Virgil Dickerson has been running Suburban Home Records, a small, independent record label based in Denver, Colorado for the past 12 years. It started as a fanzine in September of 1995 and has become a label, a distributor, a vinyl imprint and store, a custom t-shirt company and this blog about the music industry. He remains optimistic about the future of music sales although it is tougher now than it has ever been trying to sell a product people actively get for free. Suburban Home's bands include Drag the River, Tim Barry, Love Me Destroyer, On Guard, Ghost Buffalo, Josh Small, Stereotyperider, Two Cow Garage and Adventures of Jet.
Sean Klassen has found his lot in life through playing guitar in struggling indie bands for over ten years now, currently playing in tongue-in-cheek heavy metal band Dartanian. Through playing music he discovered the art of graphic design and now spends much of his time designing various records, cds, posters and websites for a wide variety of clients ranging from local bands to international brands such as Universal Pictures and Audi. Sean currently pays his bills working as an Art Director at Factory Design Labs in Denver. He also enjoys wearing argyle socks and playing hockey. Feel free to direct any technical or website related comments or problems his way.
Bill Wilson founded the NY based indie, Blackout! Records while a college student at Fordham University in 1989. In it's 18 year history, the label (and sub-imprints) has released music from a diverse roster of bands, including Crime In Stereo, Deadguy, Ensign, Guided By Voices, H2O, Killing Time, Kill Your Idols, and Sheer Terror. He also has held positions as a Product Manager at RED; Distribution Marketing Manager at Caroline Distribution; and General Manager of Earache Records. Since 2001 he has worked in digital media and social networking, and is currently employed by a big ol' multinational media company in their mobile entertainment division.
I’m getting sick of TechCrunch traveling down the same old road again and again without one new idea.This time around, they once again use the sensational ”the death of the label” headline. It seems that Last.fm’s opening their royalty option to indies and artists is some sort benchmark that “the middlemen” are no more.
“What Last.fm is doing here is creating an alternative to the official royalty-collecting organization for musicians (i.e., SoundExchange). Last year, the royalty rates for music streamed over the Internet were raised, making it more difficult for ad-supported music startups to stay in business. Last.fm got bought by CBS, so it’s not in danger of going under. And for any song owned by a label or artist who participates in SoundExchange, Last.fm continues to pay the going Internet radio royalty rate. But it is beginning to bypass Sound Exchange by giving new, unsigned artists an alternative. “
My smarmy headline aside, I don’t really agree with this and will explain exactly why I feel this way.
To not get caught up in some irritating argument over semantics in the comments, let’s define what a label is for the purposes of this post- the core business. A label is an incubator. It filters and creates content (A&R), makes an investment in creating and promoting that talent (human resources and marketing dollars), and ultimately strives to make a profit. Much like VC’s- labels speculate on the ability of talent to generate revenue that will support both parties. So, Live Nation is as much of a label as Epic, Epitaph, Suburban Home or any other traditional label. Large management firms who invest in recordings and perform marketing functions are similarly acting as “labels”, even if they take that moniker or not.
Let’s also dispense with the illusion that any artist can build a lasting career without some sort of business infrastructure. Very few artists can be Ani Difranco and do an amazing job in both music and entrepreneurship. Radiohead, NIN, and others are cool but don’t count in this argument because they had major marketing dollars and resources for years before they went out on their own. If some unknown built the fanciest website and shot the best video in the world- who the hell is going to see it unless you there’s some meaningful publicity on it? With all the wannabes out there … it’s a fucking WAR for attention out there, and victory (creating artist ubiquity that leads to selling a product) costs buku bucks. Bucks for all the jobs that need to get done, and bucks to grease the wheels of progress.
Let’s start with a product manager does. In the places I’ve worked, product managers are the drivers of the album after the record is done and ready to packaged, marketed, and delivered to physical and digital outlets. On most matters, they are the link between label and artist, and then internally responsible to establish and maintain quality control and time lines on everything from album art to viral videos, publicity campaigns, to the programs at traditional and digital retail. Oh, and all of this within an established budget
How about publicity? Why are some publicists great? Hint: not because of their ability to write hyperbolic press releases. It’s the relationships, retard. Publicists (and radio people, and sales people) pay YEARS of dues and slugging it out to earn the trust as taste makers for the gatekeepers at magazines, blogs, and late night television shows. Steve Martin from Nasty Little Man started his company doing press for Bad Religion and Helmet out of his apartment after getting paid $5 a year working at indie labels. Now he gets the Foo Fighters on Letterman. I guarantee he ain’t making $5 a year anymore. Who pays for that?
Let’s not forget about the super-sexy jobs of administration. Making sure bills are paid, aggregating content, processing meta data, formatting videos for viral distribution. The list of thankless and invisible tasks are endless. Let’s not forget the super super fun job of invoicing and collecting on all of those half-pennies Last.Fm and the other vendors are paying. Is last.fm going to collect royalties from other third parties and dispense them as well? This ill informed argument simply continues to prove that all of these half-baked theories from people who have never lived it like they spit it are just wind.
I’d like to know what 20-something armed only with their used strat, bartending money, and trendy Florence Henderson haircut could possibly do all of that- and then perform and write songs to the best of their ability? Unlikely at best. Their job is to write songs, rock out, fuck their fans, and be that guy or gal that people just can’t take their eyes off. You think they really want to toil their nights away doing all of this maintenance and splitting hairs if Artist Data Systems is the right syndication system for their tour dates? Coffee’s here, wake up.
