"Brave New World" (was: Re: The Police on Tour)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 16 feb 2007, at 15.10, RICK WALKER wrote:

> The major labels have gotten so greedy

That's a rather strong statement for posting on a list and since I  
think it's incorrect I have to object. I would say that what has  
happened are gradual cultural changes that affect peoples consumer  
attitudes and habits in  away that causes a shrinking headroom for  
record labels to make profits. I base this opinion on my own  
experiences as having worked with both major and indie record labels  
in many contries, as a musician and as a fronting artist.

> ..the whole MP3 phenomenon is really taking a huge toll on CD sales.

I think this is also an incorrect analysis. CD sales go down because  
people now buy other things than CD's, while still having about the  
same amount of monthly disposable money in their pockets. We now buy  
computer games, VHS movie, DVD movies, iPods, cell phones... you name  
it. A second important factor is the gradual diversification of  
culture. In music this manifests in hundreds of genres where we used  
to have just about a handful. We have already passed the line where  
it became impossible for a record label to employ an A&R that could  
spot and sign "the artists that will become successful in his/her/ 
their genre". Either because it is too difficult (for an A&R) to stay  
on top of many simultaneous sub cultures or simply because that  
specific genre will explode into other sub genres before enough time  
has been given the record label to do all the promotion work needed  
to break the artist  (but as implemented in Josh post, artist may  
well break today on their own, as an effect of the internet).

The rest of Ricks post was excellent as usual and inspiring as well.  
It's exciting to see where this new networking digital life will lead  
us.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/2kek7h (latest music release)