Labeless
Tim Lee recounts Chris Anderson's recounting of the story of the band Birdmonster which not only aggressively used web-based publicity efforts to gain attention for the band before it got offers from record labels, but eventually started getting offered deals. Deals they turned down: "We're not anti-label in principle, but the numbers (risk vs. reward) didn't add up."
That's interesting. And, clearly, digitial technology does a whole bunch of things that tend to undercut the rationale for the record label as it's been traditionally understood. At the same time, I have to think it would be odd to see tons of folks want to follow down this particular path over the long haul. Just because technological changes may make it easier to do publicity, marketing, distribution, etc. on a DIY basis doesn't necessarily make doing things that way appealing or advisable. After all, there's no particular reason to think people ready and able to produce music people want to hear are going to have enormous aptitude or inclination to do this other stuff once they're in a position to get someone else to do it for them in exchange for money. That could be the case even if, in some sense, the numbers "don't add up." The simple added convenience of outsourcing functions outside one's core areas of interest/competency has value. More likely, you'll just see the nature of services that bands get in exchange for a chunk of their earnings will shift as the structure of the music industry shifts with it.
Comments
And of course one thing get from labels that isn't DIY is branding. Lots of people hear about bands because they happen to be on the same label as another band they already like. It's the music equivalent of the webring.
I'm astounded and pleased to see Matthew taking a reality-based attitude toward a "Net Empowerment" issue. I've had him pegged as being in the Anderson/Lee zealot camp.
I think there are a couple of issues here. One is who's in control:
signing a deal really puts the record company in charge in a lot of
ways, whereas outsourcing the various non-musical functions doesn't.
Hence the frequent bust-ups between musicians - even successful and
famous musicians such as Prince - and their record companies.
Another is just how much money you get: and I believe on a typical
record deal the band is only getting under $1 on each CD sold; whereas
doing it yourself you can make CDs for under $3 and sell them for $15,
which allows the band to make a lot more money on a lot fewer sales.
On the plus side, the record companies have the contacts and funds
to promote music and get airplay, and I'm not sure whether there are
effective ways (yet) to outsource that function. And perhaps most
importantly, record companies provide capital: given the choice
between being a starving musician living from gig to gig, and having
a fat advance from a record company in the bank, many will effectively
mortgage their future earning potential to get the cash up front.
Which is probably rational - the career of the median rockstar
probably isn'tmuchlonger than that of an NFL player - sure, you
*might* make it big and become Peyton Manning or the Rolling Stones;
but the safer bet is to get some guaranteed money during your 15
minutes of fame.
See http://www.elh.org for my own low-rent musical efforts.
On the gripping hand, there are models like the Touch & Go "handshake contract" (which has been replaced after a nasty legal dust-up with the Butthole Surfers, but is pretty much the same in principle) in which bands take care of producing any albums or videos themselves and T&G provides marketing and distribution, then splits the money after expenses with the band according to a fixed (high) percentage. In T&G's case, it's a 50/50 split; I believe Fugazi's Dischord works in a similar way on a 60/40 basis. Obviously, this won't scale well for platinum-selling acts or five hundred new bands a year, but T&G puts out a lot of albums and breaks even with sales in the low five figures.
Matt, you really need to use three Ls in that word. "Labeless" does not mean what you think it means.
Labels can provide a "one stop shop" for things bands need, and might not be willing/able to do effectively on their own. But they also provide a LOT of services to the bands that they may not want or need, and they also serve other constituencies, and they pay for these extras out of money the band makes. Labels suck up a ton of money from bands. A ton.
One big thing that bands get out of doing the DIY thing with publicity and distribution is to be in a better starting position for negotiations if a Big Record Company decides they're interested. If you're already making X thousand dollars a year through selling your CDs on the Web, then the record company's offer needs to be better for the numbers to add up.
Ten years ago, a band's choices were pretty much (a) take whatever crummy deal a record company is offering, or (b) be stuck forever in the bar-band rut.
What we need now are alternative routes to airplay. The thing that would make the most difference here is to have a whole bunch more frequency devoted to broadcast radio, which hasn't gotten any new bandwidth since the FM band was opened up nearly a half-century ago. Meanwhile, they've found all sorts of new frequencies for stuff like cordless phones.
Well, yes, division of labor and all that--of *course* it's silly to expect bandmembers to literally do everything themselves.
The point is rather, as you (M.Y.) might put it, that there's no particular reason to believe that a collection of companies whose employees, experiences, organizational cultures, and the like were all designed for or at least shaped by a quite different distributional model will be at all the right ones to go to in order to take advantage of the new opportunities.
Crude analogy: obviously, I don't become an auto engineer myself just because the automobile makes the horse-and-buggy obsolete. But neither does it mean that I expect the horse-and-buggy companies to seamlessly become the new leaders of the auto industry.
major labels almost never sign bands (individuals are different) who aren't already most of the way there -- touring alot, selling alot of merchandise, getting airplay, etc. so there's little reason for many bands to take a major label deal except the money, and digital technology means you no longer necessarily need crazy money to record a great record (yes, some great records were recorded for peanuts, yes, money does help rent the $5K/day drum room, etc.). major labels used to have great distribution -- internet makes that far less valuable now -- but that was somewhat of a curse, b/c who needs one copy of your CD in some small town you've never played where no one will buy it. also, MTV doesn't really play videos any more, so you no longer need a major label to front the money for a splashy video (that can wait until you're more successful).
