June 02, 2004

The Way The Music Died
posted by Jerry Garcia 20 years ago
  • Mo' better musicians than ever, in my experience. Seek them out! You have the tools!
  • I think one of the most glaring examples of what they do wrong is they cheat as a matter of policy on paying, because they know that you'll have to, first, hire an accountant and audit them. Then, when you get the audit figure, and they owe you $486,000, they'll offer you 30 percent, 30 cents on the dollar in settlement, knowing full well that you'll ask for 100 percent and that you'll settle somewhere around 50. The other 50 percent is free money. They knew it going in. They intended to do it from the beginning, so that they could get the other 50 percent for free. Hence, just a little bonus thing, thank you very much, and it's from heaven. And they do it, and it's totally dishonest. And they all do it. And they do it as a matter of policy. They know they're going to cheat, going in. … Is this true? They actually have to negotiate to get the money that they've earned? How common is that? Is that even freakin' legal? Emphasis!
  • Wonderful interview! About the music business, not the music itself. Right after he says that Crosby Stills & Nash and the Byrds wouldn't be able to make it today, and points to what happened to the Dixie Chicks after their comments about Bush: "Do I think they deserve to go in the tank, the big companies? Absolutely. They deserve what's going to happen to them ... I think it's going in a tank, and I am standing on the sidelines applauding. "
  • BBF: Yeah, it happens a lot. The music industry is possibly the most corrupt, yet legal biz there is. Well, short of the American pharmaceutical industry, anyway. For another view of the sad state of affairs in the music biz, check out The Problem With Music by Steve Albini.
  • This interview is interest. Though, I watched this when it was on the other day. For Frontline, especially, it was a mess. It was such an insanely poor look at the state of music, I was almost lead to weep openly. The real story seemed to be was Frontline willing to become nothing more than an hour-long ad for some cornball chick, forgot her name and a bunch of has-beens, Velvet revolver? It was one of the cheesiest combinations of "news" and "a look at entertainment" since 60 Minutes had the frickin' balls to pass off a segment on Sheryl Crow as anything.
  • -ing
  • Old wine, new booties! So many of those Philly Sound Cutie-Boys of the 50's (read Dick Clark's excellent resource, "Rock, Roll, and Remember' for specific anecdotes) could not sing, could not read music, could not write a tune either, but they had Great Hair and Cheekbones and were packaged from head to toe just like La Britney. There will ALWAYS be flashy trash for the masses. Dig deep and you'll find the Good stuff!
  • "recording contract" is just a term for "really f*'d up loan". In the book Hit Men, it relates a mafia-connected record company man testifying that he'd never seen an artist paid what they were actually owed. Not that the music matters. They could be selling cow pies and give as much of a flying . . cow pie . . for what the product was. I'm looking forward to this Infernet and it's promise of destroying the big 6 record companies.
  • I used to be of that mindset, until I considered the vast amounts of money that go into producing and publicising any record nowadays. It's a sad fact that, whilst record contracts are really fucked up loans, and record labels are really fucked up loan sharks, no bank in the world will actually lend a band, say, fifty thousand quid to produce and publicise an album. The only people that will do this are record labls. So, despite the internet empowering bands to self-publicise themselves, there's no way they'll be able to break out from the shadow of record labels.
  • not with Clear Channel in the position they're in. This is why the FCC is royally screwing up. They need to encourage competition not wave the green flag to monstrosities like CC.
  • Facilitate Clear Channel? Yeah, about the only way that will happen, pete, is if the current crop of people running the show over there are kicked out. Even then, people need to put pressure on whoever takes over the FCC to encourage local competition through comments and letters. Unfortunately, I don't see any shift back toward competition anytime soon.