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Just a quick note - tracks from Departures by Tom McShane and Mistake: Do Over by The Terribles have been added to the playlists of internet radio station SomaFM (specifically the IndiePopRocks! show)
In case you're unfamiliar, SomaFM is an amazing ad-free, listener supported online radio station which, along with WOXY, KCRW and BAGel Radio, was recently nominated for a PLUG award for Best Online Radio Station.
They've also been at the forefront of the fight to Save Net Radio - a cause very close to any indie artist or label's heart. Why? Because 56% of music played on 'Net radio is from indies, compared to about 13% on regular AM/FM stations.
Anyway, this is by way of thanks to SomaFM for hearing us - and an encouragement to go check 'em out
Lists, lists, lists. Here’s mine!
Side note: It’s obvious to anyone at this point that Departures by Tom McShane, Mistake: Do Over by The Terribles and Forty-Four Stone Tigers by Overview head the list of records-you’d-be-mad-to-miss for 2007. Check 'em out over at the Penny Distribution Artists Page
That said, here’s another 10, in no particular order:
Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
Mr. Bird got me with 2005’s instant classic “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head” (from the album Mysterious Production of Eggs) and the follow up is an orchestral, unpredictable delight. And the man can seriously whistle. Standouts include Armchairs and Heretics. His debut albums were recently re-released by Rykodisc and are well worth checking out as well.
Cold Burns by Starvin’ Hungry
Guilty pleasure numero uno for 2007 was this Montreal band’s newest, Cold Burns. I can’t tell if the memory of the barn-burning set they played opening for The Besnard Lakes is what makes this record so god damn riotous, or if the exuberant rock n’ roll alone, on display on this record, is enough to bring out my inner pyromaniac. Who cares? It’s fucking great.
The Flying Cub Cup by Beirut
A wonderful happenstance of discovery via a friend’s Simplify Media feed (go get it), Beirut’s debut (Gulag Orkestar) was a revelation - a band without a guitar player playing emotive, whimsical eastern-europen-tinged joyfulness. There are too many sophomore slumps to mention, but this ain’t one of ‘em. Fab.
From Here We Go Sublime by The Field
There’re mashup elements to this album by German-electronica group The Field, but nothing close to any Girl Talk moments – weirdly, it happens that these moments form the best parts of the record, (The Deal, Sun & Ice) adding an additional element of understanding to an incredibly complex yet surprisingly funky record.
Gagagagaga by Spoon
Britt Daniels does it again – stripped down, whacked out amazing rock. The hand-claps ALONE during the chorus of “Underdog” illustrate the mastery of songcraft these guys have. And then there’s that grin-inducing video for “Don’t You Evah”. Greatness.
Untrue by Burial
Subtle, eerie and downright frightening, Burial’s ability to turn simple phrases ("I can’t keep my eyes off you", from "Near Dark" for example) into creepy obsessions, coupled with a mastery of atmospherics made this the album my AudioScrobbler loves to hate.
In Rainbows by Radiohead
Behind all the hoopla (which apparently created the term “doing a Radiohead”), In Rainbows was a damn fine album, easily one of the Top whatever of the year. Fave? Jigsaw Falling Into Place (mainly coz of this great video by Adam Buxton)
Are the Dark Horse by The Besnard Lakes
The track "For Agent 13” is easily my favorite song of 2007 – talk about storytelling and emotional movement! The whole album's a front-to-back masterpiece – now I’m just praying the followup doesn’t suck.
Dreams by The Whitest Boy Alive
My guilty pleasure of 2007, Dreams was a flyer. I was never particularly fond Kings of Convenience so a side-project record by KoC lead singer Erlend Øye was a bit of a stretch (although, James Iha’s “Let It Come Down” had been a very pleasant surprise – but that was in ’98!) Thankfully, Dreams is a stripped down gem, complemented by craftily structured songs and an airtight rhythm section playing hooks that get lodged in your brain. Woot!
