Breaking Records

Is there anybody interested in record company news who doesn't work for a label?

What we've had in the last twelve months is financial engineering. The disappearance of Capitol (they call it a merger, what next, a comeback?), and the elevation of supposedly internet-savvy Elliot Grainge to the head of Atlantic, as if music were some sort of Billy Beane enterprise, while jobs are eliminated and...

The only people pleased are on Wall Street. That's what this is all about.

Remember the eighties and nineties, when new labels were being launched, everything from Interscope to Giant? That's where the money was. Get those damn videos on MTV, ship those overpriced CDs and then roll in dough. What should we say now, we haven't had that spirt here since 1999?

Never has an industry been so out of touch with its customer base.

In the heyday of Napster we heard that acts were going to have to make a living on the road, little did we realize the road would eclipse recordings, even for the most successful acts. Never mind that those at the bottom of the food chain have to focus on the road, because streaming revenues are so bad.

Meanwhile, the labels have circled the wagons, cut costs and declared victory. Huh?

The biggest story of the summer is Chappell Roan. Who's been recording for a decade, whose first label, the aforementioned Atlantic, dropped her. Furthermore, her breakthrough was not predicated on anything the label did, but her opening slot on a Olivia Rodrigo tour.

As for Sabrina Carpenter, she's been at it for fifteen years. And she was built by Disney, not one of the big three label groups. As for her road business... There's always been demand for hot acts, will this sustain or is it flavor of the moment? It's not like we haven't seen this before, in the heyday of the aforementioned MTV. The faster you made it, the faster you fell.

And opening for other acts is not a new paradigm. Louis Messina's been doing it for years. Kenny Chesney opened for George Strait, Ed Sheeran opened for Taylor Swift. But country is a different market, and Sheeran is a once a decade talent/superstar.

Then again, all the action is in country. Sure, it's still controlled by radio, but it seems to be offering something that "pop" music does not. Humanity, singability, connection with an audience...

But we keep hearing about hip-hop acts and divas. And Kendrick Lamar has been at it over a decade and no one wants a new Mariah Carey.

But the major labels are paralyzed by a commitment to an era and a paradigm that have expired.

There is no MTV. As for the Video Music Awards, that used to be a cultural rite, now it's a sideshow promoted by the nearly dead network and those who believe an appearance will make a difference, which it really does not.

So where does this leave us?

With a ton of wannabes dying to play the old game, become instant stars, and road dogs slugging it out not only day by day and month by month, but year by year. And many of these acts will never break through via recordings. Not that their songs won't matter. But it's more akin to the Grateful Dead than even Coldplay, whose first album came out in 2000 with its hit "Yellow," when despite all the hoopla about Napster on college campuses, most people at home didn't even have a high speed connection.

So you've got to lay many eggs, put out many traps and wait for years to see if anything happens.

Yet the major labels think they can force it, make it quicker. Get lucky.

No one controls social media, NO ONE! Anybody who tells you they can make a track go viral is lying. Futhermore, it can go viral on TikTok and there's still no demand for the band/act.

It's not like we've never been here before. Albeit without the power of terrestrial radio. Major labels put out a lot of records, not made for zillions of dollars, and continued to nurture the acts hoping they'd break through. Mo and Joe at Warner Bros. were famous for this.

We need a complete retooling.

And in truth, the marketplace has retooled. It's just that the major labels have not. The majors are signing and releasing ever fewer records massaged for hits. Composed and remixed by committee. That's movies, television, not music. Music is about the vision of the artist. Sure, commerce is key, but sans artistry you have a business, not an art form. That's how it was before the Beatles, and that's how it is now.

The majors hope they can hoover up anybody who has a hit individually. By offering tons of bread. But the acts worth signing don't fit their game. Never mind their recordings not throwing off a ton of revenue. Now being an act is more holistic. The labels may have initiated the 360 game, but the new acts have embraced it, and they own their recording rights. But even more, they know that recordings are only part of the puzzle.

Music will never die, because of the hunger of people to hear it and the ease with which it is made. But its power in the marketplace waxes and wanes. Music today is like GE, or some other corporate titan, which peaked and everybody keeps trying to achieve that same peak without retooling.

GE was broken up down to nothing. The company was not prepared for the modern era.

The labels have their catalogs. Otherwise, they'd already be out of business. They control the greatest hits of recorded music history.

But those hits were made in a different world, a different marketplace.

Hell, movie studios can't even open most movies these days. Despite all the marketing. Never could hype be so ignored.

As always, innovation comes from the outside. And there's no outside inside. No free thinking.

There's tons to talk about regareding the road.

There's almost nothing to talk about with the labels.

Yet the labels get all the press.

Something will happen. But it will be a surprise.

The reason there's been little innovation in the recorded music sphere is because there's just not that much money in it right now. And the real money is in brand extension. Yes, income inequality killed the music business. The best and the brightest, the educated, those who think outside the box, don't go into music, there's just not enough money to be made.

But the power of music is undeniable.

We're not looking for he or she who can garner the most revenue, but those who can touch our heart, change our life. And just because something is a hit that does not make it so.

So keep talking about the executive turntable, the changes in structure. They've got nothing to do with music.

Actually, the biggest record company story of the past week is Universal UK CEO David Joseph leaving the company to get a master's degree in religion and theology. We've never seen a move like this before, NEVER EVER! Leave the circus? Almost unheard of. You get squeezed out, you don't leave.

But one doesn't have to know Joseph to decode that he was looking for meaning he was no longer finding in recordings. More soul fulfillment.

And the truth is the public is looking for this too.

But that's a much harder game than assigning the usual suspects to massage someone with little talent into a star.

A game the majors are unprepared to play, not that they even want to, not that they're even aware of it!


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