Yesterday, New York’s Webstar Hall welcomed a group of the world’s leading record executives for the 2012 New Music Seminar.
Engaging a heated discussion centered around the ‘Rise Of The Music Industry’, their debate saw them outline the various ways the industry has altered its model to accommodate changing trends, ‘consumer laziness’ and their plans to regenerate sales.
Interesting read below…
Billboard Biz:
“The last ten years we’ve seen the decline of the record business, and now we’re seeing the rise of the music business,” said moderator Amaechi Uzoigwe, head of content and business affairs at Official.fm, at the New Music Seminar Monday.
Much of the panel, titled “Music Labels: The Businesses Formerly Known as ‘Record Companies,'” focused on how the role of labels has changed in the current music industry, and how label owners can expect to fill the new roles created by this fluctuation.
The panelists, interestingly enough, were split almost down the middle between independent label owners and major label executives — with Ultra’s Patrick Moxey, Epitaph/Anti’s Brett Gurewitz, Rostrum’s Benjy Grinberg, and Beggars Group’s Martin Mills on one side, with Sony Music’s Dennis Kooker, UMG’s Jon Vanhala, and Warner’s Stephen Bryan on the other, and Merlin CEO Charles Caldas also involved — which made for a sometimes friction-filled discussion, despite the panel’s universal emphasis on the emerging industry’s need for frictionless music services.
As labels re-calibrate their roles in the music industry, changing revenue streams dictate that they serve as more than just the caretaker of recorded music. “I don’t feel that we’re competing with other labels, we’re competing with marketing firms,” said Gurewitz. “Our role is as artist advocate… nobody achieves great success alone. We are the team behind them.”
Part of that comes from tackling different income streams, be they merchandising, licensing synchs, or targeted marketing to embrace the many different technology companies that provide varied methods of access to consumers. “With new technology, consumers have more options, more targeted offerings, and more opportunities [to consume music],” said Bryan.
“People are lazy, they’ll pay for convenience, and if you can give them the easiest way possible [to access music], they’ll do it,” added Caldas.
All roads led back to reducing the number of steps between consumers and their music, whether through consolidated global rights organizations, simplifying the music licensing process, or finding ways to take ad-supported access models and using them to upgrade consumers to premium, monetized services.
“Access models grow the pie for everyone,” said Vanhala. “There are more consumers of music this second than there ever have been… As we move those people into frictionless models, it benefits all of us.”
Ultra Music’s Patrick Moxey noted that his label has successfully increased its YouTube revenues, which have gone from mere pennies to a seven-figure income source with the label’s channel now getting some 1.8 billion views. Ultra Music, he added, is in the process of producing original video content based on his label’s EDM lifestyle and that one of the writers pens scripts for “CSI.”
As the playbook for labels has changed, so has the role of the artist in the industry. “Artists today are more powerful than ever,” said Grinberg, noting how Mac Miller’s Blue Slide Park debuted at No. 1 with very little traditional radio or other marketing. “They are business people, marketers… They know how to relate to their audience and know how to connect properly.”
Beggars’ Mills made the point that different independent labels have different connotations and signing with Gurewitz’s Epitaph, for example, is not the same as signing with Matador records (which operates under Mills’ Beggars Group umbrella). Artists need to be aware of which indie labels do what best before signing a deal.
And with today’s artists having more options than ever of how to release their music, Grinberg said, the old “archaic” record contracts are binge tossed aside in favor of a more egalitarian split — and with digital platforms becoming ubiquitous, the differences between major labels and indies will be reduced.
Yet the role of the label — as a support structure and a team helping an artist achieve success — will not be going away.
“The power is with the artist,” he said, “but the infrastructure and guidance [of a label] is still important.”
Raising a number of valid points, it’s interesting to catch a brief glimpse into the minds of the powers that be.
With regards to ‘consumer laziness’, it’s safe to say that the ‘lazy’ is more of a universal affair- with labels and their acts failing to push products worthy of anyone’s hard earned $10.
For, instead of A&R departments taking their time to scout and season acts as they did in the past, they’ve become guilty of shortsightedness, following trends instead of setting them.
Forcing fresh faces out into the public without the benefit of artist development and a clear cut strategy.
Strategy, that gives room for acts to develop their sound, farm a loyal fan base who should (if the act is consistent) put their money where their mouths are come album release date.
This being the reason Drake can command 700k first week at full price, outselling acts twice as recognizable as he is on a domestic and international front.
![New Song: Nicki Minaj - 'FTCU (Sleeze Mix)' [featuring Sexyy Red, Chris Brown, & Travis Scott]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/nicki-minaj-thatgrapejuice-2024-ftcu-remix-sleeze-sexyy-red-chris-brown-travis-scott-464x260.jpg "New Song: Nicki Minaj - 'FTCU (Sleeze Mix)' [featuring Sexyy Red, Chris Brown, & Travis Scott].")
OK
quite a read. i don’t remember much. tho… is this really something the customers in here should read. this more of a business internal for interested.
what we gonna say? let the artists be the artists they wanna be and back them with everything. get them known and listened. maybe hint them if they doin’ bad. but not try to milk them sales for gods sake. but sure there’s lots of people that need to fed from one album release. with all the production cost and stuff. so it’s it’s tricky.
i hope rihanna reads this so she can get a number one album next time around cos its getting kind of embarrasing for her.
