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Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
CNN Should've Asked Me...
Jeff Price is the Founder and CEO of TuneCore. This op-ed is in response to a CNN.com piece entitled "What will save rock'n'roll?" from May 20th.
Yesterday, CNN.com ran an article titled “What will save rock 'n' roll?” which included an interview with Steve Van Zandt and some others
The short version, in the article Steven, and others, claim people are not buying music and albums because “they suck” and bands don’t know how to rock.
Somehow, they feel, bands just don’t know how to create music that inspires.
I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Steven. He’s a great guy, a kick-ass guitar player and a legend, but with all due respect, bullshit. And shame on CNN for running a news story based on a few people’s uneducated opinions.
There is more music being created and recorded today then ever before in the history of humanity. Although sheer volume of music creation does not make it good, the fact that more people are creating it certainly increases the odds. Hell, just having access to affordable gear and recording equipment (like your Mac) allows more music to come to life, both the terrible and the incredible.
What Steven and CNN don’t seem to know, or acknowledge, is that the real “music industry” is that thing over in the corner main-stream media is not reporting on and not aware of.
There are between 150 to 300 releases a day via TuneCore alone. I have to suspect that Steven has heard perhaps less than a percent of a percent of them. You want the opinion from the guy running TuneCore, now the largest distributor of bands, labels and music in the world, there is more great “rock”, “punk”, “dance”, “hip hop” “classical”, “funk”, “folk”, “country” etc etc than there has ever been before. And this is why IT IS SELLING.
TuneCore Artists have made over $32,000,000 in music sales in just the last 22 months. Some TuneCore Artists are actually outselling Top 40 artists – guess the Top 40 aren’t really Top 40 anymore. Who cares what someone else chart says, the people actually know what’s going on and don’t need an artificial chart to tell them what’s popular, they already know.
And with all due respect, people ARE buying and consuming and stealing and streaming and listening to music. And more and more of them are becoming so inspired that they actually are going out to teach themselves how to “rock”.
So CNN, what will save rock ‘n’ roll – it’s already saved. You just need to start listening.
Source: Tunecore
Thought it was an interesting read, given all of the debating that goes on here about the state of the music industry.
Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
Yeah thats a good article. The industry of old needs to die so the public(and the artists) can pick up the pieces and figure out what the next step is.
I like this part:
guess the Top 40 aren’t really Top 40 anymore.
Excellent point. You can look at Chinese Democracy as a perfect example of the old model not working. It supposedly sells 3 million copies, yet no one but a thousand hardcores give a shit. An artist like M.I.A. that only sells gold here gets tons of mainstream attention and sells out clubs to the point where she could possibly take a chance on a limited arena tour, something GNR would even have trouble with outside key U.S. cities.
Obviously something is wrong with the current model. It needs to implode. Its hard to gauge what is and isn't popular anymore, and when you see the gauge, something doesn't look right.
And with all due respect, people ARE buying and consuming and stealing and streaming and listening to music.
Yeah, the whole "downloaders destroyed everything" is a bunch of bullshit. Its a factor(especially for mid level artists), but it didn't kill the industry. The industry killed itself with exclusives to big box stores, killing record stores, and the overkill of bullshit shows like American Idol and trying to market mediocre talent to the masses.
The public now gets to decide what it listens to(whether by paying or a five finger discount), and I think its a good thing.
Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
Interesting, but I think he passes off what Steven Van Sandt had to say too quickly. Nobody really does rock anymore. That time has changed. I'd be curious to know how the Strip in LA is now?? I'd imagine alot of that's no longer around whereas in the 80's bands rocked every night (even the one's that never made it big). Now, chicks in LA wanna listen to Akon & Kanye, and the boys follow.
I think hard rock's becoming a dying genre. I'm not sure it'll be resurrected. Just continue to drift away, further & further into a smaller niche. It really needs a shot of adrenaline soon. Otherwise I don't see much happening.
Of Tunescore's $32 million in sales, I wonder how much are from previously established artisits like Zeppelin, The Who, GnR, Metallica, U2, Aerosmith etc??? MP3's might be selling, but that doesn't mean new music is.
Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
Rock will never die. Just like people want or think metal will die. The love of rock is still there and all it takes is the right band too spark the world up again. There is still A LOT of GREAT rock acts releases records and touring. All you got to do is explore a little bit.
Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
Of Tunescore's $32 million in sales, I wonder how much are from previously established artisits like Zeppelin, The Who, GnR, Metallica, U2, Aerosmith etc??? MP3's might be selling, but that doesn't mean new music is.
I don't think Tunescore is for established artists for the most part. I think it's all indie or smaller artists using it as a way to get their music onto the bigger music sites (itunes/amazon download etc). If I remember right, it's the company that Izzy uses rather than paying to press physical cds.
That said, if you take that 150-300 releases a day over much of an extended period of time, $30,000,000 isn't going to average out to that much for everybody.
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Edit: From the Tunescore site, for anybody that wanted to know how they work.
How does it work?
TuneCore has arrangements with leading digital music retailers that let us place your music in their online stores and subscription services. You get 100% of the money that your music earns from digital distribution. Sign up now for digital distribution.
What's it cost?
TuneCore charges $0.99 per track, $0.99 per store per album, and $19.98 per album per year storage and maintenance. Or, just put up one song as a single for a flat price of $9.99 per year, all stores included.
Re: CNN Should Have Asked Me...
Nobody really does rock anymore. That time has changed. I'd be curious to know how the Strip in LA is now?? I'd imagine alot of that's no longer around whereas in the 80's bands rocked every night (even the one's that never made it big). Now, chicks in LA wanna listen to Akon & Kanye, and the boys follow.
Great point, and I said something a bit similar at the old site. Women played a huge role in the hip hop explosion of the mid 90s. They latched on to Dre, Snoop, Tupac,etc. like flies on shit, and like you said, the men followed. Guys like me not wearing their pants down to their knees while wearing a blue or red bandana and a cap backwards praying for pussy from those chicks were in the minority. White boys even reduced themselves to speaking in ebonics for fucks sake.
There were some good artists/bands in that era, but that was a horrific time in American culture. Rap still dominates the charts, but the current musical climate turned everything into a huge melting pot where no trend can completely take over.
BLS is right that rock will never completely die, but it will never reclaim its throne either. The melting pot of genres guarantees that.
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