the wider society, having been eclipsed by cable, video games, and the internet. That’s not because of anything the major labels did. It’s just the modern world.
Now, Swedish pop stars named Lykke Li can plan a U.S. tour before her album even drops.
Tour at a loss.
So when I read articles about Wrigley sponsoring songs by Chris Brown, I get a little disgusted. But then I see what their sponsorship is, and I laugh, for their desperation and feel sick for their greed. There’s a reason why the independent market has exploded, and here’s hoping that it continues to grow and that those greedy fucks at the major labels drown in their swimming pool-like vaults of gold coins.Hey, all you people on the internet not trying to make a living off music! This thing that has gotten you worked up is exactly the kind of thing that’s necessary if people are going to continue to make pop music without it being government funded or a charity case. You can say that the Wrigley’s thing is a clumsy form of marketing, but this deal is an example of what you’d think anti-major-label people would be overjoyed about, since it involves a third party absorbing some of the costs of production. It allows musicians to make music without the restraints of a label. But no, musicians shouldn’t turn to big bad corporations for money—they should rely on the people! You know, the ones who download their albums for free and don’t listen to the radio.
There is nothing honorable, nothing decent, nothing pure about the history of commercial music. The last thing we want when it’s in trouble is for it to suddenly find morality. Fucking spare me.
There’s part of me that sides with Britt/Gawker here. Maybe it’s entrenched rockism (everything must “stand for something”/”be authentic”/”be meaningful”). Maybe it’s that raw nerve that gets tweaked every time I realize that the major labels are -in terms of business structure- just another pie for the beast to put its tentacles in. However, the logical adult who can rough out the return on 50k in sales divided by four people and a label says “Fuck it, take the Gum money.” Not to get all Hipster Runoff, but a band can’t really be “all about the music” anymore. Even deliberate anonymity is just another facet of a group’s “personal brand.” Public narrative also plays into it. Would “Tha Carter III” really have gotten such effusive props were it just 80 minutes of intermittently brilliant doggeral from a previously unheard of 19 year old girl in a subdivision whose personal brand was defined by self effacement and a slight lisp? No. But, when that 80 minutes of intermittently brilliant doggeral comes from someone as fun to write about as Lil Wayne, you practically have to give it either a slam or a really good review just to justify the word count that it takes to serve the grand narrative/drive traffic.
What I’m getting at is that Pop music is not just about music. On the spectrum of possible sounds, most of it is actually pretty fucking boring. How ready would we be to discuss Major 7ths, key changes for the bridge, and I IV V progressions instead of transcendence, damnation, and product placement? Assuming this gum thing is a harbinger, what we’re looking at is a world where whether or not to take the money or work a day job will simply be another facet of an artist’s brand. Some bands (think No Age vs. Snickers) will have principle be part of their brand. Others (think Of Montreal & Outback) won’t give a fuck and won’t really suffer for it because no one expected them to. No Age gets to fight the power with permanant marker and it isn’t like Kevin Barnes really had some anti-steak stance to prop up so fuck it. Meanwhile, The Hold Steady are still totally accountable for associating their brand with that piece of shit “Aqua Teen” movie, I thought they had better taste than THAT…
Also, Bill Hicks saw this coming:
