The Weekend Roundup for October 16th 2009

Piracy? A&R Online Volume 33! 50 Cent and more!

Seriously…

I have talked about this subject for years, and was always met with looks of disbelief and, in the case of record industry types, pity. I still maintain that the long, slow, demise of the major record companies could have been completely avoided had they monetised Napster back at the turn of the century, instead of driving it out of existence. Yes, there are a lot of details that need to be hammered out, but the new delivery system, invented by youthful code monkeys and discovered and embraced by music lovers, is not only here to stay, it could save the record industry gazillions of dollars by eliminating manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping costs.

CD’s, or whatever kind of hard copy the consumers want could either be made at home, or on demand by the labels themselves, and their big signing, pop culture entertainments could still be done the old fashioned way if they wanted to keep feeding the fickle, transient, audience they have created with disposable flavours-of-the-month. That, and a reasonable subscription fee for unlimited downloads of music, television shows, and movies, would make BILLIONS of dollars for all the troubled entertainment companies whose fortunes have tumbled at their own hands by ignoring the public, technology, and their own artists.

Years ago no one would have thought they would ever pay money for a bottle of water, anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars for cable television, or $10 for a little pack of cigarettes.

Why is this any different?

If someone doesn’t want to pay the fee for downloading and but they do, well then, the companies could justifiably sue the snot out of them…but people are going to continue to do it whether the industry monetizes it or not. All that money they could be making gone, because of old style concepts and a desire to return to the ways of the past. With music itself experiencing a renaissance and new artists of worth springing up daily, it is a shame that the related businesses in question are floundering on the beach.

As more voices join the choir in support of at least recognizing things have changed and are going to continue to change, some have interesting and knowledgeable things to say, Jerry Del Colliano is one of the most astute. Like Bob Lefsetz, Sean Ross, and others, these men know radio and records, and care very deeply about what has happened to them over the last 15 years. With Jerry’s permission, I have reprinted one of his current blogs that I think you should read if you haven’t already. He brings up some interesting points, and makes a lot of sense. Check him out. How to subscribe to his blog, (if you like), is at the end of the article.

INSIDE MUSIC MEDIA™

Piracy Sells Music

By Jerry Del Colliano

To listen to the music industry, you’d think that unrestricted file sharing by consumers is killing them.
If so, I wonder if the major record labels can explain why Rosanne Cash just about gave away every cut in her new album “The List” and it wound up being number one — in sales.
Time to get real with the worn out and ineffective music industry argument that they “wuz” robbed by file sharers.
Some six weeks ago, Rosanne Cash did what amounted to a 7-minute stint on NPR and sang one of the big tunes from her album “The List” entitled “Sea of Heartbreak”, her duet with Bruce Springsteen.
Cash talked about it on NPR — a place that many young listeners feel does more for music discovery in a day than terrestrial radio stations can accomplish in a year of rotating the same safe songs over and over again.

Okay, you say — but NPR broadcast the song — it didn’t give away the album for free?
Not so.

NPR streamed the full album for 6-weeks — for free — prior to the commercial release.
Then, the double standard of all double standards showed up again when the hit song was featured on YouTube — all those free views.

Nobody at the label or their lobby group seemed to mind.

So Rosanne Cash’s album should have been dead on arrival with all the free play, web availability and exposure it received on NPR.

No reason for any consumer to buy it for when they are getting it for free, right?

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free — well, you know what I mean.

That would be wrong, too as it is in real life.

Rosanne Cash’s “The List” debuted at #1 on Amazon. It was still the third best selling album as I wrote this piece Tuesday.

Number one country album on iTunes.

What is NPR doing selling country albums?

Here’s another interesting thing.
Follow the path of this hit and see where traditional radio is missing the boat:
#1. NPR radio — October 8th interview with Rosanne Cash.
#2. YouTube — many videos of the same song. Only YouTube could get away with all the copyright issues. The labels were mum. Ya think they know something is actually good for them while they tell everyone how bad it is?
#3 Amazon — the album is the #2 top seller after debuting in the #1 position.
#4. Google search — NPR is the #1 search result.
Look at NPR’s engaging music discovery page here. I’ve reported to you for some time that young music lovers can’t relate to commercial radio lately because it refuses to acknowledge their thirst for discovering new songs, artists and genres.
So as it turns out by this example, the labels are full of it and radio companies are in denial about what their listeners actually want to hear. I know what research used to say. Play the hits. And if I were programming a station right now, I’d make sure there was a hit component. But is anyone taking this seriously?
Consumers are so far ahead of the record labels and radio industry that they have fashioned their own way to discover music.

What we’ve learned is:
1. Radio is not the only key component to selling music today.
2. NPR, to which many young people gravitate, is an increasingly powerful music monster and we would all be wise to stop waving around research reports and study human behavior as well.
3. File sharing sells music. Piracy is the wrong word. Free promotion is the right word. In the past, free promotion used to be called radio. But radio has turned inward and seems to be missing generational consumer cues. That’s why it keeps pounding the same limited music selection over and over. Why artist interviews and intelligent air personalities are sacrificed for mindless voice tracking.
4. The power of social networking to act in loco parentis, if you will, of radio has been underestimated to the detriment of the radio and record industries. Social networking through file sharing and other means is like having millions of old lovable record promotion men like Philly’s legendary Matty “Humdinger” Singer working your song 24/7/365.

Life is tough.

The media business is tougher.
And, the recession is rough.

But the big problem is that we as a music/media industry are failing to skillfully observe the sociological changes in human behavior that are blatantly starting to spell out the future.

