Records on the Wall Mean Kids Run it All

There is something about Sunday's that I love. Not sure what it is, but I've always liked Sundays. Sunday's are sort of a lazy day I guess, and I'm sort of a lazy guy in some ways, so I guess that's where my train of thought comes in. As I sit here looking at the walls around me, with framed records and framed 8'11" autographs on them, I look at the artists they represent and realize things are so very different now then when they were up and coming artists.

One thing that comes to mind immediately, almost in alarm, is that the MUSIC INDUSTRY IS NOT IN TROUBLE. The RECORD INDUSTRY is. There is a misconception brought on by the media covering the major record labels that the music industry is in a state of emergency, this could not be further from the truth. Labels are having a hard time selling records, nothing else. The music industry consists of touring, merchandise, records, television, publishing, producing, and so many other things. If one piece of the pie is gone, it doesn't mean the pie is no longer edible.

A long long time ago, when a record came out, if I bought the record it was mine. If I lent to someone to listen to, I no longer had that record. That was the beauty of the record industry. In order to get the music, you HAD to buy it. Now a days, if I give someone an mp3 to listen to, I still have it and so do they. This is the problem the record industry is facing right now. The thing is, it's not going to be the dinosaurs at the major labels to come up with a new business plan on how to do things, it's going to be a young mind, maybe a band, maybe not, that comes up with the plan that revolutionizes the way we do business in the industry.

Bands and artists these days do things like sell ad space on their trailers to fund tour marketing, play elks lodges and vet halls so kids can get in cheap, and they sell a ton of CD's that way. Bands let fans pick the set list for the show, allow fans to design their own merchandise to buy, and do as much as paint their entire van/converted school bus to be one huge rolling advertisement for their band...and then EMI lays off employees to cut expenses down.

It's so sad, and this may be stretching it a bit, but it's so sad that you might have better luck putting a 17-year old lead guitar player who handles the business in his screamo band as the CEO of Sony/BMG, EMI, Universal, or Warner Bros, and get better results than your getting at the present time.

Be innovative. Cut the shit.

Tuesday Run Down-D12 Manager in Trouble, Boston Buyout, Edgar Bronfman is staying, and NYU study on MySpace VS. Music Blogs

• D12's manager charged with sexual assault...(These chicks don't even know the name of my band)
• Gotta love Beantown, Boston based Livewire buys out Groove Mobile (Booya Grandma)
• The NY Times says Starbucks is...WRONG...(Does this mean Dunkin Donuts is right?)
• Edgar Bronfman...see how he's going to make $5 Million by 2013...(Future for Me?)
• Big NYU study shows that music blogs have a higher effect on selling music than your friends on Myspace...I could have told you that! (Read Story)
  

Funny man thinks he's an A&R Rep...riiighhhtt....

MY TAKE:
Perez Hilton has a blog (www.perezhilton.com) that draws obscene things on celebrity photo's. This sounds pretty lame but a lot of people think he's hilarious and many go to his site on a regular basis....over 1 million a month actually. He is also known from time to time to mention bands he's found, and it's now a known fact that the bands he mentions get a lot more attention and exposure from the music buying public after he has mentioned them on his blog.

So Warner Music Group has offered to make Perez Hilton (real name Mario Lavandeira) an A&R rep, because he has "an ear" for great music.

That's horse shit.

Any 12 year old with headphones has an "ear" for great music. Now, from the view of Warner Music Group, how could they get their artists instant marketing with basically instant results without spending a TON of money? Warner Music Group could BUY www.perezhilton.com, for a few million based on the number of unique visits the site gets each month, knowing full well that a few years down the line the sites integrity will be shot because of how aggressive Warner will be in pushing it's artists via the site, OR they could do this:

HIRE Perez Hilton to "scout" bands and push the ones he's likes via his site for a yearly salary(projected to be $100,000) plus anything the band might make on the back end. This way, Warner Music Group only pays $100,000 to get some marketing to over 12,000,000 people a year, who are interested in new music via this site. This also allows Warner to pull out when the site stops producing the results they need. For Perez Hilton, he can still keep his site and own and operate it, but he'll get paid $100,000 a year to do it, plus any other revenue he was bringing in before.

Smart business move?
For Warner Music Group: Yes.
For PerezHilton.com: No.


Hey Universal, my blog gets anywhere from 20-50 views daily, and I happen to have a great ear for music...Let's talk.