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Technology Stocks : MUSIC STOCKS: HIGH-TECH AND INTERNET- Winners and losers. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (145)	8/8/2001 10:19:35 AM
From: Rande Is	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 179

Dave, you are right. You predicted that there was nothing the record companies could do. I thought there was. But it is clear to me that they are either so far in the dark about what is going on or they are so arrogant that they somehow believe that this thing will just go away. It isn't going away. Not as long as there is an appetite for getting music free over the net. And movies are next. I lean toward a P.R. campaign at the very young. . . similar to anti-smoking, aids awareness, stay-in-school, just-say-no. . . this would be a "do the right thing" sort of campaign. . .which says "take all you want, pay for what you take". Yes, I know Phish. A friend gave me 2 of their CDs. . . .testimony to the fact that word-of-mouth advertising works. I like that THEY are in control of their following. THAT is the way I have been preaching it to bands for decades. You don't let the record company, the booking agent, the concert promoter or even the night club managers control your audience. . . because they can easily and quickly steer an audience toward something or someone else. SIDEBAR: We saw this happen nationwide when disco displaced live music. . . .suddenly most every band was out of work, except the smart ones who had been keeping mailing lists, etc. . . what worked in the 70's still applies today. Bottom line: When the band controls its following and is in close contact with them, then they are in control of their own destiny. They can sell records, hold concerts or whatever they wish to do. . . .without the consent of anyone. Phish is doing it right! The entire rest of the music world is wrong. [strange as that sounds to say. . .er, type] Another thing is that their music lends itself toward live performance. It hardly translates to disc in fact. A newbie may be cool to their CDs, yet become a fan AFTER going to one of their concerts. . . which again is backwards from the way the record companies want it to be. So in essence, their CDs help recreate that memorable live night. I don't think they could keep their fans from video taping concerts if they tried. Everyone wants to remember "what it was like" to be there live. A Phish concert is a "happening." You either get it or you don't. I haven't been to one yet, but would love to go when they get around here. I'm not staunchly on the record company's side. They are by-and-large corporate idiots. . . [with the exception of a few producers who work for them.] I am on the side of PAYING THE CREATIVE TALENT. . . and whatever goes with that. So from another point of view. . .I am on the side of any musical artist who has figured out a way of making a good deal of money despite all this Napster / free download mess. They are the true heroes, IMO. . . the ones worth emulating. And perhaps Phish and a few other self-promoters are the exceptions of note. The entertainment biz can be extremely lucrative for self-promoters. A&M Records started out as 2 guys Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss, selling Tijuana Brass and Baja Marimba Band albums out of the trunk of their station wagon, while touring. They didn't mind playing free, because they knew they would make a mint selling records after the concert. That was the way it was for all those Gospel Quartets touring the country by bus. They would play for free at a large church, so long as they could sell their records and tapes in the back of the church after the concert. The Oak Ridge Boys were doing it back when I knew them as the Keystone Quartet from Buffalo, NY. . . [come to think of it, I still have a bunch of Keystone records. . . with Richard Sturban and Joe Bonsall on the cover. . . autographed of course, so I guess they would be worth something.] Don't get me wrong. . . the Keystones literally starved out on the road. [I know 'cuz we often fed them]. . . It was not a good living at all until they turned secular and began singing country music. So like any business, it starts with a demand. And the demand for gospel music back then was spread out over many thousands of local acts. . . . much the same as today's music is now spread out over many thousands of competing internet acts. . . .as well as the thousands of signed recording artists. So once again I salute anyone who has found a way to prosper. . . without going the Britany Spears route. . . or ripping clothes off. The sad part in all this is that the business of music has all but killed the art in music. And the saddest part is that there are now generations of Americans who have yet to figure that out. Rande Is

To: ~digs who wrote (145)	7/23/2015 1:09:39 AM
From: ~digs	Respond to of 179

In a sign of how insignificant new albums have become in today’s music industry, rock band Wilco Thursday evening surprised fans by releasing their latest studio album without fanfare, even offering it for free on its website. “Star Wars” is the Chicago-based group’s first album of new material since 2011’s, “The Whole Love.” It came as a surprise partly because for the past year, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy has focused on a side project, Tweedy, with his son, Spencer. They released an album, “Sukierae,” last September. The surprise album release has become something of an institution in the music industry—even a promotional device. Beyoncé famously dropped her titular 2013 album without notice. Last December, R&B singer D’Angelo did the same—even though he was releasing his first material in 14 years. In February, Drake surprise-dropped “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.” Even back in 2011, Radiohead suddenly announced their next album, “The King of Limbs,” would be out imminently. The popularity of the surprise album release—and Wilco’s decision to offer theirs for free—shows how much less album releases matter to many major artists relative to touring and other revenue streams. For decades, the album release was the industry’s marquee event. Record labels deployed massive resources to build up anticipation among fans. On September 17, 1991, throngs of fans lined up outside Tower Records stores in Los Angeles and New York at midnight, waiting to buy copies of Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” albums. At the time, high-level artists toured the world to promote albums; making money from touring was a secondary consideration. But the digital revolution hurt the album as a source of revenue for artists and the industry. File-sharing begat piracy. The advent of the single-track download, popularized by Apple Inc.’s iTunes store in 2003, effectively undermined albums: Casual music fans no longer needed to buy an entire album for $15.99 to get a song or two. Record sales plunged. Today, live performances, not albums, are the industry’s lifeblood. The top 100 North American tours generated some $1.4 billion in gross ticketing revenue in the first half of 2015, up about $400 million from the same period last year, according to the trade publication Pollstar. Ticket prices have skyrocketed: the average ticket price has hit an all-time high of $76.20, up nearly 13% from the middle of 2014. Of course, album sales remain a huge deal for the world’s biggest artists. Taylor Swift sought to protect sales of her latest album, “1989,” which is the fastest-selling album in over a decade—racking up 5 million in U.S. sales as of July. But for acts such as Wilco, whose albums sell well but aren’t massive industry blockbusters, touring is the bigger part of the equation. Surprise releases present something of a dilemma for music critics—who scrambled late Thursday to offer quick-hit assessments of Wilco’s album, which is available for free for a limited time on its wilcoworld.net website. blogs.wsj.com