So, if radio stations continue to amp up their music programming to con Arbitron’s People Eater into picking up drive-by listening through the use of safe music repetition, it will hurt itself. It’s hard to imagine a passionate top 30 listener in spite of the PPM’s shortcomings.
It is not hard to imagine a passionate music fan — fed by programming content with knowledgeable personalities wherever they might find them — online, social networking, NPR.

And, if record labels want to cry bloody murder about being robbed blind by Internet pirates when they damn well know that the Internet is the only thing selling their music right now, they will be expendable in the long run as well.
What sells music?

Music fans.
Radio used to be the main and only way to fire up their passions. And it could be a better way to do it if stopped pandering to drive-by listeners.
Now there has been an uprising.

A new generation captured the controls in a bloodless coup. They don’t have to wait to get three new songs added each week on their only available music station.
Now, they can make their own playlists, trade their own music, preview it at will, hear the artists talk about it, decide whether to own it. And they do buy music.

The music crisis that has been adversely affecting the radio industry wasn’t caused by the next generation.
It was caused by a lack of the next generation of radio formats — the ones embracing new media and personality-centric.

That’s an important distinction because, as any smart radio person will tell you, there are thousands of programmers out there — many still working — who could easily step into the future and adapt.
Their bosses?
Now you’ve discovered the real problem.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry’s daily posts by email for FREE, please click here.

A&R Online Volume 33

You can hear all of these tracks by going to www.radiothatdoesntsuck.com/myWimpy.html and click on ‘A & R Online Volume 33’ Just Google the artists names for more information about them.

Enjoy…

Cut Throat Kids-Bring It Down

This is a demo, fer chrissakes! A demo! These kids already have a pile of street cred, and I have to concur…there is a coolness about this that speaks to its generation, plus, dammit, they look cool. I have to admit, every time I turn around, something is there that makes me believe that this is the golden age of music made by people who love music. I will be waiting for releases from this group, and I’m sure they already have a cadre of fans that will be waiting right along with me. Pie recommended Cut Throat Kids to me. She is spot on, as usual.

Cutaways-Secret Distance

Great group that hails from Belfast and brings with it an unusual sound and a great stage presence. Saw them at The Reverb on the closing night of Indie Week and took an immediate liking to their live performance. Just three people and they sound like this live thanks to a pixie of a keyboard player who adds an orchestra’s worth of texture to a bunch of quirky, well written songs. Excellent!

Blue Rodeo-Never Look Back Jim, Greg, and the rest of the band have outdone themselves this time around. Any doubts that this band would fade away musically ware completely unfounded. Good folks making great music. Simple as that.

Justin Bieber-One Time

A darling of the tween set, and already being mentored by the likes of Usher, there is more here than a good looking kid with decent pipes. At 15, he has taught himself how to play, sings with a conviction that belies his age, and hopefully will continue to grow into a talent that rises above being a teen idol. I believe he can, and if the right people encourage him, I believe he will. Great track that already proved itself last summer. Justin’s CD drops in November.

Tim Chaisson and Morning Fold-Take A Breath

Tim Chaisson and Morning Fold-Real

They came within a heartbeat of winning the grand prize, (a tour in Ireland), at this year’s Indie Week, and had I been a judge, they would be packing for the trip right now. Heartfelt songs, great live sound, and a singer Tim Chaisson is the real deal. There are so many good tracks on their album that I couldn’t decide which one to play, so I’m letting you hear 2 of them. If this is what is going on in PEI, I need to go out there and hang around for a while. ..and eat5 seafood…lots and lots and lots of seafood.

A&R Online Bonus!!!

Found these on YouTube yesterday and couldn’t resist. The greatness of the Toronto R&B sound, with two of its best proponents.

Fail of the Week

50 Cent has collaborated on a self help book that promises to put the reader on the top of his game. It is all about winning and being the best in your field. The only problem is that it seems to be a book about how to be a douche. There isn’t much about how to become better at what you do, the book seems to assume that you are already awesome, but it does recommend slashing an enemy’s face, (“just deep enough to send him screaming to the hospital”), and distrusting everyone, using praise only to manipulate, and “crushing your enemies”. I guess if I had been shot 9 times I’d be a little skittish too. Personally, I hope he makes a lot of money with this book and his ‘music’. I’d hate to see him go broke and end up hanging around an ATM at midnight wearing a hoodie and a pair of running shoes…

Read all about it here:

Parting Shot

I don’t usually have much to say about sports, but I have to admit that baseball is the most pastoral and civilized of all team sports. It has a certain traditional quality and an almost quaint reputation as a gentlemen’s game, a game of patience and skill, and above all, it is a game known for it’s calm and mostly gentile nature. Whereas football, hockey, and basketball are rife with off color language and occasionally barbaric behavior on the playing surface, baseball is a much more pristine and gentle pursuit. There are, of course, exceptions, the rare scandal, and the occasional lapse in etiquette and moral judgment, but on the whole, baseball is a game of hard, firm, bats and tightly wound balls, hurtling in the right direction and lubricated by the throbbing, heaving crowds that pay dearly to watch their heroes in action, their perfectly trained bodies pressed into action at the crack of a bat against tautly drawn hide, a sound that promises that one member, his bat at the ready, may go all the way. Seriously…that is really exciting.

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday…

That’s enough for now. Email me at segarini@fyimusic.ca with your comments, complaints, and thoughts…and remember…don’t believe a word I say.

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, The Segarini Band, and Cats and Dogs, and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now provides content for radiothatdoesntsuck.com with RadioZombie, The Iceage, and PsychShack. Along with the love of his life, Jade (Pie) Dunlop, (who hosts and writes “I’ve Heard That Song Before” on RTDS), continues to write, make music, and record.