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Don't see ghosts! I actually believe this part:
"we do have a very committed A&R department which works with a lot of small underground emerging talent, the lifeblood of the industry, from the UK and overseas"
But thanks to the decline in Music sales (thus a decline in profit) I'm pretty certain that the budget for promoting the small emerging artists has been heavily reduced by the guys in the boardroom, thus forcing the people on the floor to think in new and alternative ways. Look no further than The Arctic Monkeys or CYHSY and you have the perfect business case. Build up the hype via blogs, Myspace etc., and you can sell a lot of albums without spending too much money on marketing. If this works 2-5% of the time (1 out of every 20-50 artist), it will still be very, very profitable.
So they are not trying to trap you/us. But in my opinion I'd much rather see it as them trying to explore new strategies, which will improve/increase their marketing at a very low cost. If all bloggers buy into this, they'll be able to reach quite a large and dedicated audience - and the cost will be some promo CD's, concert tickets, setting up some webpages (which they'd do anyway) etc.
But like the rest of you I'm not going to reply/sign-up. I like receiving mails from various labels - but (again) like the rest of you I like deciding myself what to post or not to post (and I very much doubt this'll be the case, if/when you sign-up to "work/post for" a big label!).
Oh - they have all the money in the world......but these guys don't have the philanthropic approach to things like we (bloggers) or the small independent labels have. If they A&R department cannot guarantee a long term profit on a portfolio of artists, the number of employees will be reduced. You may like it or not. These companies are in the world to make (a lot of) money (try to ask your dad or people in general on the street - some of them have probably bought shares in entertainment companies and they want return on investments!). And if these companies believe someone is stealing their product they will sue them to hell. And so would you if you invented something that you believed (!) someone else was stealing. This happens in every business - not just in the world of music. I sit right next to our corporate lawyer (I work in a software company) and we're a small fish in a big sea, where everyone seems to be trying to steal/imitate our product. So fight for what you believe is yours. That's the spirit - even if this means that you're going after 16 year old kids!
All I'm saying is that I understand why they are doing what they are doing, but I sure as hell don't say that I approve with it!
And all I really was saying in my previous post was - that I saw the mail as a part of a new marketing strategy - not trying to ambush bloggers!
Posted by: stytzerGuess I'm naive by definition then!
Cannot see that I'm naive because of that (sorry!).
This could easily turn into us discussing profit, which probably no one is interested in! I don't know a label's typical margin, but just as an example let's say it's 40%. If it's reduced to 30%, who should or would care? You? No way! Me? Not really! The investors and the stock market? Don't need to answer that!
OK - they are weasels and thugs - but I doubt that you'll see them accepting earning less than they were used to. Doesn't work like in the music industry, in any of the ones you mention or any other industry for that matter! Ever heard of a company declaring that they are happy earning less than last year? Or Microsoft saying - people are copying our product big time, but we don't care!
The main problem I guess is probably that music is supposed to be entertainment not business. And unfortunately it's exactly what it is!
the music industry has been in trouble since the late '90s because the big labels have enormous staffs and a convoluted economic system, as well as tons of bands who never get any promotional push that money is no doubt squandered on. I'm sure a label like Matador or Sub Pop runs a much more effecient, profitable ship, if not one that's necessarily making millions of dollars.
if they can get promo through us without investing superstar $$$ and building a grassroots following for these minor bands, it will help them immensely. problem is, most of these bands suck a lot.
Posted by: scottp4kthat merle haggard comp is great-- mama tried, the bottle let me down, workin' man blues, i take a lot of pride in what i am, today i started loving you again. at least the people who listened gave it a chance, but honky-tonk and depression-era and post-depression country and bluegrass...there's loads of good stuff in there besides yer cashes and clines.
Scott, you should review the Willie Nelson & the Cardinals record. The clips sound fantastic.
ironically when i wrote a thing about how the year's basically over, i started getting all these incredible promos.
Scott - I believe we pretty much agree on this. Their motive is definitely not to push good music, but simply a business decision trying to "jump on the wagon".
I thought we all agreed that indie is cool and that major labels and mainstream are so uncool :-)
I'm curious. Which lables have been pulling these shennanigans?
Posted by: stytzerCannot see that I'm naive because of that (sorry!).
This could easily turn into us discussing profit, which probably no one is interested in! I don't know a label's typical margin, but just as an example let's say it's 40%. If it's reduced to 30%, who should or would care? You? No way! Me? Not really! The investors and the stock market? Don't need to answer that!
I probably already have all the tracks elsewhere, but if anyone wants to forward their copy of that Hag CD to me, I'd appreciate it. I consider him to be America's greatest living songwriter - his last few records are just as good, if not sometimes better than his stuff from the olden days.
Posted by: BillRocksClevelandSo, I've been getting some really bastardized MP3's from majors. Stuff like CD's with snippets of tracks (just the chorus and bridge) or the whole CD with tracks chopped into tiny little overlapping chunks to make ripping virtually impossible. Note to majors: This is not how to market through an MP3 blogger.I'm curious. Which lables have been pulling these shennanigans?
Honestly, I don't remember. They landed in the trash as soon as I figured out what was going on. If you've got your head so far up your buttocks you can't send even one song of playable audio, start to finish, I don't care who you are. You're nobody to me. Wendy, feel free to quote me on that. ;)