Excuse the lack of postings recently, I’m currently busy seeing the overview of the re-decoration of the boy wonder records website.
However, a quick post to let you know that MONDAY 5TH MAY on channel 186, RED TV, at around 18:30 you’ll get to see my band Red Route, doing a TV performance. Feel free to text in and vote, but more importantly, check us out and let me know what you think.
Also, any feedback on how the site should look would be appreciated.
More posts this week.
Anthony
I think out of most companies. Music companies have the biggest opportunity to make statements, and in the past, they have. You can sign artists with political ideas and agenda’s (Tom Waits, Rage?), you can sign artists with environmental belief’s (coldplay?), or you can make them yourselves . . .
If you would play a word association game, or get peoples perceptions of a record label, I’m guessing they would wither be extremely negative (”Robbing bastards”) or seen in an glamorous light (”Exciting”). I think there have been cases of both. Boy Wonder Records aren’t robbing bastards, and we’re not in it for the glamour either. We’re in it to make a difference.
How can a music company make a difference?
You can try and alter people’s lives for the better in any way you can. This can be the artist by making them successful and being able to make a living from making music, your employees, it can be the fan sat in their room in the dark listening to your records, it can be the environment or it can be someone who has never heard of your artist, your label or even you. Over the next week, I hope to address these issues in different posts, beginning with the first and perhaps the most important? . . .
| THE ARTIST |
Your artist should be dear to you, you effectively are a partnership, you work for them and they work for you. Tony Wilson (good interview with him here), who started Factory Records, and unfortunately recently died is a hero of mine who I had the pleasure to meet a few times, brilliant. But Tony started an ethical precedent for label/artist relations, and it’s one Boy Wonder Records uses today. It’s a 50/50 profit split with the artist. The average label deal is usually 80/20 in the label’s favour, but times have changed and so do the profit splits. Artists have been royally ripped off in the past, but things have to change. The renowned packaging deduction’s which came about with the introduction of vinyl and special edition product shouldn’t exist anymore in a contract, ESPECIALLY with the introduction of digital sales.
I always see Boy Wonder Records as a development label, spending time to help the artist’s with their act’s is essential, it helps everyone in the end. As a label, you should have expertise in certain fields, if not, bring someone in who is. I think all singers should have vocal tuition for one thing. Vocal tutors are magical people who can do wonders from breathing to confidence, it really is a must. Show me an artist who doesn’t want to be better at what they do.
A record label can be seen as a meat processing factory. A raw product goes in, the label then delivers an end product packaged and ready for the shelves. I said above, you kind of work for the artist. Rather than just getting on with release planning etc. Ask the artists . . . What do you want to achieve? It might not be immediately anything to do with the chart. As a label, you have to endeavor to achieve the end goals for the artists you represent.
To wrap up on Artists because I could type forever about being more ethical. Respect the fact they’re all individual, have different needs, need taking care of, need guidance, but probably most importantly of all, need listening to. What they want is important and as a music company / label /manager . . . it’s your job.
I think I’ve used the phrase the music industry is in a transitional period before, well, probably too many times, but dam it we are. But have you ever thought that end consumers, we have a say into how you buy music in the future? Well we do.
It’s said there will most likely be three way’s how we buy music. A premium service, a subscription service and a free service. Which one would you like? Well, they all have pro’s and con’s.
The free model:Download a good selection of releases, free of charge, 100% legal, however, you have to put up with advertisements in some form in order to listen but perhaps only for a certain period or amount of plays and at a low quality bitrate.
The subscription model:You can get a large percentage of track’s ever released. You pay a certain fee per month, perhaps to your ISP as part of your package. This will most likely be of a medium quality bitrate.
The premium model:You can download everything that’s ever been released, at high birtrate, no advertisements but on a price per track basis.
Which one do you prefer?I suppose you can look at them all as having pro’s and con’s? One thing about them all though, there’s an option for everyone, all legal and all ensuring the rights holders can monetise from all downloads.
So make your choice . . . choose 1, maybe 2, why not three? The good news is these models are already established. You’ll probably find you use one more than the other. The industry is listening, by closely monitoring sale trends, site stats and piracy reports, we can see how people buy music AND IT WILL SHAPE HOW MUSIC IS SOLD IN YEARS TO COME!So go out and experiment, find what’s right for you, and change how music is sold. If one model seems to do better than the others, music companies will strive to exploit copyright in that area and attempt to streamline the experience and value add it.
Personally, I’m a premium guy. I love buying vinyl, probably the most anti-digital format you can have, but I love the experience of it, you focus on the music much more as you have to be by your decks, place it on the turntable yada yada. But I do get a lot of free music as a label, I try to listen to as much new music as established repertoire. But it’s all about the quality and selection, if it’s good, it’s well worth paying for.
I also extremely despise advertisements. Mixing it with music to me would ruin the experience. Probably why I don’t listen to commercial radio. The advertiser’s for commercial radio also pretty much control the playlists, not how the world should be.
So go shape how music is sold in the future, there’s something for everyone.
It sounds like the title for a novel doesn’t it? Next one coming out is ”Harry Potter and the Gowers review.”