Why couldn't a band just pay different people/entities to handle the various things a label would do (studio, producers, publicity/promotion/marketing/touring, distribution, etc.), rather than doing it themselves? Then the only things the band has to do other than play music are decide who to hire (and fire). Since they employ these people, rather than being employed by the record label, they have all of the control.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who can do these things out there who aren't under the exclusive control of any label. Of course, in some respects, then the band is basically becoming their own label themselves, so maybe they aren't interested, and as you suggest, it's just easier not to do so.
It would take some capital, so if they are absolutely broke, it might not work, but if they can play enough local shows and sell enough t-shirts, plus scrimp and save for awhile, they can probably build up some money. Aptitude could be an issue, but I suppose it often is, right? That's why so many bands get taken advantage of by the big labels in the first place.
RT, cordless phones use a tiny band of frequencies at 900MHz and 2.4GHz. These bands are reserved by the FCC for unlicensed low power use and are shared with most consumer wireless technolgies like Wi-fi and Bluetooth.
The FM band is much bigger (88-108MHz) and can support over 100 channels in a given geographic area. The reasons that there aren't more radio stations isn't the bandwidth, it's the cost, millions of dollars for an antenna that covers an urban area. Also, it's really hard to get a FCC commercial broadcast FM license. Though it is easier to get low-power (3 mile range) and non-comercial licenses.
the related question is how much money do most records make the band itself? my general knowledge is that most records don't produce much cash for most bands.
which is why i'm sympathetic to the notion that either more bands will do all the rest themselves (per bob's comment, and as the grateful dead showed us, it was even possible in that model to make serious scratch) or "record companies" will be replaced by "promotion and distribution" companies....
While lots of people point to Steve Albini's Baffler piece, it's worth noting that it predates access to prosumer home studio software, let alone consumer stuff like Apple's Garage Band. The issue, of course, is control: most successful bands or artists only stay successful for a few years, and even relatively successful bands don't necessarily make enough money to retire or at least not have to flip burgers afterwards. (It's when they re-sign contracts or switch to the majors that the money comes in.)
So, if you're a band that simply wants to make enough to have an enjoyable few years touring and recording, the model exists.
Bob's point makes most sense for division of labor: there's already a large freelance industry for production, sound engineering, etc. But digital distribution also challenges former perceived necessities, such as cover photography.
Cownie & dj moonbat get right to the meat of the thing - what services at what price? Disintermediation is a bitch if you're a legacy player. I suspect that the last person ever to become a billionaire by owning record labels has already done so and his name is David Geffen. The future seems certain to feature more ala carte service provision arrangements in every area of music production and promotion. The margins commandable by their providers will never approach those commanded in earlier times by "gatekeeper" record labels. The legacy labels will continue to exist in some form, but will less and less resemble the "mogul-centric" businesses of the 60's and 70's.
To the extent the labels continue to exist on lopsided royalty deals and other manifestations of "classic" contract terms, I think one may blame this, in large measure, on the cultural inertia represented by many long-standing memes of the often self-consciously leftish and countercultural music "community." The main such meme is the widespread disdain for anything smacking of business or commerce and its various corollaries such as the cult of the "pure artist." Musicians who think any move on their part to "run the numbers" or otherwise concern themselves with the actual economics of their field pollutes their pure artsy karma will find no shortage of those willing to provide "classic" contracts. A fool and his money.
RT raises an interesting question re: airplay. I think few would argue that airplay in the traditional sense has become essentially irrelevant to the fortunes of new acts. It's strictly a medium for the already established. Nor is there any likelihood of significant change to existng frequency allocations or band licensing arrangements in AM and FM. But the advent of iPods and other portable music storage devices is already crimping the "earshare" of traditional music radio. As metro-area WiFi rolls out over the next few years, the already well-established technology of IP-based audio streaming, on which much free internet "radio" already exists in the wired Internet world, will go wireless and portable for essentially no extra cost. Music radio of the heavily formatted traditional kind will remain, but probably in steadily diminishing form. The broadcast radio spectrum's traditions, folkways and regulatory apparatus are essentially fossilized and won't change. Think of this as de facto censorship of alternatives. But, as someone once noted, the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
All of your points are valid but I think it cannot be stressed enough that this is a really good band. Their album is good, but you really don't realize how good they are until you see them in person. Word of mouth spreads very quickly in the SF music scene, allowing Birdmonster to gain a great reputation very quickly. Plus they play a ton of shows in the Bay Area, kinda blowing up overnight.
A friend of mine runs a Bay Area podcast and Birdmonster was one of their shows. If you are interested it can be found at http://www.thebaybridged.com/index.php?tag=birdmonster
Part of the podcast is the band and/or label agreeing to allow unreleased music (either new songs or live versions) as part of the podcast. I know Birdmonster was one of the most enthusiastic bands.
thasnk you
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