indieFINANCIALnetwork: Lifting the Music World
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!
Welcome to everything financial and everything pro music business. We are here for you and your music company, to help clarify your thinking; so you can navigate successfully through the briars and brambles of this cluttered and demanding business. At the iFn we are focused on the future. Your future. We can handle the heavy lifting when it comes to YOUR finances. If you look around a little, you can see that we aren't your typical left-brained accountant types. In addition to the number crunching, which we certainly excel at, we like to think with our whole brains, and provide creative, right-brained solutions to the complex problems of the music industry.
We realize that dealing with the finances of your music company isn't the sexiest or the most exciting item on the menu, but it is essential to your survival. If you don't figure out a way to keep your finances healthy, and make wise decisions with respect to your budgets, income collection and your spending habits, chances are, you won't be around very long. If you are looking for our philosophy about the state of the industry, skip over to the RANT page. A bit of the history and biographical info about the company can be found at THINKTANK. If you are looking for the laundry list of our services, please skip directly over to the DETAILS page. For the background and activities of our current client base, skip over to PLUGS. We keep tabs on relevant articles written throughout the music industry and post them on the PROPAGANDA page as often as we can. The DIVERSIONS page features a bit of humor, hopefully an irreverent mix of fun stuff, including a link to the 1929 Ford Model A "Mutt Rod" our founder is currently restoring. RAVES are links to the other sites we find worth your while on a variety of topics. For our contact info, please head over to the REACH page. After your review, please feel free to contact us with any specific questions that may arise at 1-877-BUZZ-IFN or email us at: moreinfo@indieFINANCIALnetwork.com. We hope you enjoy your stay and that you will park yourself here often. We will update the site on a regular basis, so there is almost always something new here.
Upon the successful launch and lift-off of the iFn, our press release was picked up by Forbes.com, Yahoo Finance, Hollywood Reporter, Morningstar, Entertainment Zone, Finance Canada, Business MVP and WMSL-UK in Britain, to name a few. Here is a link to the press release on the lift-off of the indieFINANCIALnetwork: PRESS RELEASE.
"HAPPY THE MAN"
People are still asking about our founder and director Rick Kennell's band "HAPPY THE MAN". We found a new synopsis of the band on Wikopedia recently and discovered that it was insightful and comprehensive - if you merely want the Cliff Notes version: Wikopedia on Happy the Man. For a more in-depth look at the band, proceed here. These are the eight officially sanctioned CD's with a number of unsanctioned "live", basement, rehearsal and bootlegs available. If you are interested in taking a look at Rick's medium scale bass guitar collection go here: PRS BASS GUITAR #11
"PROGFILM"
From David Robin comes "Progfilm" a simply amazing collection of Progressive Rock bands spanning the past 40 years. I can't believe the vintage clips of Gentle Giant, Gabriel with Genesis and of course, Jamie Muir with King Crimson. I know I speak for all of the current and former members of "Happy the Man" when I say we are blessed and honored to be a part of it. I know David worked very hard on it, and it's a real shame that a major studio hasn't picked up the film for distribution. At least it's on the web and you can see it here: PROGFILM. Anyone with even a passing interest in Progressive Rock should make this a must see.
ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY AND GOOD FRIEND FRED BROWN
Everyone in the iFn and the Happy the Man family has been deeply saddened by the loss of Fred Brown, after a heroic battle with cancer. Fred was an original member of the Happy the Man crew, providing logisitical support, stage technician services and generously volunteering his wisdom and experience whenever they were needed over the years. Fred is an automatic inductee into the "Happy the Man Hall of Fame" and words cannot express the full magnitude of his contributions. He will be sorely missed. We have not discovered a blog anywhere so far where individual tributes can be posted for Fred. Until or unless one materializes, feel free to use the Happy the Man guestbook for this purpose here, His obituary from Billboard Magazine appears below.
Entertainment attorney Frederick Brown passed away on Monday, August 29, 2011, in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer at age 56, according to an announcement from his family. Brown was a key member of the Warner Bros. Records business affairs department for more than 10 years, departing in 1999 to become Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Music at MGM. He was most recently in private practice. Fred was born in San Francisco and served in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He received his law degree from Yale University and started his legal career at the law firm of Irell and Manella. He was active in many music industry charitable and legal organizations, including serving as President of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA). He is survived by his wife Liz McNicoll and son Nico Brown. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 10th, 12:30 p.m. at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Church Of The Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90068. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in honor of Fred to Tipitina's Foundation, which provides New Orleans public schools with musical instruments and preserves the musical cultures of Louisiana, www.tipitinasfoundation.org, 504-309-7934.
MARK WOOD MUSIC PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Good friends for over twenty years, the iFn is pleased to announce it's new business association with electric violin virtuoso Mark Wood and his amazing partner, singer-songwriter Laura Kaye. Mark Wood's dexterity, ferocity, texture and attack of playing almost invariably lead to comparisons with some of the rock era's most renowned guitarists. In an industry where originality is a highly prized commodity, recording artist, performer, producer, inventor and Emmy-winning composer Mark Wood is truly an original. He began his career with a full scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and had the privilege of studying under Maestro Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Program. In addition to The Mark Wood Experience (Mark’s touring band), he has toured and recorded with many of the industry's most prominent performers, such as Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Everclear, Victor Wooten and members of Dream Theater, Shinedown, and Anthrax. Mark is an original member of the multi-platinum-selling symphonic rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra; receiving two platinum and three gold records from his work with them. Mark also toured with Billy Joel and was with him for both historic final concerts at Shea Stadium, sharing the stage with Paul McCartney, Steven Tyler, and Roger Daltry. NBC’s The Today Show recently aired an extensive feature focusing on Mark’s Electrify Your Strings™ music education program. His band features vocalist Laura Kaye who collaborates with Mark and appears on several of his CDs. In the capacity of composer, he received his first Emmy award for music he composed for CBS-TV’s coverage of the 2002 Tour de France bicycle race, and has received three additional Emmy nominations. One of Mark’s commissions was from The Juilliard School, who enlisted him to compose a piece for their electric string quartet – “Nest of Vipers” had its world premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City. He has composed several concertos for electric violin and orchestra; the 15-minute groundbreaking piece entitled “Innocence to Enlightenment” and “Viper Vs. Orchestra” premiered at Carnegie Hall with the Etowah Youth Orchestra conducted by Michael Gagliardo.