Person Pitch by Panda Bear
Amazing that one of the members of Animal Collective could make a record that sounds so unlike the AC, and yet so much a part of it – Beach Boys, Bjork and Battles all mashed up in this 6-track nugget, with Bros the cream of this personable crop.
We had fun and frivolity at the warm-up show for Tom McShane's tour last Saturday in San Rafael (more on that over at Tom's blog), but now the real traveling begins.
The rest of the tour lines up like dis - Come out and see him if he's in your town :)
Thursday, November 29th - The Towne Lounge, Portland, Oregon w/
Mike Coykendall (Beth Orton, M. Ward)
Saturday, December 1st - The Skylark Club, Seattle, Washington w/ James Sasser, Lost Dogma
Wednesday, December 5th - The Silverlake Lounge, Los Angeles, California w/ The Dillettantes (Joel Gion of the Brian Jonestown Massacre)
Thursday, December 6th - The Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA - Tom McShane (full band),
Sonny Smith & Michael Zapruder's Rain of Frogs
Friday, December 7th - KALX Berkeley (University of Berkeley Radio), Berkeley, CA - In studio session
Friday, December 7th - Revolution Cafe, San Francisco, CA - Tom McShane,
Campo Bravo
As I'd mentioned in my last post, what I'm really focusing on is a label model that can allow talent to grow and musicians to prosper without the influence of the Label 1.0 model. There's just too much bad blood between artists and labels that I think there needs to be a fresh start.
Enter Rcrd Lbl which, just like Penny Distribution, is a digital music model that is based on a record label, but isn't exactly a label. The Wall Street Journal mentions some of the keys to this model:
Rcrd Lbl has signed contracts giving it the right to distribute a handful of songs from 40 to 50 bands...Rcrd Lbl’s artist contracts are unusual—chiefly in that they make the company the exclusive distributor of a specific number of songs, not for an act’s entire musical output, as is the case in traditional record deals. “It’s a blog,” says Mr. Deutsch. “We’re not necessarily trying to tie you up for your fifth album.”
Artists with songs on Rcrd Lbl won’t get a cut of advertising associated with their music (as they would on ad-supported service imeem.com); they’ll get advances Mr. Deutsch characterized as modest for each song they give the label. These advances range from $500 a song for the least established artists, according to people who work in the music industry, and escalate for bigger names to around $5,000. Rcrd Lbl will divide with its artists any money that it makes from licensing their music to television shows, movies or TV commercials.
I think giving advances as opposed to a cut of ad revenue is smart move - now anything
they make on ad revenue above and beyond the advances they paid artists
at the beginning goes straight to their bottom line. They might eventually make a profit - I said
might.
The $64million question here is whether or not people actually CLICK ON THE ADS.
Myspace & Spiralfrog haven't shown that that is any way to make a company profitable, but that doesn't mean that ad-supported model doesn't work - it just means that no-one's figured out how to serve the ads in the right way so as to make them a) non-intrusive to the user but b) maximize the amount of people who click on them.
Here's one guy who thinks that ad-supported music is the answer for the music industry but, unless there's an improvement in how the ads are served and the amount of people clicking, using advertising as the cornerstone of your model is extremely risky.
Whether Rcrd Lbl is a success or not will be borne out in time, but it represents some key changes in artist/label structure that I think are necessary for a label 2.0., notably: transparency in accounting with artists, flexibility and accomodation of artist/label needs and re-focusing on normal label revenue streams that can be profitable (e.g. publishing & licensing). In an interview with Wired, founder Peter Rojas explains:
"...there's no weird, fuzzy, major label math about it, and that's really appealing (to artists)...We're doing entirely new kinds of deals with artists and have these very flexible arrangements....With some artists we do deeper deals, where we rep them in terms of their publishing and licensing, and we split the revenue for that kind of stuff. Some artists want to take advantage of that, and some artists don't. It varies; it's a spectrum, a continuum – if you want to give us a little bit more, you get a little bit more, and if you don't, that's fine – it works both ways. It's going to evolve over time for sure."
