Over on grammy winning singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Bill Champlin's message board the topic of today's musicians and the longevity of their careers came up. I weighed in with the following:
I think the problem is that the suits in the industry take us for fools. We live in a fast food ADHD culture. If you don't like the current hit, wait 5 minutes, because the next new big thing is already on its way to your favorite ClearChannel radio station.
The music industry takes us for attention-deprived, fast-food fools (they apparently must also think we're deaf if they expect us to enjoy even half the polished turds they pass off as music). Until the industry starts showing its consumers the respect we deserve, we're doomed to drown in a septic tank of the polished turds they keep flushing out at us.
I found it very telling that the RIAA was willing to sue their customers for piracy. I understand and even agree, to some extent, with the legal principles behind what they were doing. But from a marketing standpoint it was one of the biggest mistakes they could have made. Rather than embrace the new technology and use it to their advantage they chose to sue their customers basically flipping us off and saying, "we don't care what you think, we just want your money."
And when it all comes down to it, that's all we are to them. As long as the listening public as a whole continues purchasing their polished turds their hands will be firmly placed on the flushers. We need to cause a septic back-up so instead of polished turds we get Filet Mignons and Tenderloins-- music with meat and chops! Music with (as the Champ himself says), "STUFF."
Monday, September 18, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Hey great commentary! I want to know what Bill has to say in response. Be sure to let us know!!
so what do we do to get THEM to stop caring what we think and only wanting or money?
layla: Here was Bill's response:
Perplexio, "If you don't like the current hit, wait 5 minutes, because the next new big thing is already on its way to your favorite ClearChannel radio station." I think you wrote that. Anyway, the thing about it is that the next big thing sounds the same as the one that just flopped. I've said it before. They used to wrap a sales campaign around an artist, now they wrap the artist around the sales campaign. They blame downloading for slumps and they're partly right but I think it's the music that is letting down the music business. It' like this: "Here is the very newest music available to you right now." And, sure enough, it sounds just like last month's "saviour of Rock & Roll". B.
I blame the morons that are BUYING the crap. Consumers are to blame for letting "the industry" talk down to us like this.
Those that buy American Idol soundtracks, watch Big Brother and ET, and think Ashley Simpson now sings, are taking the rest of us down with them.
For now. With the push that the internet, MySpace, etc. is giving the independent artist, traditional marketers and distributors are going to lose their grip on the consumer.
St. Dickeybird
This is one of the reasons I support small, independant bands and musicians, and go out to see them perform live, and buy their CDs from them at the show, if they have one.
Not that I don't also sometimes buy "commercial" music, but I always try to find it cheap. And when I hear something I like, I support it like mad.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
And for the record, real and serious musicians most often get better and better with age - even if they are no longer the flavour of the hour. So the music they end up putting out in latter years can be even better than when they were riding the wave. Of course by then, very few people are listening anymore.
Like Dickey, I hope that the net and all the resources it offers kicks the crap out of the record labels - they're in serious need of a lesson.
Post a Comment