The State of the So-Called Music Business (and Mine)

So there’s been a lot of things happening here in the past five or six months, and clearly blogging hasn’t been one of them. Sometimes, life throws you curveballs; other times, life locks you in the batting cage with a blindfold and handcuffs on, puts the pitching machine on “90mph Fastball”, and watches you dance. Mom would call phases like this “learning experiences”, and while I know she’s right, I’m also glad to have a breather.

I don’t cover a lot of super-personal stuff in this space, but suffice it to say that in the past six or eight months I’ve:

• ended one long term relationship;
• started a new and really wonderful one;
• broken up one band;
• started another band;
• gone to the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans, which included freaking the fuck out in the presence of a whole bunch of big musicians (post on that to follow!);
• done some record covers for Muck and the Mires on Dirty Water UK and the Radio Knives (uploads in the Portfolio section soon!);
• saw a ton of shows;
• DJed a bunch;
• bought a lot of records;

…oh yeah and worked the dreaded Day Job. No wonder my floors haven’t been mopped since Christmas.

All that said, now that things are calmer-ish, and I’m over the abject depression that glues me to the couch for a few weeks at the end of every New England winter, I have the free time to do things like read news and think about things that have really not-so-much to do with me. Like the Music Business.

Yeah, I’m in bands, and play shows, and have toured a little, and made some records. But the Music Business still has nothing to do with me, personally. I’ve never been on a major, I’ve never had a sponsored tour, I’ve never had a contract outside of a one-off for Festivals and events. And as it is, I probably make out better financially on doing music than a lot of musicians on my level (meaning, I don’t take losses anymore). But the Music Business is a whole other beast. Saying I’m involved with that is like saying I’m a farmer because I’ve got a container garden on my back porch.

So largely, I’ve ignored it, and did my thing. But an article in the Wall Street Journal today has me thinking. Apparently, LiveNation, the country’s biggest concert promotion company, has started inking so-called “360 Deals” with major artists. Madonna and Jay-Z were among the first, to be followed by the likes of the Stones, the Jonas Brothers, and others. These deals are interesting because they give LiveNation unprecedented control over things like merchandising, which previously would have been controlled by outside entities.

Business folks think this is interesting because LiveNation is taking a huge gamble on both a flimsy concert industry and the long-term value of artists, many of whom are, well…old as hell. The deals signed thus far are long-term, 10-year contracts. But I wonder if these kinds of deals will have a trickle-down effect that could reach us even down here in the depths of indie-land.

LiveNation, ClearChannel (which used to own LiveNation), Ticketmaster and other monoliths of the entertainment industry are consolidating at a rapid pace. As record companies flail due to outdated business models and a failure to adapt, it only stands to reason that companies like LiveNation will get into the record-making business. The aforementioned deals are pretty much exactly that. But they want the ticketing angle too: last September, LiveNation’s VP told shareholders they want in on Ticketmaster’s and StubHub’s business as well. In other words, they want to sell you the tickets AND scalp you the tickets. For the seats they own, to see the artists they own, and hopefully sell you some merch. That they own.

Now of course, this doesn’t matter diddly to someone like Madonna. In fact if you read her deal, she stands to make out better than LiveNation, with less risk (of course–she’s Madonna). But what it does mean is that LiveNation is going to be tying up an awful lot of its cash cementing these big deals, and not a lot of cash (if any) buying up mid-level and smaller artists. No big deal, except that if LiveNation is the record company, the concert promoter, and the merchandiser, and nobody but the biggest acts on the planet can get their foot in the door, then where is everybody else going to go?

Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, it could be the best thing, like, ever. Though I think it will probably be more like a pretty good thing. Not that I should comment on businesses which I’m not really involved in, but logic would dictate that a few mid-tier acts will get dropped, a few record labels will fold, and the Polyanna dream of the proverbial Major Label Contract will die (though, you know…it kinda already has). And as the bigs get bigger and the playing field gets smaller, a lot of those mid-tier folks are going to join us down here in the grass roots. Hi, fellahs!

The climate-to-come stands to be good for some folks: indie labels with good distro; young bands who can tour a lot; any bands with internet/promo/design/production/media savvy; really creative independent studios and producers; hugely controversial or niche acts; small-time designers (hey that’s me!); and guys who know how to make tour vans run on old Chinese restaurant cooking oil. Basically, anyone with the skills and smarts, in addition to their musical talent, to either save huge bucks via DIY but with professional results, or stir up enough attention on their own that the bigs will want to break them off a chunk. On the other hand, that same climate stands to be very bad for the dull, the lazy, the inept, and the talentless.

Sounds pretty okay to me.