Music Publishing & Songwriting

While we’re on the subject of conferences– which we were last week— here’s a new one to check out:

London Calling 2008

This is the UK’s largest music industry exhibition conference and live showcasing event, with over 3500 attendees from 45 different countries. Not too surprisingly, the focus of the conference is on independent music and the future of the music industry– which may be one and the same thing. Definitely an appropriate topic when EMI Records, the UK’s biggest label, is about to lay-off a huge percentage of their workforce (that is, if they can ever get around to it). Should be a great conference, and a showcase opportunity that’s worth considering, even for American bands. Maybe especially for American bands…

That’s because London seems to be one of the last spots on earth with a passion for new music. You can feel it when you’re there– this is one place where people still go out regularly to clubs to see new bands, where new, unique artists emerge with some regularity, and where the industry has rediscovered that music without a TV show or a featured spot in an advertisement can still matter to people. Looking at the artists that have broken out of the UK in the past two years, from Amy Winehouse to Corinne Bailey Rae to James Blunt to James Morrison and now Duffy, it’s clear that UK is in one of its most productive periods in years.

What’s really interesting is that the UK is now breaking not only their own native artists– but Americans as well! The Scissor Sisters have all the cachet of a UK act, having become European superstars virtually overnight. The crazy thing is that they’re not British at all. They’re a New York act that made the journey to England, in search of a more open, responsive radio environment, and an audience that still appreciates a mix of style, humor, and a little camp, mixed in with some great songwriting.

The same is true of last year’s big success story, Mika– another American artist that had to go to the UK to find his true home.

It’s quite possible that this year will bring another example, with the NY singer-songwriter Julian Velarde. After several years of building a following in NY’s Lower East Side club scene, this singer-songwriter still hadn’t landed the label or publishing deal he was looking for. Then suddenly, the British A&R scene started buzzing about him and created something of a feeding frenzy, with UK execs flying across the pond to throw out offers and scoop him up right under the noses of the US A&R community. If Julian’s album is the hit that many expect it to be, there will be some A&R weasels over on Madison Avenue and at Rockefeller Center with some serious explaining to do.

Songwriters and artists have to realize that they are in a global business. Of course, that means that you can sell your records all over the world. But it also means that you can make your records all over the world. If you’re not finding the recognition that you’re looking for where you are, or if your sound is not a fit for radio in this country– there’s a flight at JFK that might solve your problem. It’s worth a trip to see if the grass might be greener on another shore.

“I have great confidence that we will have the best record company in the industry, but the reality is, in today’s world, we might have the best dinosaur.” Rick Rubin, President, Columbia Records

Having been in Europe last week, I happened to pass by a rack of CD’s in an Autogrill (a sort of European McDonald’s with real food, and a shopping center attached)– and to my wonderment, was actually able to spot the 21st Century dinosaur, right there in living color. Here was a whole section of new album releases by top superstars just in time for the holidays, each available for a mere 25 euro apiece.

Wait. What was that price? 25 euro? Isn’t that the equivalent of almost $40 USD? Like anyone who’s just seen a prehistoric creature rumbling through the shopping mart, I couldn’t help but shout in amazement:

What’s going on?!?

As anyone who’s seen my previous blog, “Water Into Wine”, will note, I’m not a huge proponent of free music, or ad-based models. I think music has a value, and we should be willing to ask people to pay for it. But $40 for a CD? When any 10 year old can figure out how to listen to the whole thing for free with the click of a button? What is our industry thinking?

Incredibly, my wife actually did purchase two new CD’s while we were away, thankfully at a price less severe than 25 euro: the new James Blunt album “All The Lost Souls” and Craig David’s “Trust Me”. While I’m not looking to play music critic, one could politely describe both records as imminently forgettable. They did however bring to mind any interesting question, albeit not a musical one:

Why are we making this stuff?

Not music– I think we can all agree that there’s still some use in that. But why do we keep making 10,12,14 song albums? Just because the Beatles made “Sgt. Pepper’s” back in the Sixties? Because Stevie Wonder made “Songs In the Key of Life” in the Seventies? Because it’s all the industry knows how to do?

This past summer, the Shop Boyz had one of the biggest hip-hop hits of the year, with “Party Like A Rockstar”. On the heels of that hit, they hurriedly slapped together an album, “Rockstar Mentality”, that failed to produce even a follow-up hit, much less any significant record sales. Mim’s “This Is Why I’m Hot” generated an album as well– but not much in the way of subsequent success. Why are we doing this?

What if rather than throwing together an album to capitalize on a hit single, the Shop Boyz or Mims had concentrated on creating just one more hit of the caliber of their initial single, and then selling downloads and ringtones of that new hit? And then doing it again, and again– one song at a time? What if rather than trying to push out an uninspired sophmore album in time for the 4th quarter, James Blunt had put out a reasonably priced, 4 song EP, with one song that actually measured up to his previous hit “You’re Beautiful”? Why keep making albums when there is no indication that an audience wants to buy them, or that an artist actually has enough to say to actually justify a 10 song collection? There is no law that requires this. We can put out any kind of product we want.

I just finished reading Alan Greenspan’s book “The Age of Turbulence”– in it, the former Fed chairman talks again and again about “creative destruction”: the way that capitalism allows old economic models, old businesses, old industries to be destroyed by new, more useful, more efficient ways of meeting consumer demands. It’s time for the music industry to read the writing on the wall at the Autogrill, and put the Long Playing Record album (and its $20 price tag) on the scrap heap– unless an artist’s vision really requires that format, and his or her audience demands it. Otherwise, let’s find new, more engaging ways to package music– ones that are competitively priced, and artistically appropriate.

Like every other business, the music industry is going to have to come to grips with creative destruction. Either we destroy the old dinosaur, and get creative about building a new model– or we watch the old dinosaur destroy a once creative business.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Please– somebody stop the madness!