The Music Man, "Rick Rubin"

There is a very good article over at the New York Times Magazine. The article is an interview with Rick Rubin who has been brought in to try and save Sony's record business. Some interesting quotes from the article include;

"Only 10 years ago, companies wanted to make records, presumably good records, and see if they sold. But panic has set in, and now it's no longer about making music, it's all about how to sell music. And there's no clear answer about how to fix that problem. But I still believe that the top priority at any record company has to be coming up with great music."

"The most important thing we have to do now is get the art right. So many of the decisions at these companies have not been about the music. They sign artists for the wrong reasons — because they think somebody else wants them or if they need to have a record out by a certain date. That old way of doing things is obsolete, but luckily, fear is making the record companies less arrogant. They're more open to ideas. So, what's important now is to find music that's timeless. I still believe that if an artist gains the belief of the listener, then anything is possible."

"The [Neil Diamond] CD debuted at No. 4," Rubin told me at Hugo's, still sounding upset. "It was the highest debut of Neil's career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record. The spyware became public knowledge, and people freaked out. There were some lawsuits filed, and the CD was recalled by Columbia. Literally pulled from stores. We came out on a Tuesday, by the following week the CD was not available. Columbia released it again in a month, but we never recovered. Neil was furious, and I vowed never to make another album with Columbia."

"Steve Jobs understood Napster better than the record business did," David Geffen told me. "IPods made it easy for people to share music, and Apple took a big percentage of the business that once belonged to the record companies. The subscription model is the only way to save the music business. If music is easily available at a price of five or six dollars a month, then nobody will steal it."

"Either all the record companies will get together or the industry will fall apart and someone like Microsoft will come in and buy one of the companies at wholesale and do what needs to be done," he said. "The future technology companies will either wait for the record companies to smarten up, or they'll let them sink until they can buy them for 10 cents on the dollar and own the whole thing."

This is a very unique view of the recording industry that you don't always hear about. There is a lot of talk about how the quality of the music must improve. It is a long article, but well worth the time to read it.

agreed!


markus

I agree with Dean - there's lot's of good music out there already. Making more of it isn't going to change anything. Record companies are their own worst enemy I think. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if we really even need record companies any more.

This is kind of the direction I've been thinking about myself. I originally was thinking about getting CD's pressed, and I still might do a small amount to have around to send for promos, etc., and maybe sell from my website. I think mainly, I'm going to concentrate on operating digitally, on a freelance basis. Selling via SNOWCAP, TUNECORE/iTunes, W7, etc. There are also companies which help collect royalties (besides BMI & ASCAP) from internet and radio airplay, such as Sound Exchange and Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC). The biggest problem is promotion and marketing. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I'd just as soon forego signing with a record label and try to do it all on my own. It's becoming more feasible these days to do this, and also for lack of funding, it's a lot cheaper too.

There is an interesting article in September's Sound on Sound magazine "Start your Own Record Label", that deals with all different aspects of starting a label, but also with digital publication.

A buddy of mine just started selling CDs through CDBaby. It's too soon to know if it'll be profitable for him, but the process couldn't possibly be any easier. They do everything for you, and don't charge much for the service. For example, if you don't already have barcodes on your product, they'll do that for you, for like 25 bucks or so. It sure looks like a winning model.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I just can't bring myself to pay for an MP3.

I like that you can buy single songs, that's a plus. But if I'm going to shell out cash for it, I want all the bits!

It is very conveinient to have literally 1 weeks worth of music on an I-pod.... Which is sort of a 2 edged sword because someone can load it up with classics that they know and then never get exposed to anything new ever again!! I have friends who have this set up in there cars and don't do the radio ever.
Only people who specifically seek out new music ( which can be difficult because there is so much more wheat to seperate from the chaff now) will be buying now , no more " I just heard it by accident and had to have it" type of events.