it's been awhile since i just rambled, so forgive me as i need to get it out of the way.
another year is over and we're still here. what once started out as me doing podcasts before podcasts were cool to a live and legal full fledged radio station where *we* call the shots. *we* decide what to play and we go by the people who listen and what they respond to. the 24x7 stream is a mix of all shows from euro to icehouse to nites dive into the metal. we're adding a controversial (really, it is! please log in and yell at us and get everyone you know to log in too!) talk show with Chris from Monkeyshyne as he joins the Renegade family.
it's been awhile since i just rambled, so forgive me as i need to get it out of the way.
another year is over and we're still here. what once started out as me doing podcasts before podcasts were cool to a live and legal full fledged radio station where *we* call the shots. *we* decide what to play and we go by the people who listen and what they respond to. the 24x7 stream is a mix of all shows from euro to icehouse to nites dive into the metal. we're adding a controversial (really, it is! please log in and yell at us and get everyone you know to log in too!) talk show with Chris from Monkeyshyne as he joins the Renegade family.
and joey c jones. i can't forget him. it's taken us years to get this far but i think we're almost there. we've got sol zero publishing setup and he was our first client. a fantastic power pop library to start off a company. who could ask for more? me. i'm greedy that way but damn it - someone has to fight for the music and figure out a better way.
maybe just any way. you see, i've never known such a greater crossroads for music than now. the digital age has changed the way we all listen to music. unfortunately, paying the bands didn't pop up with that. so we've got a lot of bands in the wings going into debt waiting to get signed by a label who's hoping they can find SOMEONE to actually sell CDs so the 'old school' revenue comes back into play. i mean, the RIAA is worth $10+ a cd, right? they brought us so much value in the 80s and paid the artists well.
good times. to be fair, they were good times. but they're times not to be seen again for a long long time to come. these were the times a cd player was a luxury and only a select few could put them in their cars. the rest of us were busy making our own custom tapes to listen to. the piracy had begun, i suppose. but it was just a leak really - easily plugged you'd think.
the good artists got around $1.10 a cd I believe so you can do the math from there and put in your own production costs and the rest of those expensive cd's was profit. and they sold like crazy in part i would think due to new technology and the clarity cd's brought, at the time. for whatever reason it was a time of decadance that in some ways put the 70s to shame but in others couldn't compete with the honesty of hte 70s. that's a whole different editorial, 70s vs. 80s, so i'll put that on hold and get back to my point.
after al gore invented the internet and the public got wind of it, suddenly the instant gratification in us all got fed and it was only beginning. computers can talk to each other and well, trade files. files being songs, documents, spreadsheets, or whatever, the computer didn't matter and compression of data coupled with vast jumps in storage capacity and suddenly, having 80gig of music laying around isn't too hard to do.
so you can see why labels are in hot search of talented bands who can sell cd's. that's the old school, established and all clear to everyone who can read the legal language. what i don't understand is why bands are after labels. the labels seem to only take the ones who can sell and if i can do that i don't need the debt a label can put onto you to start.
but it's the beaten road and sometimes we follow that simply because it is establshed. but it's dying. life support is about to get pulled and the CD section is going to be somewhere behind housewares in best buy soon. stereos are coming out today with USB ports. get a 2gig jump drive and fill it up with hundreds of songs. get 2-3 of 'em and have mood sticks. why bother burning cds to an archiac format that won't even show the artist on the stereo unless it's in MP3 or WMA format?
so we trade music around and share it and so many laws gets beaten to hell in this. i once heard a local band member talk about being on the road (signed at the time by a major label) and being told by fans "i love your music, i downloaded the whole cd'! imagine telling someone $10s of thousands of dollars in debt on his 127th show of the year in a town who's name he;ll never remember you stole his music and i'm sure you can see it can get demoralizing quickly.
remember when i said the industry has changed so much technically but, how the artist gets paid has not? this is our crossroads that will have to get figured out in time, the sooner definately being the better. getting $1.10 a cd was good money at the time and even today could be considered that, but with cd sales going the way of disco and the paper you had to use to keep the 8-track player playing, how do you pay the artist?
the artist works their way to popularity to where they're ready to go so labels are now signing these bands in a last ditch effort to resist change and finding where the cheese got moved to. understand this is all the way i see things but a publisher with several markets is going to be what you see next taking on the responsibility of ensuring the music that's still popular gets revenue back to the artists and a publisher has more avenues to sell the music. a label being one sure.
i see in the not too distant future, soon after the revenue part is figured out (sans the RIAA if there is a God) labels going back to developing bands and that cycle starting again. i see other valid ways this can go too. which is why joey and i are going to kick sol zero publishing into gear this year and keep pushing things forward and putting the right pieces in place to hopefully play a role in fixing the problem AND making sure an artist can at least make a decent living doing what they love.
so, i hope this year i learn more and more into either helping make this happen, or where else it can go that will benefit music when it's all said and done. there is so much up in the air right now and so much that can be done if the right people fall into place to do it. thankfully the RIAA has shown the technical aptitude of a pop top can so they'll watch the digital age pass them by because they couldn't control it. that's the key in the end for the next step. don't control it, but guide it. that's all you have to do.
technology will tell you what to do if you listen.
berg
