Posts by Simon Grigg
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was this a new band without a profile trying to get their name out there.
doesn't matter. Especially in this current you are only as good as your last hit minefield now. There is so much chaff with YouTube and every other Web 2.0 network out there, its impossible to cut through.
Prince realised that last year.
And its scary to watch record companies run away from acts whose second album isn't an immediate hit. The best thing James Blunt could do right now is give away a million albums on a newspaper.
If you are only a one hit wonder then chances are its back to Ford factory before long anyway and any real money you make is going to come from Sync and performance, not record sales. That's where 90% of the OMC money came from. And I bet its where The Knack made their money.
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you're hoping there is some long term benefit, that some decent person somewhere down the line is going to buy a copy, but realistically its like someone sneaking into your gig and letting everyone they know sneak in too, and all the people they know,
Actually my advice to a band last year was to take your best song, put it on p2p networks, burn a couple of thousand cds, give them away at school gates with a note asking them to give it to as many people as possible...and this was after we'd just recorded their album at some cost. The major record company involved couldn't get their head around it, but they are all, the majors that is, very short term these post Idol days.
Like I said earlier, its all about currency, about careers. If you are smart P2P is your friend.
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And how would you have felt if 25 ppl paid to get into one of your raves and 5000 just snuck in?
a) I've never put on a "rave", and b) if I had there would be no long term benefit to either myself or my artist if they had, unlike the CD being in their home. Not really an appropriate comparison.
And SonyBMG have just decided to either take the piss out of themselves or are in dire need to some good marketing advice with this just in:
DRM free music from Sony BMG will be available from January 15 to those who purchase a plastic card called the “Platinum Music Pass” for the album they want from a retail store for $12.99. Buyers will then have to visit MusicPass.com and enter a code to download the DRM free album they selected in the store.
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Ahhgh
"Ironically the one NZ band I saw on MTV last week"
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sorry, I was thinking 3 the hard way album 2
Ironically the one I band on MTV Asia last week. Aside from OMC and Supergroove they seem to be the one that some programmer there likes and often plays late at night.
As an aside, I heard Supergroove twice again on public PA systems in Denpasar in recent months. Those accents really stand out when you don't expect them.
They actually were quite big here, unlike all the other ones who just pretended to be but weren't. If I want to impress someone, I say I know Supergroove and it works everytime, anywhere in SEA.
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Which, if I'm not speaking out of turn, wasn't released as a single in the US. You'd still have your publishing revenue, and I think you'd still be able to sell the album.
Indeed but it was the end of single era in the US, By about 1997 they were completely gone.
The Canadians did well exporting CD singles across the border too, sales of which helped push HB to 1 in Canada for quite a period.
But more to the point, 'How Bizarre' in the YouTube age would have been MASSIVE; it just screams "derivative use". And also probably a lot more interesting for Pauly than trekking through a thousand radio stations.
or sending him off on a vastly expensive live tour that he simply wasn't up to or ready for.
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sure, of course, but you're not saying you'd happily give away 'how bizarre'.
Funnily enough I was thinking the other day that, despite that being far and away the most successful record I've ever released, and it being a record I was very closely involved with on every level, its the one, for a variety of reasons, I feel least passionate about.
But in a way we did give it away, doing a couple of deals we should never have done.
</quote>Its not so much the point of making a living even, its getting enough money to cover the next album, although I'm sure you're in a different mind about his recent album, if you could give it away.</quote>
nothing directly to do with me that one....
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the LEDs for example, you'll get a blank look at the Warehouse, but RG will likely know who you are talking about
funnily enough that was the band that got me the blank stares at RG last June.
RG is still a store staffed by fans for fans but from recent experience it has got comparatively expensive, simply doesn't have the range it used to and the staff are not as obsessively knowledgeable as they used to be. Shrinking markets, the net or just a changed focus I don't know. but its still, in Auckland at least, a great place to get lost in for a few hours.
Auckland does have some great little record stores which still have that passion..Conch in Ponsonby Rd for example is a goldmine. And that gem you are gonna find at the back of the sale box beats every MP3 I've ever had stored on any device, with or without DRM.
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you say that now the label isn't your day job, but casting your mind back to the early eighties there's a hungry record label owner who might answer differently
dunno, its a fine line. My primary focus was always on the band. We lost money on just about every record we released (The Blams recouped the cost of their album..based on 100% of every dollar returned, not just their share...in 1992) and survived off live and part time jobs.
I'd still have rather had my records in homes than not.
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not that I'm sure he or I particularly gave a shit but the point is the acceptance of piracy is far reaching even amongst friends of friends. make of that what you will.
And I don't really give a damn. I'd rather 5000 people were listening to a pirated album than 25 bought it. It's all about the currency of the act. The music is paramount, and the rest, smartly herded of course, will follow.
And DRM, Digital, piracy, P2P or whatever excuse you want, that failure to recognise that simple fact is the reason the record industry is fucked right now.
There is a great book on the history of the Warners Music group which I must re-read, which chronicles the rise of the music driven labels, seat of the pants, risk taking, stuff which made them what they were, and predicts, rather accurately, the stock market / accountancy driven downfall we see now.
There are no more Mo Ostins, Armet Erteguns, Chris Blackwells or the like sadly, willing to build an artist over 5 albums..at least not in the major labels. That is the real reason they are struggling.