For those within the industry who know me, I usually don’t
air my views of the business publically; however, based on a recent article in the
10/25/14 issue of Billboard Magazine, I am compelled to comment.
The article is Managers of U2, Pharrell, Madonna
& More Unite to Revolutionize the Music Industry and
it discloses how a group of very talented artist managers intend to break the
cycle that has led to the current downward spiral of the record business and
put the industry back on the right track, reflecting the industry’s past
success (before the digital age).
I want to make it very clear that this piece is not
about criticizing these successful managers and their new company, Maverick. Guy Oseary, through his enormous talent and
hard work, has made some remarkable achievements in his years in the business
and there’s a reason why he’s one of the industry’s power players. I have also had the opportunity to talk with
Guy, mostly during my time at EMI Music, in the ‘90s, and I find him to be
quite an affable and smart man (I’m not validating, just confirming).
I laud Oseary for attempting to turn the tide of a
business that has been riddled with low royalty rates for streaming, which is
partly responsible for what has led to the overall undervaluing of musical
compositions and recordings, resulting in less music purchases. I’m happy that he is one of the few who is
willing to address this problem and attempt to fix it, but in this article,
which I encourage you to read, there is, in my opinion, one glaring omission, and thus the point of this
writing.
What brought me to the conclusion to comment on the
Billboard article is the following: With
all the knowledge and success of the members of this key collective (Caron
Veazey, Adam Leber, Ron Laffitte, Gee Roberson, Larry Rudolph, Scott Rodger,
Clarence Spalding, Cortez Bryant and the aforementioned Oseary) there was one
area of the business that was never discussed (though a few came close) and
that is ensuring that their artists consistently produce an album’s worth of
strong material.
Yes, I am a publisher and I’m focused on the song
and I freely admit that my forté is not tour marketing, promotion, branding, etc. Wouldn’t it, however, make sense to make sure
that the product is solid and contains multiple radio singles so that the
artist wouldn’t have to focus so much on other revenue streams in order to make
up for lost music sales?
In the article, Oseary mentions that there are other ways to
reach an audience. What he doesn’t
mention is that, initially, an album release can almost be static; you really
only get one chance in the release cycle to sell an abundance of units and if
the songs don’t compel the consumer to buy, there’s less of a chance he/she
will buy even if it’s served on a different platter.
The topic of making better records is the elephant
in the room, and from my experiences, no one wants to talk about it.
Why is that?
I might not have the answer, but my supposition is
that somewhere between the artist, record company A&R and management, the
issue of whether or not an album has hit singles is either not being discussed,
A&R and management are afraid they might offend the artist, or the people
who are supposed to guide and help the artist succeed don’t know what a hit
song is.
You could make the argument that Maverick’s artists
don’t need this kind of attention and that they have a vision set out for
themselves and there is no need to mettle in the creative process. If that’s the case, I would respectfully
rebuttal by saying that there is a reason Adele’s last album, “21,” went
Diamond. There’s a reason why Taylor
Swift albums sell north of a million copies in its first week, then remain on
the charts for several weeks thereafter.
Did Adele’s “21” become a colossal success because Americans
are suddenly enamored with British women who possess a soulful voice? Is Taylor Swift an industry of its own
because we suddenly are attracted to talented singers from Pennsylvania?
No. Much of the reason
Adele and Swift, and others like them, sold millions is because they took the
time to make sure that their fans had an album they could listen to from beginning
to end and enjoy for years to come.
One more example – the Eagles. As great as they were as songwriters in their
prime, Don Henley and Glenn Frey still were not satisfied with the material
they had collaborated on for future albums and brought in outside writers to
make damn sure their records were as good as they could be.
Again, just my opinion from years of being in the
business.
As mentioned, some of the Maverick managers come
close to addressing the issue of weak music sales:
Caron Veazey comes as close to the topic as anyone
interviewed saying that, among other things, it comes down to great music; but
she doesn’t say how to make sure that the music is compelling.
Adam Leber points out that the Maverick business model has
been done before, but the difference between Maverick and other firms is that
its managers aren’t afraid of sharing information amongst each other (which is
a good thing); but will any of that information have to do with making sure
future albums are chock full of hits?
Gee Roberson acknowledges that a big challenge is the
decline of album sales, which gave me some hope that he had a solution, but
instead of a solution to turn around this downward trend by making sure the
music is commercially viable and can achieve success at commercial radio, he
mentioned branding artists with another product. Is it possible to make up for the lack of music
sales with an artist’s wine sales? Yes,
but what about improving an artist’s music sales with better songs? Wouldn’t that help make the artist a catalog
artist, whose recordings could end up being purchased by generations to
come? And what happens if the wine stops
selling?
In relation to Roberson’s thoughts on album sales, I would
like to do a quick refresher on the way it used to be in many instances:
Prior to the digital era, the consumer on many
occasions walked into a music store expecting to buy the single from an artist
that he/she heard on the radio only to be told that it doesn’t exist in that
format and that the only way to purchase the song is to purchase the entire
album. For some, that’s like wanting to
order only the french fries, but told that in order to get the fries, you have
to order the entire meal and then once you have paid for the meal, you come to
find out that the rest of the meal - that you really didn’t want in the first place
- isn’t very good.
Since consumers buy music much differently today, the
business has had the challenge of trying to figure out how to get the consumer
to buy music in the quantities that they did, pre-digital.
Getting back to the article, it’s quite possible that
through the editorial process, it left out the quotes about how Maverick is
going to dig in and make sure that their artists have multiple hit songs on its
albums. Assuming there weren’t any, I
volunteer the following suggestions:
1 - Hire an experienced A&R-type, whether it’s a
label person or publisher who really knows what a hit song is – and not some
marquee guy who drinks and golfs with the right people, but has little to show
for it. And hire as many as you need to
cover each genre properly.
2 - If the key members of the collective want to dig
deeper to make sure the hiring process for an A&R-type is a success (or do
it themselves), they might want to speak with some of the former A&R people
from the ‘60s and ‘70s who brought us a multitude of catalog artists that sell
to this day and gain some knowledge of how they dealt with a talented artist
who didn’t have enough material to fill an album.
3 - Make Guy Oseary the A&R guy (at least for
rock and pop). After all, he does know
what a hit song is. (Oseary recognized
Alanis Morissette’s talent and signed her to a label deal when every other
major label turned her down.)
In conclusion, I want to throw my support Maverick’s way, with
or without my suggestions. If the
Maverick way works, other management firms will follow this business model and
it will, in turn, help all of us one way or another in this industry; but if it
doesn’t, I highly recommend that the principals of the company ask themselves
whether they did everything in their power to make sure their artists put out
commercially viable hit music in order to compel their fans to pay retail.
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