Flexibility, openness, accommodation, evolution. All essential traits for a market that changes every day, and essential in re-building trust between artists and Label 2.0.
Just read this article from the New York Times about the “new model” for record labels, called 360 or multiple rights deals.
“…artists share (with labels) not just revenue from their album sales but concert, merchandise and other earnings in exchange for more comprehensive career support…..In return for that bigger share, labels might give artists more money up front and in many cases touring subsidies that otherwise would not be offered. More important, perhaps, artists might be allowed more time to develop the chops needed to build a long career…”
I know from experience that the 360 deal is very much in fashion in the music industry, and for obvious reasons. A “developing” act would not be signed to a major or major-affiliated indie today without one of these kinds of deals in place because of the death-throes of the CD as the industry’s cash-cow.
There’s a very simple problem with these deals:- there’s almost nothing of value in it for the artist. Let’s look at the items mentioned above that the artist will receive in return for giving up percentages in their until-recently exclusive revenue streams:
- More money up front: Great! Get yourself further into debt with the label and deeper in recoupment and further from making a profit or royalties from your record – and since you’re now giving a chunk of change from your merch sales to the CEO, what are you going to live on? And how is this an answer for already cash-strapped labels?
- Touring subsidies: This is the same as more money up front. Whereas a solid touring act could keep 100% or revenues before, now they’ll get more indebted to labels and have label execs pushing them around on everything from who mans the merch table to who designs the t-shirts.
- Artists might be allowed more time to develop: Excuse me? Isn’t this supposed to be the point of a label? A label should have faith in the artist and not base their success on a poorly-received record, a truth sadly destroyed by the hit-driven behemoths the labels turned into in the 90s. There’s a healthy skepticism among most managers and artists about whether this leopard can so easily change it’s spots - “You can speak to me that you’re going to work a record for 18 months. You’re going to work a record for 18 months when it’s selling 420 copies six months from now? Come on — really?” says one manager in the NYT article.
As always, the devil’s in the details. The article gives us some numbers to work with
“…Atlantic’s document offers a conventional cash advance to sign the artist, who would receive a royalty for sales after expenses were recouped. With the release of the artist’s first album, however, the label has an option to pay an additional $200,000 in exchange for 30 percent of the net income from all touring, merchandise, endorsements and fan-club fees.
Atlantic would also have the right to approve the act’s tour schedule, and the salaries of certain tour and merchandise sales employees hired by the artist. But the label also offers the artist a 30 percent cut of the label’s album profits — if any — which represents an improvement from the typical industry royalty of 15 percent…”
Although there are certain reasonable assertions here, we can’t forget that this is the music industry we’re dealing with.
If you’ve followed this blog at all, or read some of the prominent music industry books available, you’ll know “creative accounting” is an institutionalized norm in this business.
Reducing the monies paid to artists by “deducting” costs of free-goods given as promotional items, breakage of product in transit (even on digital product!) and the infamous controlled composition clause are just some examples of clearly unfair business practices that are “the norm” at many labels. What’s to stop similar practices from surfacing when calculating the labels’ cut of tour monies? Or more stringent deductions reducing the new increased royalty on CD sales to make the increase negligible? This may sound paranoid, but if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it.
The sad fact is that there’ll always be artists who feel that these deals offer them a better opportunity for success than a direct approach – and indeed some bands like Paramore (mentioned in the article) may not exist at all without these kinds of deals – but I can’t see how this will end well for them.
I’ve seen first hand the damage caused by the combination of a label with an exploitative deal and an artist hungry for validation. The 360 deal is not the answer, and I’m hoping with Penny Distribution, and other Label 2.0 models, that there can be less of these kinds of casualties in the future.
Update: Bob Lefsetz has some quality vitriol about this article over at the Lefsetz Letter:
"It’s the artists’ move. Want to make a deal with your computer genius buddy down the hall? Someone who will go to every gig? Be my guest. Throw in with the establishment because they WERE the establishment… You’re fucking ignorant."
and
"The sooner young ‘uns reinvent this business, the better it will be for artists and fans." Couldn't agree more, Bob.