Here is my plea to all the bloggers out there in tech world: stop the shenanigans, talk to and interview people who are actually in the business and trying to make a difference (we are) and talk about how your beloved start ups could HELP make the middle better, and stop crying wolf about how it’s over. It’s time to put down the rhetoric and start to propose viable solutions to the problems facing people that make content and people that want to exploit it for profit (labels and last.fm alike.)
Ahhh. I feel better now.
But I thought I’d post this comment here, relating to this post at Techcrunch where Michael Arrington comments:
“Recorded music is nothing but marketing material to drive awareness of an artist. Websites that bring that music to listeners are doing artists a favor. In fact, they’re doing them a favor that they should (and will) be paid for. Young artists and songwriters in particular benefit from these services - Until a few years ago they had almost no way to break into the mainstream without getting a label to promote them. Now those walls are being torn down, and Bragg has the audacity to complain about it.”
My reply to this is that one word comes to mind when I hear all of the web2.0 types talk about the next generation of music and how artists and labels should not expect to be compensated for recorded music.
Carpetbagger.
Yes. The old fatcats at the top of the music biz totally f’d it up with Napster. That’s ancient news. But they also screwed it up with terrestrial radio and MTV- building huge conglomerates on “promotional” music. To be fair, the biz was making enough money selling discs for it not to matter.
But it does now. We’re wise to Bullsh!t2.0, where some small team of founders and initial investors make millions in funding from selling to Newscorp, Yahoo, Google or CBS. Don’t blame the artists and labels for adapting to the new playing field. Music helps these companies acquire customers who have a lifetime value. So they need to shut up and pay.
These guys are still just as greedy as they claim Doug Morris and Edgar Bronfman are, the just hide behind the popular mantra that music should be free. Free to the consumer? Sure. Free to those who make a windfall? No way.
I suggest anyone in a band or from a label read the post and leave a comment on it.
Wired recently published a piece called, “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin”. It is an interesting look at Vinyl’s recent rise in popularity which has become a hot topic amongst various publications. Since this piece ran on Monday, I have had at least a dozen links to the story forwarded to me. I would like to offer my own thoughts on the post.
I have been meaning to write a little something about the panel I moderated at CMJ and over the time that has passed, I decided to try something new with Suburban Home, and just this morning, I was sent a link of a blog post explaining their thoughts on Oink’s recent shut down and their thoughts about music piracy. All of these things have inspired me to write a post about the changing face of music sales.
So I am off to New York City today to attend this year’s CMJ events. I will be moderating a panel called DIY or Die. If you are attending this year’s CMJ, please come to our panel as it should be really interesting. And if you do come, please come and say hi afterwards.
I will be seeing one of my acts, Tim Barry, play a sold out show at the Knitting Factory with the Falcon and Loved Ones. I will get to meet Bill (of IndieHQ), Ronen (of Issues Oriented), and maybe Carl (of Ferret). I will also get to spend some time with my friends in LaGrecia, Ross from Reignition, and Seth from Negative Progression.
I am looking forward to the trip. I have been entirely overworked lately as you can tell from the inactivity of IndieHQ. I think this trip will reinvigorate me and hopefully it will help me to get back on track with Indiehq. I would love to get your ideas on how we can add some contributors to the site without it getting out of hand. I would love to see IndieHQ being more active, but I just know that I don’t have the time to commit that I once did. Our vinyl store and imprint, Vinyl Collective, is going so incredibly well, if I were a smart man, I would stop doing everything else and just focus on that.
I gave Jason Shevchuk, frontman of LaGrecia, and former singer for Kid Dynamite and None More Black, a call last night to discuss the band, flying to Denver to play their first show (YES, First Show!) at Suburban Home’s 12th Anniversary shows, and the fact that they are currently recording demos, 9 songs in fact! Jason talks a little bit about the members in LaGrecia, Dana and Sal, and how they all came to be in a band together. Did you know that Jason and LaGrecia are also doing an acoustic set for our Punk Rock Flea Market? He was excited that this will be his first time performing acoustic. Enough of my writing, listen to the conversation. And thanks Jason for taking the time to talk. I am so excited to hang out this weekend!
I am trying my best to keep these calls short in length, but we had a lot to discuss. This conversation lasts 8:44. As we continue these conversations with Jason, Jon, and the rest of the Suburban Home family, I hope to have calls last around 5 minutes.
Here is a direct link to the mp3 in case you want to download the file and/or share it. If you produce a podcast, feel free to use all or part of the conversation in a future episode. Just mention where it came from.
I’m sure many of you have read about Rick Rubin taking over Columbia Records and his thoughts on selling music. Well, my friend Ross had a great response to the news that I wanted to share. Check it out…
Our fine friends over at TalentFilter pointed out that LA radio station KYSR (Star 98) had a contest where artists can compete for a slot on an upcoming compilation and win $10k (among other prizes.) The kicker is that in the subtext of the agreement to submit music, the user is required to waive all royalties for that music.
Now, is 10k potentially worth way more than a band would make in ASCAP/ BMI/ or SEASAC payments? Sure. So maybe this isn’t all that egregious. But you see, The corporate parent tried this a few months ago in the aftermath of the payola scandal, when they were forced to allocate time to independents, but worked (more…)
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