The industry (and yes, everyone, trade bodies, publishers, managers etc.) have submitted a document to the Intellectual Property Office yesterday, proposing the private copying process of format shifting, should not be classed as illegal. So right now, if you’ve ripped a cd onto your ipod, that is classed as an illegal act. However, the industry has come to terms that maybe, this isn’t really illegal (but of course there is a catch).
It’s silly to think people should pay for another copy of an album if they want it on their iPod aswell as a cd they have already purchased. In fact it’s a joke, and one these governing bodies have only just decided isn’t funny anymore.
I, probably like some of you, drive a car. And my cd’s get wrecked. They’re stood on, sat on, scratched within a few days/weeks. So rather than replacing my cd’s every week, if I have an album, I’ll burn a copy of it for the car. A naughty thing to do apparently, but to me, when I purchase music, I am buying the license to listen to it whenever, wherever and however I want. Be it in the gym on the iPod, in the car on a copied cd, or on my turntables when I’m at home. For the rest of my life, I should have the right to listen to that music how I please. And that’s what I’ve been doing and that’s what most of us do.
Going back to the car, another reason why I mostly only have copied cd’s in there is because sometimes passengers like what they’re listening to, so, I usually let them walk away with that copy. Very naughty of me I know. But it’s only a benefit to the act in the end. Once people come across new music they like, they will go out, find out more and most likely consume more by buying more albums or tickets to see them live (aswell as letting other people know about it). So I honestly don’t feel bad about that, sorry.
The catch mentioned above from the Music Business Group is that they want mp3 manufacturers to apply for a license before manufacturing. This will no doubt only affect products such as the iPod which are products people can choose what repertoire they want on there, i.e. not fixed repertoire. This is similar to the MCPS’s scheme for applying for a mechanical license before manufacturing audio products (known as AP schemes and many many others). The MBG are ‘adamant’ they don’t want a Levie imposed on the consumer for this, but it’s naive to think the cost will not be passed onto the consumer eventually as the companies will usually price products up according to the profit margin needed, otherwise, as a business, they are losing money.
There is no easy way to work out the suggested license scheme. Most of you will have iPods so have a think about how many times you’ve synched music in and out of it, and how much would the license be in order to ‘compensate’ the the composers and performers?
It goes back to my point where when you purchase one format, it shouldn’t matter what medium you’re listening to it on, you have already ‘compensated’ the composer and performer. To me, it’s a way another pointless music company can be started, making money from their ‘licensing’, publishers and labels getting greedy & in all in the end, costs me and you, the consumer, more money to listen to their music. It’s a front we’ve seen before many a time, “It’s about compensating perfomers and songwriters.” Well it’s not,they’re going to see the least amount of money once it’s gone through the process.
I don’t usually do this of course. But there is a torrent out there with a track from every showcasing artist from SXSW 2008. The audio tracks were free to download from certain sites, so someone has compiled them, made it into a torrent and has made it available to download.
This isn’t really piracy, if anything it’s promotion, no really. I was unable to go but think it’s amazing that I can still keep tabs on which bands have gone, what they’re like etc. If I like any of the bands I’ll of course check them out, investigate further, buy their records, go to their gigs etc. etc. Who said all free downloads were bad eh!
One of the latest bands to hit your tv screens on the Q channel with video “I’m not going to teach your boyfriend.”
Come across these guys about 9 months ago. They were in the Zane Lowe Monday competition “Fresh Meat” with track ‘Hurricane Jane’, from the first track, I thought, what a hit! BUT THEY LOST FRSH MEAT! Couldn’t believe the bad taste from people txting in that night, all I have to say is . . . where are the other bands they lost to now? No-where and still unsigned.
Goes to show, as a band or artist, even if you get knock-backs, and losing fresh meat would be one, doesn’t reflect on how well you’ll do.
Go check out Hurricane Jane on their myspace.
They coming to the UK soon, but only on a supporting slot to shitbags like Kate Nash.
BMG Music Publishing and Zomba Enterprises took kareoke manufacturer Leadsinger to court originally back in 2004.
The case came to a conclusion on the 2nd January. The court ruled that devices allowing lyrics to appear on screens whiles songs are being played simultaneously are akin to audiovisual usage. That usage, the court said, is not covered by a compulsory mechanical license and therefore requires a synchronisation license.
VERY VERY Interesting, what does this mean for ANY device that can display lyrics of the music?
Birmingham Band Red Route are now giving away their recently recorded EP for free on the internet.
They’re also playing the Barfly this tomorrow (Saturday 22nd March) with other brum act’s Matt Geary, Dead Fish & Grand Union Revivial, only £3 and bound to be a wikid night of great local music.
Please spread the word if you can.
Recently I’ve become more involved and interested in different artists.
A friend of mine Adam Williams just linked me to Si Scott. Some really great stuff there.
I’m a HUGE fan of Nigel Evan Dennis, where you can see his work here: www.electricheat.org (a frequent name in Computer Arts magazine).
Let’s also not forget our resident/in-house wonderful artist: Paul Geary.
Thanks Adam.
Anthony Herron | Boy Wonder Records | 
05 4th, 2008| 