As an inventor, Mark created the first solid body electric violin in the early 1970’s and established WoodViolins, a company whose mission is to make Mark's incredible instruments available to the general public. Mark is known as the “Les Paul of the violin world” (a phrase first coined by PBS) and Wood Violins has established a formidable reputation in the electric string world with its hand-crafted custom instruments, ranging from the 4-string fretless Stingray all the way to the 7-string fretted Viper. The company stands behind its claim to have made the most important change to the violin in 400 years and is often referred to as the “Stradivarius of electric violins.” The brand-new Stingray SV4 and Stingray SV5 are Mark's first production models and are offered along with the Wood Electric Violin Amp and the Wood Wah wah-wah pedal as a complete “turnkey” experience for the budding electric violinist. Mark was honored to serve on the board of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), where he had the opportunity to affect the future of progressive string education in our country on a truly grand scale. Celebrating its 10th year, Mark’s Electrify Your Strings!™ series of music education programs has become enormously successful and in demand as educators across the country are quickly catching on to the importance of incorporating alternative teaching methods into their curriculum. EYS has really captured the media’s attention and has been featured on NBC-TV’s The Today Show, several national broadcasts of CBS Evening News, along with segments on ABC-TV, NBC-TV, CNN, and many others. Electrify Your Strings!™ has been brought to hundreds of venues in the USA and has reached well over 100,000 string players and raised millions of dollars for orchestra programs since its inception in 2001. The The Mark Wood Rock Orchestra Camp (MWROC), a week-long intensive experience with Mark and his world-class faculty, is in its 2nd year and will be held at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas this summer. Electrify Your Strings™, Mark’s definitive electric violin method book (published by Cherry Lane and distributed by Hal Leonard) is the first in a series of books that Mark is working on and is geared towards students and educators alike.
BERNADINE FEATURED IN APRIL ISSUE OF "CAR KULTURE DELUXE"
Kudos go out to Alan Mayes of Car Kulture Deluxe for publishing an article on "Bernadine" for the upcoming April Issue. Our 1929 Ford restoration project is featured on page 88, and the issue is due on the newsstands the first week of March. The article features photos of Bernadine by pin up photographer extraordinaire Viva Van Story. Rick submitted a draft of the story to Alan, who found - that with some shortening and editing - the flow and form of the story was acceptable for publication. Alan even gave Rick the "By Line" in the magazine for his efforts in writing the story. The magazine is known as being "Not your old man's car magazine" and features pin up babes and fashion features along with the classic rods and custom cars. Car Kulture Deluxe does not put stories up on their website, so you have to pick up the ish if you want to see and read about it. There is more information here: DIVERSIONS .
BON JOVI THINKS STEVE JOBS IS:
"Personally Responsible For Killing The Music Business."
Well, Jon Bon Jovi has learned from his peers how to get press. Just argue that the Internet is destroying rock, liken it to an atomic bomb, or, in this case, declare that, "Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business." Since Hypebot readers are fully capable of vetting the validly of that quote, I'm going to turn my attention away from that obvious tripe and focus on the other aside Jon made. Get this: He longs for the simpler times when fans bought music based on the hipness of the album cover and only judged the quality of music after the fact. "God, it was a magical, magical time," Jon muses.
If you give Jon the benefit of the doubt, such words can be marked off as him fondly remembering his younger years, buying records, and having to imagine what music sounded like. Then again, through the lens of his older self, i.e. a businessman, that statement could mean that Jon, like many old-school record executives, wished that fans would just fork over their $10-15 and buy his music.
For Jon, that would be a magical (and profitable) time. Luckily, his most recent albums have decent reviews, so one can't say that Jon is jaded by the fact that the Internet made it harder to sell fans bad albums. But, from a fan perspective, it's hard to stomach his statement. Jon is right that albums now lack a certain mystical characteristic. Honestly though, one could also say that Wikipedia is "killing the music business" too. After all, it, not Mr. Jobs, is part of the reason why the mythologies of rock gods are difficult to maintain. Citations and folklore aren't compatible. When you can learn everything about an act in a page scan, groups like Black Sabbath and Kiss lose their evilness. Little is left to imagine.
Of course, social media is killing the music business too. But, Jon might save the headline for the marketing of his next tour, album, or gasp, new music app.
Yes Jon, "App" Store is in fact short for Apple
SOUNDEXCHANGE ISSUED $252M IN ROYALTIES IN 2010
SoundExchange had its biggest year to date in 2010 wherein it dispersed $252 million in digital royalties. This brings its overall distribution to more than $600 million.
Such royalty pay-out increases can be attributed to the success and growth of streaming services; increased awareness among artists and copyright holders of the need to register; and improved processing of previously unpayable balances through data clean-up.
In 2010, the average royalty payment for artists was up 80% from 2009 to $2,800 and for rights holders it was up 39% to over $14,000.
To President Michael Huppe, these revenues are "an industry success story."
WILL LADY GAGA END THE MUSIC BUSINESS (AGAIN?)
Lady Gaga isn't holding back, her new record is coming out and she wants everyone to know. With the fastest selling number one in iTunes history, and her new video amping up hits on Vevo, it seems an unstoppable force.
RIGHT
Well to me it stinks of everything that was bad about the old industry and continues that predisposed self-destructive bent. You remember the one that imploded when CD's didn't sell anymore. It's akin to an alcoholic insisting they don't have a problem.
If Gaga doesn't sell or live up to the hype, then the party is gonna crash again, big time.
THE BIG PARTY
The majors were used to the big lifestyle, the private jets, lavish luncheons, and bottomless expense accounts. Radio was bought. Tours were bought. TV was bought.
Once you have tasted that, it's hard to give it up. Lady Gaga seems like a relapse. That one final "epic bender" as Charlie Sheen would describe it. The one that ends in either death, or realization that it's time for a final stint in rehab and to clean up your act one last time.
It is the majors chance to ignore those chest pains and shortness of breath and brush it off as indigestion. Let's forget about the 44,000 sales, which made an independently released album by Cake number #1 and outsell everything else a major had to offer.
Let's forget Mumford and Sons, that throwback acoustic act from the UK on an independent, are pretty much matching the sales of Katy Perry.
Just give us one more line of Gaga to keep us up partying all night.
A BAD INFLUENCE
Gaga is the worse companion for bingeing executives. She embraces the 24/7 facade that the old industry relied upon. She's a star and she will do anything to remain a star. She wants to go to the Grammys in an egg, then let her. She wants to start her new video with an epic 80's style movie segment about her giving birth to a new race of people. Hell yeah give her the money.