Remember when I mentioned that if you've got an idea for a way forward for the music industry, now's the time to drop it? Well Music Ally, a music industry research body, has put together a New Business Showcase opportunity with the leading idea getting to present at MidemNet, the world's largest music business conference, next year.
So what're you waiting for?
http://www.musically.com/cgi-bin/content.cgi?page=newbusiness
Yeah, it's a twofer. The second of Penny's releases gets let lose on an unsuspecting populace today.
Here's the full-album stream of PD001, Mistake: Do Over by The Terribles:-
I'd be remiss to not feel a little excited today - the first release from my label 2.0 is out today! A release "date" is a bit of a misnomer in this day and age, but it's still nice to have one :)
Below is the full album stream of PD002, Departures by Tom McShane:-
Can’t believe it’s been so long since a post…although it’s not that I’ve been idle. Just a few of things that’ve been happening lately:
- Final preparations for the two debut releases from Penny Distribution on 10/29/07
- Mistake, Do Over E.P. by The Terribles (Buy or Preview at iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody & Napster.)
- OR pop on over to LastFM, Pandora or other streaming widget to get your fix for free.
- Redesigning PennyDistribution.com – with plenty of Web2.0 bells & whistles. Coming in November!
- Even though I wasn't there, Penny Distribution was represented at CMJ this week! Woot!
- Talking to the next Penny acolytes – bands with punch, power and potential - and lots more “P”s. Still talking, so word on that soon.
- Further definition of the Plan – things are really shaping up. If you’re a band, artist or manager looking for a powerful online marketing package, shoot me an email.
- I was at Digital Music Forum West in Los Angeles. As I’ve come to realize from these gatherings, the panels (where speakers and moderators discuss pre-defined subjects) hold little real value. The subjects are often well-worn (social media, P2P, labels future) but there are rarely any radical ideas from the panelists. The ideas of Yahoo! Music head Ian Rogers were particularly succinct, but nothing we didn’t already know. The problem, as always, is lots of people describing the problem with little attempt at finding a solution.
But like other events, there was some real progress, optimism – and most of all – great ideas when I got to talking to attendees outside of the panels. The most interesting sentiment was that everybody is moving on without the major labels. “If your business model revolves around licensing content from major labels, give up now”, was how one music 2.0 business owner put it. I even spoke to a number of Major label employees who were there to learn more about digital music so they could jump ship as quickly as possible.
As it was my first time in Hollywood, it would only be right to go out and get hammered, bump into Nicole Richie in the bathroom, right after watching Robbie Williams as a surprise guest on stage with Mark Ronson (remember that cover of Radiohead’s “Just”?). There’s a reason they call it HollyWeird.
Of the most impressive displays at the conference was the keynote by Mark Gunheim of www.WiredSet.com – there wasn’t a lot of coverage of this detailed, prescient and most of all useful presentation, probably because of the start time (8:45am). I firmly believe companies like Mark’s will be at the vanguard of the new music industry and will be, if not a replacement for labels, at least participants in a large share of the Music Industry 2.0 market. His presentation is available here
- And of course, then there was Radiohead. As my regular readers will attest (hi, mum!), the move is clearly in line with a radical change of perspective I’d posted about back in July, and also a fairly hefty nod in the direction of Chris Anderson’s idea of “free”. I’ll not comment any more, as enough has already been said (As the Onion put it, “Radiohead sells 1.2 million downloads, Generates 1.2 million commentaries”)
I will point you to the one post on the subject, throughout all the regurgitated hubbub, that really struck a chord, from Andrew Dubber’s New Music Strategies:
http://newmusicstrategies.com/2007/10/03/bits-and-pieces-of-radiohead/
And one commentary that gets it comically wrong:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/10/thanks_radiohead_for_making_it.html
Out!
