The New Year is always a good time to reassess things with a view to trying to improve ....and God knows the state of the music business needs improving.
If you didn't see it last week HMV reported a sales drop of 13% year on year and their shares lost 21% of their value as a result .....all the majors - or should that be both as you can't count Warners and EMI nowadays - are losing money like a drunk in a casino ( hello Andy Carroll of Newcastle United ).
Sad but in life you get what you deserve........and the " major " music business deserves nothing ergo they get nothing. I saw the new C-Lo green album being advertised for sale on TV for a fiver in Tescos......there's nothing like treating you artists with respect ,and that's nothing like treating you artist with respect !
The decline has been so predictable - when i worked at Sony we had countless meeting discussing the internet but while we talked about it how we could control it rather than embrace it the world turned and there we were ,selling horse-drawn carriages just as the internal combustion engine was invented .This was the point that the music biz started to unravel.
Combine this with the labels doing a deal with 1 retailer ( i-tunes ) who control 85 % of the market , a whole generation of kids who have never paid for music and a complete absdence of anyone decent A&R guys what do you get ? Oblivion,extinction , death .
The "majors " will take around 5 years to die but as they lay twitching and gasping for breath something beautiful is happening reminiscent of the rise of Punk in 1977........people are startuing to make music by themselves ,for themselves ...not worrying about "getting a deal ".......THIS IS A VERY GOOD THING !
Of course shit like X-Factor will continue and brainless sheep with no sense or taste will continue to watch pasty-faced painter and decorators murder a selection of kareoke favourites and buy their single before instantly forgetting them .....
I started out in a record shop ,had no presumptions to be an A&R man but when I started it was obvious that I was great at it ,mainly because I cared about music and never cared at all about the labels .
As my career progressed I became known a s a " maverick " or worse and as the music business became increasingly bland and predictable it was inevitable that we would go our separate ways . Fuck them ,it was their loss...
Despite everything I never lost my passion for music and now it burns brighter than ever inside me - I love writing this ,listening to new music and working with great new artists.
There is so much great music out there if you are prepared to look for it ,I spend a lot of time and money on music because it is a passion - I buy every album I write about here and always will . You can tell by the way I write I hope that I mean every word I say . I'm not bitter about the muisc buisness...it's just irrelevant nowadays
I believe 2011 will prove to be a tipping point for good music - I'm already looking forward to new albums from Kode 9 & The Spaceape,Breakage,Andreya Triani,Jess Mills ( amazing vocalist who appeared with LeftField live ) ,Rahma, Patrina and even PLEASE GOD some new music from " The Greatest Band in the World " ..........LeftField ,and I know that I will hear new music from artists I've never heard before and it will raise my spirits and lift my Soul as great new music always does.
As far as The Soul Guru is concerned the future has never looked brighter ,our destiny is in our hands......come walk with me to a brave new world
X
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