Whereas tough times and foreign wars in past history gave birth to protest singers - bringing the voice of the people to the airwaves, the current economic climate and fall out of the Bush years gave birth to the aptly titled Fame Monster.
People didn't want to face reality, and so Gaga's glitz and glamour has been embraced, a chance to forget that reality and live the fantasy. Not just for the fans but for the industry too.
EVOLUTION / REVOLUTION
We are moving into interesting new times. True uprisings in Egypt and Libya, that were unthought of in the last decade, are now taking hold. It's evolution revolution. The will of the people can effect regime change and that is inspiring. It has even been echoed in the USA.
Where does Gaga's mantra fit with this? Well this is to me where the big problem is, it doesn't. While her fight for equality is to be commended, it does almost feel like a self-serving publicity stunt. Her main sell is that we can all be just like her, glamorous and famous in our own little monster way. The truth is that we can't, life isn't like that. We can't all be privileged kids that attend the same school as Paris Hilton. We can't luck out and be in that miniscule percentage, where everything falls into place resulting in hits, notoriety and sold out tours.
In the music industry, the people have already made their voice heard. They are finding new ways of listening to music and it doesn't always involve paying for it.
UNCONNECTED
Gaga again has to be commended in her commitment to her fans, but the thing sustaining her fame is not her core fans, but the interest of those outside of the little monster circle. Trouble is she is danger of alienating with the majority, and in order to sustain her bombastic marketing approach she has to do exactly that.
Shock value gets you noticed, but it also puts a lot of people off.
Remember this is being run by the major mentality, which is to reap the most dividends out of something in a short amount of time. They were never interested in long-term goals and this is why they are suffering now. I can't help feeling they lucked out with Gaga. She was in the right place at the right time. And whereas there is always something anomalous to an artist's success, Gaga's window to achieve what she did, in the time that she did, seems far less to do with content than it is to do with circumstance.
THE MUSIC
In reality, it all comes down to the strength of the music. When the intro to Gaga's new video finally reaches the song, you know that part you actually listen too, does it not seem like a huge let down? The Madonna comparisons are obvious and somewhat irrelevant if people like it, but will their attention last.
When Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now in 1997 amidst outlandish media hype, it too became a fastest selling release in history. But the music didn't stand up and the album is regarded as a coked up, attention seeking, rock and roll binge, and one of their worst. The band never really recovered from the overblown marketing that, because it wasn't kept in check, became far bigger than what the record could offer.
DRUG OF CHOICE
Gaga's drug of choice seems to be fame, and the launch of her newest release seems to fuel the hunger for her addiction. Those working the record are happy to ply on the supplies; she's the life of the party after all. But what can a team so embroiled in the falsity of fame really offer normal people.
Hope soon vanishes when reality bashes you over the head for the umpteenth time. People soon become resentful of success when their own lives don't echo the timeshare they are being promised.
Those who have cleaned up and moved on and continue to work hard to build musical careers in the real world should be happy to know, that while it may be a struggle to keep forging forward, at least we are not going to wake up with the world's worst hangover.
FANBRIDGE FAN MANAGEMENT
Our good friend and former UFO Staffer Noah DInkin has really supercharged the Artist/Fan Relationship as President and Co-Founder of Fanbridge. Noah now offers us a video tour of their email and fan relationship platform. Fanbridge clients collectively power over 60 million fan relationships using the service. Recently the company added DamnTheRadio, a robust Facebook Fan Page tool, to their portfolio. Thanks to Hypebot for the video which is now on YouTube here: You Tube Fanbridge
GRAMMY AWARDS PROVIDE A BIG BOOST FOR INDIE MUSIC
Arcade Fire’s album-of-the-year Grammy award on Sunday night for “The Suburbs” was a victory for a lot of people, and not just because it seemed as if the Canadian rock collective brought half the population of its native Montreal onstage during its show-closing musical performances.
It also was a win for the grassroots community of independent musicians and record companies to which Arcade Fire and its label, Merge Records, belong. Combined with the win in another of the top four Grammy categories -- jazz bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding’s upset for best new artist -- indie labels and artists came away from Sunday night’s ceremony with two major boosts to their self-esteem.
“A lot of the jaws that hit the floor when those two categories were announced were those of independents,” said Jim Selby, chief executive of Naxos of America, the independent Nashville-based classical label that racked up 35 nominations and took home 10 awards for its artists and distributed labels Sunday. “Independent artists winning against Eminem? A lot of people were thinking, ‘This is insane!' "
Those marquee category wins represented the tip of what may not represent an iceberg, but a growing presence for smaller music companies in an industry dominated on many fronts by the four major conglomerates: the Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner music groups.
Indie artists and labels -- broadly defined as any musician or company that owns and control its master recordings -- often have watched from the outside as major label acts have gone home year after year with the music industry’s most prestigious awards.
But in recent years, they’ve made steady inroads in the world of industry honors.
This year, indie labels and musicians accounted for just over half the total Grammy nominations, picking up 273 of 542 possible nominations across 108 categories. Indies took home Grammys in 45 of those 108 areas, all the more impressive given the dominance of the majors in the marketplace. That’s up from 195 nominations and 36 wins four years earlier.
Additionally, Arcade Fire’s win sent the album-of-the-year Grammy home with an independent label for the third consecutive year, following last year’s trophy to Taylor Swift’s “Fearless,” on Nashville-based Big Machine Records, and the previous year for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ “Raising Sand,” released by longtime folk and roots-music label Rounder Records.
Such high-profile wins, Selby says, create a precedent demonstrating that “there’s a chance for everybody who’s an indie artist to win.”
Several factors are at work behind the increasing representation of independent artists and labels at awards time.
Historically, independent labels often operated like rogue comets, charting trajectories that rarely intersected with those of the major labels or other independents.
In 2005, however, a consortium of indie labels formed its own trade organization, the American Assn. of Independent Music (A2IM). Since that time, A2IM has worked to instruct independents on how to become active in the Recording Academy, which bestows the Grammy Awards.
“Joining anything doesn’t come naturally for any independent,” said A2IM vice president Jim Mahoney. “This community hasn’t always participated at a sophisticated level in mainstream activities like the Grammy Awards…. Now, if it’s in your brand’s best interest and part of your ethic that you don’t want to participate, fantastic. But if not, we tell people how to join in and become voting members of the Recording Academy.”