Kiiii. I hope Bey reads it so she can become relevant again.
@16 GRAMMY…..READIN IS FUNDAMENTAL..
http://www.blackstate.com/notapimp.html
Black State
Local rap artist in dc charlotte will havr almost no chance
of getting air time in there local market without the backing of a Major Label….
This article is a great READ GRAPE, And it is more then just
Rihanna
@16 Grammys this article is waaaaaay bigger then just Rihanna, but thanks ahead of time for the love that yo ass shows Rihanna on almost each and every POST…
I’m excited to see a post with a bit of depth TGJ, Kudos! But watch how it will get hardly any comments. (Rolls Eyes)
You made a valid point about A&R following trends instead of creating them, and this is the problem with today’s music. Everything on the radio sounds the same, every artist looks the same and it is becoming more and more apparent that if an artist (eg Chris Brow, Rihanna, Lil Waune, Flo Rida, Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, ect) finds a particular sound that gets them a number 1 single they became complacent and fearful to experiment with their music, which is why half of the artist today will not have a career past 10 years because they becoming boring and predictable.
I don’t think that consumers have become lazy, I think that the rise of lazy artists have made us sceptical of spending our money on rushed/ cheap products.
http://www.theofficialmusicjunkie.com/
“I don’t think that consumers have become lazy, I think that the rise of lazy artists have made us sceptical of spending our money on rushed/ cheap products.”
I agree 100% with this last statement, that the artists have become lazy, which makes us as consumers hesitant to spend our money.
The new infrastructure of the music business makes “strategy” less important than generating the hottest material. It hasn’t happened yet, but in the next couple of years, an independent, youtube/internet-based artist will top the Hot 100 – first by building a fan base online, garnering big sales, and then using that money to target an even wider, more expensive, and harder-to-reach radio market (which is, itself, evolving).
This discussion touches on the decreasing overall relevance of music labels. The only advantage labels have is access to radio, but an independent artist with enough online success has the power to drive radio interest.
great post. can we get this type of content more often please? instead of the random shade posts…
There is a sense of hope in the music Industry…
http://www.sounds.ie/?p=506
@Grape this is a very good article you posted on
“New Music Seminar, Thanks for the great Read….
pool party music play list for Summer for many not all
of us i know….
http://www.cleanhippie.net/2012/06/14/your-perfect-2012-pool-party-playlist-for-summer/
See different strokes for different folks, and it is just like all of the
artist some people love this one and others love that one, and
that is just the nature of the Hunt for your fave music artist.
Hot summer songs pop ect…
http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/song-of-summer-2012-its-that-time-again.html
My pool party
Lil Scrappy Feat. Tocarra…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scOtYkaHTHI
Phyllisia, ft young Joc & Jay Cure “I love You”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEI5CWRCLs
People like to act as though labels aren’t important. They have lost their marbels. Labels help you with promo,radio & appearances. Alot of indie artists just don’t have the funds & pull to do this. Indie artists don’t usually pull in big numbers unless they have a huge following and or hype behind hem. Mac Miller debuted at number one, but look at how quickly he fell off the charts. He didn’t have that push nor the promo/radio support. An artist can release a song independently, but with a label backing you, it’s more of an adavantage.
But even sometimes the big labels don’t support their artists. Look at RCA for example, home to Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, BC Jean, Ke$ha, Monica, Pitbull, Kelly Clarkson, Brandy. Jennifer Hudson had very little promo and hype surrounding her most recent album. It shows that labels only really support the more commercial and mainstream artists such as chris brown.
That’s a lie. Jennifer Hudson performed on every major daytime show, and Dancing With The Stars. Plus she was already everywhere with her Weight Watchers commercials. People were just not interested in her music this time around.
them*
These are the articles that I like and even though they talk about the “nuts and bolts” of the music business, artists need to know these things. Artists have to be more than artists, they have to think like a business and honestly it been like that for well over 10 years. I do love that artists have different ways to get their music out rather than just labels nowadays.
Interesting read. I wonder what direction the music industry will take nowadays. I do agree that the music industry is headed towards the route of marketing as opposed to relying solely on the talent of the artist and the sales. One has to only look at the success of “beats by dre” which were spammed on every music video ever released by Interscope, and were also spammed on American Idol which averages viewing figures of about 20 million an episode.
Perhaps that is the direction the music industry is heading to and is most likely the reason you’ll see more Katy Perry’s in the charts than you would more talented acts. That said, this is an interesting read.
“anyone’s hard earned $10.:
The staff at this place don’t know about earning anything considering they don;t make anything, but a full album is definitely worth 10 dollars, and if not so don’t buy any and they will bcum better/cheaper!
They had a whole seminar when the truth is just that real emotion sells. If you’re real with no gimmicks YOU SELL. We the people are now smarter than the music they sell us. Which is why artist like OFWGKTA sell out everywhere, and Mac Miller can have a #1 album with no songs on the radio. WE JUST WANT REAL.
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