Green Grass: High Tide

A plethora of music biz news this week.

Some good.

Some bad.

Some ugly.

All of it interesting.

From the New York Post:

EMI BETS ON DIGITAL CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Nice opening to this article...Holy Hit!

I give EMI-CMG props on this one.

Digital stores galore. Smart move.

Put your music everywhere—and make it easy to buy.

Some people will actually make the purchase…if it’s quick and easy.

Note my emphasis on ease-of-use.

Digital transactions will live and die by this.

I have to give public props to my old Forefront Records compadre, Mark Adkison, on this deal.

I guarantee you that Mark started trying to push this initiative two years ago.

It’s hard to roll that snowball up hill.

I noticed he wasn’t mentioned in the article.

I've heard it said that “it’s amazing what you can get done if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

I’m giving Mark props here because—knowing all the brass at EMI—I’m 99% certain it was his idea.

In other news…

I love U2—and have always respected their manager, Paul McGuinness.

However, he somewhat publicly pooped his pants this week with this vitriolic address.

In a passionate keynote speech delivered Monday during the International Managers Summit at the MIDEM music conference, McGuinness said it was time for artists to stand up against what he called the "shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have been treated in the digital age." He spread the blame between record labels that "through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music"; Silicon Valley companies that create marvelous devices but "don't think of themselves as makers of burglary kits"; and governments who "created a thieves' charter" by agreeing that ISPs should not be responsible for what passes along their pipes.

"There's a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists," McGuinness said.

Later, musician Peter Gabriel added his support, agreeing that a lot of money is being made out of music by ISPs. He expressed concern, though, about blanket deals.
"The trouble with any blanket agreement is that the money doesn't tend to trickle down to the artists," he said at a news conference. "We've all been told in the past about these kinds of deals, and we never see it in our (bank) accounts. It needs to be not just verbiage. It needs to express itself in money too."

Notice what Gabriel is politely saying…”It’s not like any of this money ever came our way anyway—old regimes or new.”

What else is new?…

A Cuban sandwich in the Wall Street Journal.

I used to not like Mark Cuban—at all.

He was the guy who led the blockade against internet radio.

Apparently, he's had an epiphany that the old record business is breathing it's dying gasp.

Dude still can’t dance.

But at least he’s getting a clue about the music business.

There’s something to be said for remaining teachable—even amidst great wealth.

P.S. Oh, and of course…Bob Lefsetz weighed in this week:

“The top down world is coming to an end. The individual, if not quite as powerful as the self-styled famous, is just as important. People have tools to make art, and a smorgasbord of entertainment options. You must penetrate their temples trepidatiously. You must use permission marketing. You must reward them. You must not bang them over the head and make them feel inferior. You must knock on their door and ask them if they have the time. And you must be selling something more than momentary, or they're not interested. Oh, they'll look at a train-wreck, but avert their eyes to a new distraction very quickly.”

Observers always have the last word.

Comments

[MachineMessiah]

All I have to say to Mr. McGuinness is that its "a beautiful day." Oh, and your client nearly got me killed in 1983. Tell Bono, nice move.

Evan

[MachineMessiah]

All I have to say to Mr. McGuinness is that its "a beautiful day." Oh, and your client nearly got me killed in 1983. Tell Bono, nice move.

Evan