The increasing number of indie nominations and wins is all the more impressive in light of the dominance of the majors.
According to a market-share breakdown released by the Nielsen SoundScan sales monitoring service, Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI were responsible for 89% of total album sales in 2010, while nonmajor labels collectively tallied just 11%.
But the statistical waters get muddy because many independents contract with majors for physical and/or digital distribution services, while retaining ownership of their master recordings. Nielsen SoundScan, however, typically credits sales of indie releases to the marketshare of the major that distributes them.
In reality, A2IM’s Mahoney said, recordings on indie labels actually constituted 30% of the physical market and 38% of digital sales last year.
Another key factor is the rise in the last decade of social media that have amplified indies’ ability to target fans of specialized genres and artists, further helping them compete despite far more limited resources.
“The indie community has always been a great incubator of creativity and new music and new directions,” said Glen Barros, president and CEO of the Concord Music Group, whose releases garnered 24 nominations and took five Grammys, including Spalding’s new artist award, on Sunday. “Now it’s easier for indies to connect with an audience in all the different sectors: in the very commercial ones and the not-so commercial ones.”
“The barriers aren’t what they were before,” added Dave Hansen, general manager of Epitaph Records, whose Anti- subsidiary label released Mavis Staples’ “You Are Not Alone,” which won the Americana album Grammy on Sunday, Staples’ first. “Great artists can break through without getting airplay from that small handful of [major market] radio stations or MTV. We can get through all that now.”
The struggles of the majors to compete with the plethora of entertainment options available to consumers have further mitigated some advantages they enjoyed in previous decades.
“The fact that we can promote our music and get the same amount of airplay on Pandora, on different websites, on Internet and satellite radio, on MySpace and Facebook, it’s all helped level the playing field,” said Naxos’ Selby.
“The fact that we are independent and doing so well, our peers proved that to us on Sunday night through voting for our recordings,” Selby said. “It’s more exciting to be an independent now than ever.”
-- Randy Lewis
SEE HOW MUCH INDIE ARTISTS MAKE VS. MAJOR LABEL ARTISTS
The great divide between the take-home pay of indie and label artists is real. One artist took the time to figure out how wide the gap is. They make an interesting contention that it is important to support the artists themselves and their music, and not the major label hierarchy. If their math is correct, it is a rather disheartening comparison on one end and a reason for hope on the other. See the graphic below:
POSTER BOY UNDERSCORES WHAT IS WRONG IN MAJOR LABEL LAND
DOUG MORRIS BUYS HIS WAY ONTO HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
This week Universal Music Group Chairman Doug Morris was honored with the 2399th star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Morris has had a long and illustrious career. But in becoming a part of this iconic symbol of old school Hollywood, he reminds the world of how stuck in the past he and the other leaders of the recorded music industry are. And Morris was likely an active participant in having this honor bestowed. After all, to get a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame requires an up front payment of $25,000. You don't just get a star because you deserve one. You have to buy it. How long will it be before a major label head is asked to speak at TED instead of honored by those who long for the return of the glory days of excessive spending and artistic slavery?
REPORT: U.S. MUSIC PURCHASES UP 2.1% IN 2009; DIGITAL IS 40%
Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 7, 2010 - 11:02am.
New York - U.S. music purchases were up 2.1% in 2009 to 1.54 billion albums, singles, videos and digital tracks, and digital music now accounts for 40% of total U.S. music purchases, according to Nielsen SoundScan's year-end report. Overall album sales, which includes albums and track-equivalent albums, were down 8.5%, to 490 million. By contrast, digital album sales grew 16.1%, to 76.4 million, and digital track sales rose 8.3%, to 1.15 billion. Digital album sales accounted for 20% of total album sales in 2009, up from 15% in 2008, 10% in 2007 and 5.5% in 2006.
Interestingly, vinyl album sales also grew in 2009, by 33% to 2.5 million -- a record for SoundScan, which began tracking music sales in 1991. Two out of three of these vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store.
Among the major record labels, Universal Music Group captured 30.2% of the total album market, followed by Sony Music (28.6%), Warner Music (20.6%) and EMI (9.2%); independent labels accounted for 11.5% of total album sales in 2009.
The top-selling digital song of 2009 was the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" (4.76 million units), followed by the group's "I Gotta Feeling" (4.42 million) and Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (4.39 million).
The top-selling digital album of 2009 was Lady Gaga's "Fame" (461,000 units), followed by Kings of Leon's "Only By the Night" (428,000) and the "Twilight soundtrack (350,000).
TO BE BORN IS TO BE CHOSEN
To be born is to be chosen. No one is here by accident. Each one of us was sent here for a special destiny. When a fact is read in a spiritual way, its deeper meaning often emerges. When you consider the moment of conception, there are endless possibilities. Yet in most cases, only one child is conceived. This seems to suggest that a certain selectivity is already at work. This selectivity intimates a sheltering providence which dreamed you, created you and always minds you. You were not consulted on the major questions which shape your destiny: when you were to be born; where you would be born; to whom you would be born. Imagine the difference it would have made in your life had you been born into the house next door. Your identity was not offered for your choosing. In other words, a special destiny was prepared for you. But you were also given freedom and creativity to go beyond the given, to make a new set of relationships and to forge an ever new identity, inclusive of the old, but not limited to it. This is the secret pulse of growth, which is quietly at work behind the outer façade of your life; freedom finds and fills its inner form.
For millions of years, before you arrived here, the dream of your individuality was carefully prepared. You were sent to a shape of destiny in which you would be able to express the special gift you bring to the world. Sometimes this gift may involve suffering and pain that can neither be accounted for nor explained. Each one of us has something to do here that can be done by no one else. If someone else could fulfill your destiny, then they would be in your place and you would not be here. It is in the depths of your life that you will discover the invisible necessity which has brought you here. When you begin to decipher this, your gift and giftedness come alive. Your heart quickens and the urgency of living rekindles your creativity.
If you can awaken this sense of destiny, you come into rhythm with your life. You fall out of rhythm when you renege on your potential and talent, when you settle for the mediocre as a refuge from the call. When you lose rhythm your life becomes wearyingly deliberate or anonymously automatic. Rhythm is the secret key to balance and belonging. This will not collapse into false contentment or passivity. It is the rhythm of a dynamic equilibrium, a readiness of spirit, a poise which is not self-centered. This sense of rhythm is ancient. All life came out of the ocean; each one of us comes out of the waters of the womb; the ebb and flow of the tides is alive in the ebb and flow of our breathing. When you are in rhythm with your nature nothing destructive can touch you. Providence is at one with you; it minds you and brings you to new horizons. To be spiritual is to be in rhythm.
