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THE STANDARD'S
B E A T S H E E T
The Latest Digital Music News - and It's Free
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For more on digital music, visit
The Standard's Media & Marketing page:
http://www.thestandard.com/subject/marketing
Tuesday, May 8, 2001
TOP STORY:
* Going It Alone
NET NOISE:
* TheBaffler.com
BEATS:
* RIAA and NARM: We'll Do Better on the Parental Advisory Issue
DOT DOT DOT:
* Farmclub: No More Music Service Trial ... Assorted Music Tidbits, En
Route to the Virtual Circular File
SOUND OFF:
* This week's question: Should the music industry take more
responsibility for keeping explicit content away from children?
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TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
Going It Alone
Singer-songwriters like Jonatha Brooke and Aimee Mann are using the
Net to work their careers from outside the major-label system - and
doing quite well for themselves, thank you.
By Julene Snyder
There's little glamour to be found at the Doubletree Inn in Omaha,
Neb., but Jonatha Brooke isn't complaining. The independent
singer-songwriter is in the midst of "touring her butt off," hitting
what must feel like every town in the country to support her latest
record, "Steady Pull."
Skipping the glitz that comes with touring on a major label has its
challenges, but that's part of the price you pay for controlling your
work and keeping a bigger cut of the profits. At a time when the
entire music-industry landscape is in flux - with artists and labels
alike trying to hammer out issues over copyright and compensation for
digital use - former major-label artists like Brooke, Aimee Mann and
others are finding that going independent and using technology to
their advantage can pay off both financially and creatively.
After all, it's certainly no secret that the current major-label
system is set up to make stars in the short-term, not to build careers
for the long haul. "Major labels don't have much of an attention span
unless you're 19 and really cute in hot pants." Brooke says ruefully.
Brooke, formerly with the critically acclaimed folk-pop group, the
Story, says that on a major label, her new record - which came out in
mid-February - would probably have been shunted to a back burner by
now. But by releasing music on her own label, Bad Dog Records, she's
already sold twice the number of records at this point in her new
albums' life than she ever did on a major label, and she's just
getting started with her own media blitz.
While it's standard today for artists to have their own Web sites,
Brooke is more involved with hers, JonathaBrooke.com, than most. Her
official bio calls the site a "remarkable tool in her independent
marketing quest," and says that she uses the site to respond to fans
directly and let them feel like they're part of the songwriting
process.
So far, doing it her way is paying off, big-time. Brooke says her
record's first single, "Linger," has reached the top 10 on
adult-alternative charts, which is better than she ever achieved on a
major label. She attributes this at least in part to her own passion
for the music and, of course, being single-minded about promoting the
record. Bottom line? "I get more of that money," Brooke says.
Having creative control is another significant reason for going
independent. Aimee Mann, who came to fame as the lead singer of
new-wave band 'Til Tuesday in 1985 and was nominated for an Oscar and
a Grammy last year for her soundtrack to the movie "Magnolia," is also
finding that independence suits her better than being signed to a
major label.
Her turning point came in 1999 when Interscope decided not to release
her album "Bachelor No. 2." "They'd basically inherited me and didn't
know what to do with me," Mann recalls. "Since I'd come in under
budget, if they'd released the record, they would have had to pay me."
Instead, in an unusual deal, she used the money the label owed her -
which she says was in the low six figures - to buy back the record and
put it out herself. She considers herself the winner in the deal, even
though she spent the money she'd been planning to live on for a year
to regain ownership of her work. "I do exponentially better
financially releasing my music myself," Mann says. "I've sold more
records with my rinky-dink system than Geffen ever did with their
whole staff." That rinky-dink system consists of Mann, her manager and
an assistant, who've done whatever it takes to get her music to the
people who want to hear it.
Mann also has relied heavily on the Internet, especially before she
got a distribution deal for "Bachelor No. 2." She used her Web site,
AimeeMann.com, as a way for fans to mail order the album, and she
offered the entire album for paid download for just under $10.
To date, Mann says she's sold about 185,000 copies of "Bachelor No.
2," and the "Magnolia" soundtrack - composed almost entirely of Mann's
songs - recently went gold with more than 500,000 copies sold. "On a
major, you might make 50 cents a record - and you have to pay back the
costs to make that record," Mann says. "As an indie, you make $8 a
record."
Not to mention the psychic toll that being on a major label can take
on an artist. "Nothing makes anyone happy," Mann recalls. "As an
artist, you start to think, 'Maybe I'm not that good.' To go from that
to being nominated for awards, getting great reviews and a great
response from fans makes you think, 'Hmm. Maybe I've been hanging out
with the wrong people.'"
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NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
TheBaffler.com
While this space typically interests itself solely in sites concerning
digital music, please indulge me this week in a bit of a departure.
After all, broadening horizons is what the ultra-literate print zine,
The Baffler, is all about. I was a latecomer to its charms, having
first discovered it back in 1995, when Seattle producer Steve Albini
(Nirvana, the Pixies, Bush) published his now-legendary rant "The
Problem With Music" in the sporadically published zine's fifth issue.
His knowing commentary on rock-star dreams turned hellish reality
still rings true six years later. As an ending salvo, he offered a
balance sheet for a hypothetical band with a major-label deal after
selling 250,000 records: "Record company: $710,000. Producer: $90,000.