-ANAM CARA - Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World by John O’Donahue
U.S. VISA RESTRICTIONS COULD HURT TOURING ACTS
Members of the touring industry warn that stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration regulations could interfere with the U.S. touring plans of international artists. According to Billboard, no new regulations have been enacted, but the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Service has begun using a much more restrictive reading of current regulations in approving visas. Formerly, artists wishing to work and tour in the U.S. needed to apply for a work visa (type "O" for solo artists or "P" for groups). The visa would then cover the artist for a period of time; up to three years for a solo artist and up to one year for a group. Additionally, a U.S.-based sponsor such as a label, manager or tour promoter was needed to apply for the visa.
Under the new, stricter interpretation, artists now are required to provide a detailed itinerary, including ...
a specific length and with a detailed itinerary for the tour. Additionally, the USCIS has become stricter in enforcing who may serve as a sponsor for the artist. The new strictness is also expensive and errors in filing can cost artists as much as $6,000 in additional filing fees Billboard reported.Since this new interpretation of the regulations went into effect, numerous artists have been forced to cancel gigs or revise planned tours. One such artist, Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle was forced to withdraw from New York's CMJ Marathon in October behind visa headaches.
"SXSW would have been great for Speech Debelle," Debelle's agent Tom Windish told Billboard. "The excitement and attention from the Mercury Prize would have worn off in four or five months' time."
Other artists such as Imogen Heap was nearly forced to cancel her fall tour due to the new interpretation of the regulations, which were quietly introduced last summer and only explicated by USCIS in October Billboard said.
MUSIC FESTIVALS OFFER UNIQUE MARKETING OPPORTUNITY
How to get part of that crowd to join your team.
This guest post comes from Scott Perry. With his great free email newsletter and web site, the New Music Tipsheet keeps the industry informed of new releases as well as commenting on trends and sharing industry news.
While all you managers (and artists) out there are fielding offers for next year's festivals, start thinking NOW about what you can do to maximize your outreach to these massive audiences.
One of the biggest problems for every act is building your base from 0-5000. And it used to be, you'd be all alone (or have to spend an arm & a leg) to build a following.
But think about this -- a festival isn't just another gig, it's a marketing opportunity, a huge vehicle you can use to build your following. As festival season approaches, get your strategy together to figure out how to get part of that crowd to join your team. Used to be, if you're slated on the small tent at noon, you were screwed, but at least you were happy to be invited to the party. These days, there's no reason for attendees to miss you if they didn't catch your official performance.
Pull a few pages out of the Phish playbook
Check with the promoter to see what is & is not allowed, but tap into that crowd to make them aware of you, to sign up to your email list, your Facebook fan page, your Twitter feed. Offer content for the festival's site, leading up to the event – videos, live chats, contest goodies, which all help get your name out there.
Give up a pair of your tickets as a prize to encourage folks to retweet you. Tweet your fans to meet you the night before at a hotel barbecue. Have an onsite scavenger hunt – put your posse next to the lemon icee stand at noon, next to the corn dog stand at 2pm, next to the churro cart at 4pm for fans to pick up some kind of band goodies.
Hell, managers and promoters should work together to shake things up this festival season, pull a few pages out of the Phish playbook and really surprise fans with cool treats above and beyond the scheduled chaos -- host an impromptu acoustic set in the parking lot for kids waiting to get onto the grounds. Have bigger acts do a surprise set on the tiny tent at noon just to freak people out. Wake up campers in the middle of the night by playing from the back of a golf cart. Twitter all this stuff however you can –- that is, if you can even get any reception on the grounds (promoters -- pleeeease work with your cell providers to boost reception!).
Allow yourself to be YouTubed / Flickr'd / tagged walking around the grounds passing out tamales in a bear suit.
Baby bands, you have no followers. You've been invited to play a venue that fits 50,000 people a day. If you're staying backstage all day drinking beers with your pals, you're missing out on a huge opportunity.
WELCOME TO TWENTY-TEN!
JANUARY 1, 2010: It has been quite a year and a remarkable decade at the indieFINANCIALnetwork, and we are excited yet somewhat saddened to see the decade fade away. There was quite bit of news over the course of the year which we have detailed here as it unfolded. We hired CPA, Fei Wu, who has been a very strong addition to our team. We inherited an incredible accounting software package from our former partner which tracks royaltiies and digital distribution like none we have ever witnessed. The software allows us to aggregate the reports of all our digital download partners into a single statement and allows us to send monthly statements - some in excess of 400 pages - to almost 50 clients. Most of our clients have had quite a year, even though the economy has been in a mostly down state. Our good friends at United For Opportunity/Invasion. have expanded operations dramatically. Here is the scoop from CEO Peter Casperson:
"We are finally pleased to be able to announce that the years’ challenges made us stronger, more efficient, and properly restructured to be able take on anything that gets thrown at us going forward. From this very trying 2009-year we emerge stronger, leaner, more focused and efficient. Our head of retail Karen Macmillan who has been watching the shrinking of the retail market annually has expanded her responsibilities to include Film and TV placement becoming the New York representative for Sugaroo, our Film and TV partner, based in LA. Sugaroo has recently merged with a couple of smaller firms and the placement front is hot and heavy for UFO. Karen is putting a big focus on securing advertising placements, as New York is the center of the advertising world. We have brought James Brunner’s RobotArmies social networking company into the New York office as of January 1st and begin next week adding another 4-5 people dedicated to internet marketing under his direction as we transition more and more of our marketing efforts on line. In 2010 we will migrate more of our radio, press and marketing to Internet based methodology. We have always been ahead of the curve in this area but are adding more emphasis and man (woman) power next year, as it is clearly the path going forward to mine fans and audiences for individual artists. This January marks the 1st anniversary of Louise Coogan bringing her radio promotion company into the UFO offices and has proven that we are able to work an album or track on an as needed 12 month out of the year basis similar to our tour publicity efforts. Louise has developed some winning strategies in relationship to radio as radio changes its' model in the wake of the ever-changing industry. We have merged a booking agency into the UFO fold this year with the addition of Tom Baggot's TBArtists with offices in NYC, LA and Vermont and have completed the vertical vision we set out to create 4 years ago when we first set up UFO. We have also formalized and developed a stronger working relationship with Bug Music where we are able to offer publishing expertise and international administration along with all our other services. So out of the ashes of 2009, I believe we have become stronger, more resilient, and better able to serve you. Most important we are incredibly grateful that we have such a loyal clientele who believe in us, and had continuous faith in us in a year that for many reasons turned us all on our side. From this an even stronger bond has been forged."
Fasten your seat belts TwentyTen is upon us, and we look forward to it with a great deal of excitement and anticipation!
A MILLION SPOTIFY STREAMS EARN LADY GAGA JUST$167
Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 23, 2009 - 10:03am.
Los Angeles - Despite racking up more than a million streams in Sweden during a five month period on ad-supported streaming service Spotify, artist Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" generated a songwriting royalty payment of just $167 from Swedish performing rights society STIM, TorrentFreak reported, citing the local Swedish outlet Expressen.
STIM and Spotify disputed the figures, with STIM telling PaidContent the song generated a total of $334 in songwriting royalties, of which the artist kept half.
Spotify noted in a statement to PaidContent that the STIM payment "would only represent a fraction" of Lady Gaga's total revenue on the song from Spotify, which pays "not only collecting societies, but also publishers and the record company to play their music."
Spotify further told PaidContnet the $167 figure is "certainly wide of the mark," and was accrued during a time in the company's growth "before we'd established ourselves as a music service and built up a large user base."
In related news, Spotify on Monday announced the launch of versions of its streaming music application for the Symbian mobile phone operating system, used by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung.
The company recently pushed back the planned launch of its service in the U.S. from this fall into 2010, citing ongoing licensing negotiations with U.S. music publishers.
STILL HOPING TO SELL MUSIC BY THE MONTH
Left and center, Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News; right, Mog Niklas Zennstrom, left, and Janus Friis, center, are starting Rdio to sell monthly subscriptions to a catalog of online music. David Hyman, right, is the founder of Mog, an online music provider.
By BRAD STONE Published: October 14, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — The idea of selling monthly subscriptions to a vast catalog of online music has met with only limited success. That isn’t stopping a new batch of entrepreneurs from trying to make it work. The latest and perhaps most surprising entrants to the field are the European entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2001, they created and financed Kazaa, one of the original peer-to-peer file-sharing services that hurt the music industry. The two have created and financed a secretive start-up called Rdio, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Rdio and similar start-ups are reinventing a concept pioneered earlier this decade by Rhapsody, a service majority-owned by RealNetworks, and the tamed version of Napster, now owned by Best Buy. A few hundred thousand Rhapsody and Napster subscribers pay monthly fees of around $15 for the right to stream an unlimited number of songs, at any time, from their PCs and mobile devices. But with modest membership growth at best, neither service has managed to challenge iTunes, with its many millions of users — or enticed music lovers from pirating music. Moreover, Yahoo, AOL and MTV Networks have abandoned their own music subscription efforts.
But as CD sales continue to plummet, and the music industry searches for a profitable future, entrepreneurs with various approaches say they believe they can finally make music subscriptions work. Rdio is hoping to introduce a music subscription service by early next year that offers seamless access to music from both PCs and cellphones. The big challenge will be to get licenses from the major music labels, which have not viewed past digital music efforts by Mr. Zennstrom and Mr. Friis favorably. The ironies are very interesting,” said Drew Larner, Rdio’s chief executive, who says talks with music labels are continuing and confidential.
Since they started and sold Kazaa years ago, the founders “have shown they understand content and they have always been up front with the labels about what they are trying to do.” Mark Piibe, the head of digital business development at the EMI music label, confirmed that talks were under way with Rdio and said there was no reluctance to deal with the pair. “They’re businessmen with a real track record of innovation,” he said. “They are bringing a lot of new ideas to music distribution and there is no reason why we wouldn’t talk to them seriously.”
Two other new music subscription companies will most likely beat Rdio to the United States market. Spotify, a year-old company that offers a free, ad-supported service but tries to get users to sign up for about $16-a-month ad-free version, already has several million users in Europe. Spotify says it hopes to bring the service to the United States early next year, but it could look somewhat different here. American music labels are increasingly resistant to the idea of licensing their catalogs to any new service offering free music with ads, because they have already backed free music downloading sites like MySpace Music and Imeem.
“We like Spotify as our partner in Europe, but we would like them to move more toward a paid subscription environment,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony Music. That raises the possibility that a lesser known company will lead the wave of new music subscription services — Mog, a three-year-old blogging network that recently raised $5 million, led by the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. Mog has licensing deals with all four major American music labels: the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, the Warner Music Group and EMI Music, plus thousands of independent labels through the digital distributors Orchard and Ioda.
Based in Berkeley, Calif., Mog is getting specific about its plans for its “All Access” service, which it says it will introduce by Thanksgiving. For $5 a month, members can listen to as much music as they want from their computer; for $12 to $15, users can access music on their mobile devices as well. The service is a sort of cross between Pandora, the free online radio site, and music subscription services like Rhapsody. Users can listen to the songs of any artist and build a playlist with only that music. By manipulating a slide bar, users can also gradually add a smattering of tunes by similar artists, in effect customizing their own online radio station. People can then share their playlists from their site on the Mog service.
David Hyman, Mog’s founder and the former chief executive of Gracenote, calls it “radio without restriction.”
Sweetheart Rodeo hits the U.S. January 19th:
DAWN LANDES TOURING EUROPE FIRST THEN U.S.
With the new Dawn Landes Record "Sweetheart Rodeo" on the way from Cooking Vinyl, we thought that an excerpt from an early review would be entirely appropriate:
The wonderful follow-up to Fireproof from Dawn Landes is a near-perfect example of how to make an album. From an artist who knows her way around a recording studio, has worked as part of a band, as a producer and as a solo artist with a band, Landes weaves stories and tales into subtle vocal melodies and delicate arrangements. With many well established genres, there are musicians who flirt with the accepted formula. You don't mess with tradition. But it's okay to let it steer you in the right direction. Sweetheart Rodeo is the follow-up to the brilliant Fireproof. Landes is much more light-hearted and reflective here. This is the general vibe of the new album and with her sultry vocals, somewhere between the hard directness of Suzanne Vega and the floating softness of Laura Veirs, Sweetheart Rodeo is a pure joy. Sweetheart Rodeo is not as much of a country album as the name would suggest. The misconception also come from the labels provided by the popular press, branding Landes as one of 'the grand old dames of country' which is yet more pigeon-holing for the masses. Sweetheart Rodeo is American through and through but it escapes tags and labels used to explain it's roots thanks to a wonderful modern interpretation of an old-fashioned world. Dawn Landes is a constant revelation and has made another masterpiece of theatre, landscape and storytelling.