Manager: $51,000. Studio: $52,500. Previous label: $50,000. Agent:
$7,500. Lawyer: $12,000. Band member net income each: $4,031.25."
(Epiphany, anyone?) There've been many issues of The Baffler since,
with stellar writing that aims to take on cultural critics to
"puncture their pretensions and to beat them at their own game." While
this may seem related to digital music by the slimmest of threads, I
do have a reason for pointing you here: On the morning of April 25,
the magazine's office in Chicago was destroyed in a fire, and the
staff needs help: "We have no computers, no contact lists, no
Rolodexes, no desks, and no desk lamps," a notice on TheBaffler.com
proclaims. Send donations to The Baffler Recovery Fund at: The Baffler
Magazine, P.O. Box 378293, Chicago, IL 60637.
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BEATS
~~~~~
RIAA and NARM: We'll Do Better on the Parental Advisory Issue
What's a parent to do when it comes to keeping an ear on what little
Bobby and Susie are listening to? How can we be sure they're not
bringing explicit lyrics to show-and-tell at school? And does a
5-year-old really need to dress like Britney Spears to fit in with her
peers? While it couldn't hurt for parents to pay more attention to
those little "parental advisory" stickers, the Federal Trade
Commission issued a fairly scathing report last month charging the
music recording industry with continuing to market albums with
explicit content to minors. Responding to the report, the Recording
Industry Association of America and the National Association of
Recording Merchandisers announced last week that they would form a new
parental-advisory task force to help the industry in "implementing and
meeting marketing guidelines to achieve on-going compliance." The FTC
report pointed out that all five major recording companies advertised
music with explicit lyrics on TV programs and magazines with
substantial under-17 audiences. On a positive note, it did a survey of
music-industry Web sites that showed nearly 40 percent of the sites
included music lyrics. Presumably this is a good thing for those of us
who are parents, because it means that in our ample spare time, we can
readily find out whether Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" is a good
choice to play at our little Johnny's 10th birthday bash. (Hint: It's
not, unless Johnny and his friends are mighty precocious. And probably
not even then.)
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DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
Farmclub: No More Music Service Trial ... Assorted Music Tidbits, En
Route to the Virtual Circular File
Sure, there were clunky aspects to the interface, but Farmclub.com's
experiment in offering on-demand streaming of Universal Music Group
artists - including Elton John, 98 Degrees and Spin Doctors - was
pretty cool while it lasted. (Of course, not everyone shared that
assessment of the service, which launched last October. As you may
recall, the National Music Publishers' Association filed suit against
UMG late last year saying that it hadn't bothered to ask for proper
permissions and licenses. That suit is apparently still pending.)
Well, whether or not you enjoyed having a possibly legal way to listen
to big artists for free, it's all over now. A cryptic e-mail message
went out to Farmclub.com subscribers last week, saying that the
service was ending on Sunday, but "your input will help us create a
future service that offers the music content you want in the way you
want it delivered." ... In clearing out a week's worth of press
releases, I offer up the following tidbits before tossing them into
the virtual circular file: EMusic.com is exclusively releasing the
Violent Femmes' new MP3-only album, "Something's Wrong," to its
subscribers. ... Microsoft claims its newly redesigned
WindowsMedia.com Web site is really cool, and that the streaming-media
site is "faster and easier to use and features more content from top
providers." ... A party marking late rocker Joey Ramone's 50th
birthday will be held May 19 at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom, hosted by
his mother and brother. Find further details at Joeys50thBirthday.com.
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SOUND OFF
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: Should the music industry take more
responsibility for keeping explicit content away from children?
E-mail your opinions to julene@well.com with "sound off" in the
subject line, and we'll print a selection of the responses in next
week's newsletter. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, so
keep them short and include your name and affiliation, if any.
Last week's question: What are the hidden benefits of being a music
geek?
Aside from the pleasure of being in the know and having a sense of
history to enrich my appreciation of current music (both mainstream
and indie), having a geeky side is a great way to bond with friends.
Arguing questions like what's the best record a label has released or
knowing which band members have collaborated with people from other
bands enhances and widens musical conversations while also teaching me
how to better articulate my opinions - which is quite a valuable skill
regardless of one's musical tastes. Additionally, it helps me remember
that music builds on itself - it's a giant spiral (that often curves
back in on itself) of ideas and melodies that helps us know ourselves,
think new thoughts, and go new places. Music is the past, present and
future. Is that a bit too philosophical?
- Katherine Gorell
Music journalist
I prefer the term "music freak," thank you. And having been a freak
most of my life, I managed to turn it into not only a hobby but used
it as a way to acquire free music when I edited and wrote an
underground print zine. Now I'm attempting to start up my own
publication again, and once again I have bands inundating me with FREE
CRAP!!! I love it. So for me, the benefits of music geekdom involve
blatant acts of self promotion in order to amass great volumes of
music very few people have ever heard.
When my marriage of 10 years to a DJ ended, we didn't fight over
custody of our daughter. We did fight over custody of the
LP/45rpm/cassette/CD collection. While I managed to get all of the
Frank Zappa albums, he ended up losing the rest by not paying his
storage bill. I cried and, yes, still mourn the loss.
- Lori Wiar
Publisher/editor-in-chief
Hotwire
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Editor: Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
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