SOCIAL NETWORKING ONLY WORKS WHEN IT IS REAL
Bruce Houghton August 24,, 6:15 AM
You've got thousands of friends on Facebook and have gamed your MySpace plays up to the tens of thousands. But it's not translating into people coming to shows or ordering a t-shirt. Perhaps, as marketing guru Seth Godin suggests, it's because your social networking isn't real.
It's the internet equivalent of "I love ya babe, let's do lunch". Unless your interactions with friends and fans are based in sincerity, the relationship doesn't go anywhere. Sharing a late night rough mix on your blog of a new song that you're excited about let's fans catch a glimpse of you that brings them closer. Your thirteenth weekly email blast announcing that "This is gonna be the biggest party in the history of all parties at our regular Tuesday night gig at the Pizza Palace" probably annoys more than it entices.
CD'S STILL 65% OF U.S. MARKET; ITUNES SELLS ONE IN FOUR TRACKS
Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 18, 2009 - 9:49am.
Port Washington, N.Y. - While digital music sales are taking a larger share of the U.S. market, and Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store now accounts for one of every four songs sold, CDs still comprise 65% of all music purchases, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. "Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. "But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010."
In the first half of 2009, paid digital downloads made up 35% of music sales, up from 20% of sales in 2007. Behind the iTunes Store among U.S. music retailers were Walmart (NYSE: WMT) (14%), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) (16%), Target (NYSE: TGT) (10%) and Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) (10%). Among digital retailers, iTunes commands 69% of the market, followed by Amazon MP3 (8%).
"The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple's success in holding that market, has increased iTunes's overall strength in the retail music category," added Crupnick. "But the importance of the big box retailers shouldn't be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs."
UFO MUSIC UPDATE
Friday, August 14, 2009: A new UFO UPDATE out today on everything UFO, including the signing of touring acts Zach Deputy and Fred and the release of a new disc from Marc Copely, who is currently on tour with Billy Squier. For all the details go here. Also, a new Dawn Landes record on the way from Cooking Vinyl. Support "LIVE" music people, it's the only way to keep the cycle unbroken.
The Band As A Billboard:
NEW MARIAH CAREY CD BOOKLET TO BE COVERED WITH ADS
The headline reads "The Monetization Of Mimi" and what better artist to embrace ads on her CD booklet than someone who sold out long ago.
When Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is release on Sept. 15, a 34-page mini magazine co-produced with Elle will include the usual liner notes and lyrics, as well as, ads from Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffen's, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism. If things go well, label Island Def Jam hopes to do booklet deals for Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West and others.
AN INTERVIEW WITH TECHDIRT'S MIKE MASNICK
On Music, New Business Models And The Quest For Win-Win-Win
Techdirt.com has grown from a one-man operation founded in 1997 by Mike Masnick to one of the web's leading voices in analysis of issues facing technology, economics, law and entertainment. The site has amassed 850,000+ RSS subscribers and a consistent rating within Technorati's Top 100.
Brisbane, Australia-based writer Andrew McMillen interviewed Mike for West Australian festival One Movement For Music. Andrew is coordinating content for the festival's official blog, OneMovementWord.com, in the lead-up to its October 2009 debut.
Andrew: What are the most important discussions currently taking place about the changing music industry?
Mike: I think there are two key issues:
New business models
New legal frameworks.
These overlap at times, but the business models are important, because we're seeing more and more evidence that stuff works now. That it doesn't require some big or massive change. Artists who figure things out can make money now and do so in a much better way than they could have in the past. That said, I am worried about some of the efforts that I think are attempting to crowd out other solutions before they've had time to grow.
On the legal side, I'm definitely concerned. The industry has long focused on a legal path to protecting and extending their business model in the face of any sort of innovation that challenges that old business model. And I think that harms new business models and musicians who embrace them. The innovation that's occurring has been enormously empowering to musicians, and much of what is happening on the legal front could serve to hold that back. And the end result, I'm afraid, would actually be less creativity, less music and fewer useful business models for musicians. And that's quite troubling.
You wrote in a Techdirt article that you’re in the camp of "folks who never buy single tracks, but always look to buy the full albums of bands I like". How have your music tastes changed in the internet age?
I prefer to listen to music I've purchased. In fact, I still mostly buy CDs, though do occasionally purchase music for download from CDBaby or Amazon. In terms of what music I like, I listen to a lot of early ska/rocksteady/reggae honestly. So these days, it's bands like The Aggrolites and The Slackers.
What inspires you to write about the latest in digital content?
I actually think it's a really important issue, that is, in many ways, an "early warning sign" of some economic changes that are going to impact many other industries, from healthcare to energy to consumer packaged goods to financial services. It's just that digital content lays out the specifics much more clearly (and yet it's still confusing to some people!). I'm hopeful that as people start to understand these issues, when the "bigger" similar issues come to the forefront, it will be easier to point back to what happened with digital content to make it clear how things should play out elsewhere.
As a heavy reader, what makes for engaging writing in the tech arena? Do you think that you're a strong writer?
I don't think I'm a particularly strong writer. It's something I actually work on, but I'm just so-so. I'm always amazed when I see really beautiful writing and wish I could be half as good. But, I think what makes a more engaging writing is the ability to tell a story simply, the ability to have an opinion that you can stand behind with facts (rather than just for the hell of it) and the ability to interject some well placed humor. I wish I could do all of those things better.
The One Movement For Music festival's tagline is "Artist, industry, fan united". What's standing between this vision of unity between artists, fans and the music industry? What do you think it'll take to achieve this unity in the coming years?
Yeah, actually, this is a really good question, and it's a point I've been trying to make for a long time. There are solutions in this industry that truly are (as cliche as it sounds) win-win-win, where all parties are better off. Yet, so many of the old guard view the industry as a zero sum game -- which is that if someone else is making a dollar, it's a dollar I've lost. So the idea that someone could get something for free is viewed as a "loss" even if, in the long run, it brings back $10 dollars (or more). So, because of that view, some have always treated the market as a competition to get the very last dollar, and that doesn't make for a very "united" front between artists, the industry and fans. Instead, you get all grabbing for scraps, even if it means everyone's worse off.
I'm very hopeful that a growing generation of folks are beginning to recognize that by working together, these new models actually do benefit everyone -- including the fans and the industry -- in such a way that everyone is happy with the results, rather than anyone having to pull one extra dollar. It may be idealistic or utopian, but I think it's possible. It will require a lot more success stories, a lot more examples, a lot more money to be made -- and perhaps a few of the "old guard" to retire. But it will happen, at least to a certain extent. There will never be perfect bliss, of course. But the resulting industry can be a lot more aligned where everyone benefits when certain things happen.
Aside from Techdirt, where are the most important discussions about the changing music industry taking place?
I think they're happening all over the place. Hypebot is a great blog. Music Ally. I actually think that Wired and News.com have some of the better discussions on these issues as well.
HOW THE BEATLES DESTROYED ROCK 'N' ROLL
ONE AUTHOR'S ALTERNATIVE TAKE ON ROCK'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BAND
By ELUAH WALD, JULY 10, 2009
Forty years after their breakup, The Beatles remain the most popular band in history. Their fans range from kids to old-timers; their complete recordings will be reissued in September as lavish box sets; and their style is imitated and echoed by musicians around the world. But is that entirely a good thing?
There's no arguing with the Beatles' talent, or the fact that they created an amazing body of work. But their success also sparked fundamental changes in American popular music, including the triumph of records over live performance and a racial split that's never been mended.
Neither of those changes could have been predicted by their early success. The Beatles' live TV appearances and their witty interviews had as much to do with their American achievements as their hit records did. Plus, they were outspoken about their admiration for African-American musicians, from Muddy Waters to the Miracles.
By 1966, though, they had retired to the recording studio to mix their electric guitars with sitar and classical orchestrations, singing poetic lyrics about psychedelic submarines and the loneliness of urban life. Critics hailed them for elevating the teenage rowdiness of rock 'n' roll into a mature art form. But most of those critics had never much liked rock 'n' roll in the first place, and cared more about listening than dancing.
Up to that time, virtually all the defining shifts in American pop music had been linked to new dance rhythms. The perky syncopation of ragtime gave way to the wilder drums of jazz, the streamlined swing of the big bands and the electrified beat of rock 'n' roll.
Rock historians often claim that beat was silenced in the late 1950s, as Elvis entered the army, Chuck Berry went to jail and Little Richard got religion -- and that The Beatles rescued American teens from the vapidity of Fabian and Frankie Avalon. But the dancers tell a different story: In the early '60s, the twist arrived, and with it the rocking Latin-gospel fusions of the Isley Brothers and Booker T. and the MGs.
By 1963, rock 'n' roll had become the most racially integrated style in American history. Motown was sweeping the country, Ray Charles and James Brown had cracked the pop LP charts, and "girl groups" from the Shirelles to the Shangri-Las were breaking the color line in both directions. That year, Billboard magazine stopped publishing separate R&B and Pop charts because white and black tastes were so thoroughly overlapping.
The Beatles and their British Invasion peers loved African-American music, and at first they tried to keep up with the current styles. But polyrhythmic complexity was not their strong suit, and they soon realized that it made more sense to go in another direction. So, as Brown signaled yet another rhythmic shift with "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," The Beatles recorded "Yesterday."
It was the dawn of a new kind of rock, which replaced dance rhythms with innovative harmonies, instrumentation and songwriting. And as a generation of white rockers followed the Beatles' model, American pop became more segregated than ever before. Within a year of their US debut, Billboard brought back the R&B chart, recognizing that the integrated world of rock 'n' roll was splitting into separate worlds of rock and soul.
Many black artists did their best to maintain the interchange that had existed since the ragtime era, recording songs by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, and even the Archies. But the pop world that had fostered that interchange was disappearing.
As long as dance clubs had relied on live music, any working band had to be able to play all the current styles. Even the squarest white dance bands had learned to play swing -- and, later on, some kind of twist -- and even the hippest black orchestras played at least a few waltzes and pop ballads.
The Beatles themselves had started out in that world, playing a repertoire that ranged from old pop standards to rumbas, rockabilly and Motown hits. But when their music moved beyond anything they (or anyone else) could perform at gigs, and they quit touring forever, signaling that records, rather than live shows, now defined the pop mainstream.
In hindsight, it's hard to understand what a huge shift that was. Virtually all present-day pop fans would rather dance to their favorite records than to versions of the same songs played by a "cover" band. But before the later Beatles era, pretty much everyone considered records a second-rate substitute for live musicians.
As that changed, rock performers stopped playing dance gigs, and their live shows essentially became promotional events for their latest album. By the '70s, no one expected a rock band to keep up with what was happening in black music, or on the racially integrated disco dance floors. And the people making dance records found that they could be equally ignorant of what was happening in rock.
That is the world we've lived in ever since. No one in the early '60s could have imagined American pop becoming so segregated that 40 years of rock would include barely a half-dozen successful black players, or that 30 years of hip-hop could attract a huge interracial audience without producing more than two or three white stars. Nor could they have foreseen a future in which pop fans, instead of flocking to concerts, shut themselves up in a private world of earphones and MP3s.
The Beatles are not to blame for all of that. But they have become symbols of an era that a lot of people look back on as a golden age of musical revolution. And if they're going to get credit for their triumphs, they should also bear at least some of the responsibility for what was lost.
Elijah Wald is a musician and writer. His new book is "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music."
RUSSELL CROWE TO STAR IN BILL HICKS BIOPIC?
Australian actor (and sometime rocker) Russell Crowe talked briefly with the Sydney Morning Herald last week about a project he is working on based on the life of the late comedian Bill Hicks. Crowe, who is currently on break after filming for Ridley Scott's Nottingham, which was postponed until March '09, has not confirmed that he is set to star as Hicks in the biopic but is rumored to be considering taking on the role. If the Aussie does portray Hicks, he will be at least 10 years older than the comedian was at the time of his death in 1994. The actor did tell the paper that the film is still in the very early stages and is "going from treatment to draft stage with Kiwi writer Mark Staufer." Hicks' official website confirms that a script is in development for a production company owned by Crowe but will not comment on cast or director until the script is done and the project is "formally set up." The site also points out that the biopic is in no way related to the documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story, slated for a television or DVD premiere in the fall of 2009.
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