Triplesourced
Reporting, musing and not to mention some random scribbling on tech issues from green/sustainable IT to security. (http://adonoghue.wordpress.com/)
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 7:26 PM
Radiohead haven't killed the record companies just yet
Anyone who loves technology and the internet specifically also hates what the internet hates and what the internet hates more than anything is a middle man. And by god you have to hate them when you read stories about the Minnesota women who was fined $220,000 for sharing 24 songs on Kazaa. (Note to record company executives when you are old and infirmed this is not the best way to go if you don't want to be left out in the snow.)
The fact that Radiohead are opting to let punters choose how much to buy their album for online has been touted as the death-knell for established distribution channels and I have to admit to getting caught up in the hype too. However, I have since found out that Radiohead are going to release the album on CD through established channels next year, and are offering a gift-box containing vinyl of all things, to go alongside the pay-as-much-as-you-like download option tomorrow.
Unfortunately despite the hype around Radiohead the walls of the music industry aren't going to fall any time soon not so long as as there are millions of people who still want to buy bland music from ASDA (or WalMart if you're a bland American) and there are still a lot of people who like to do that.
What prompted all this muso musing was being taken along to a round-table event this afternoon run by Sellaband.com (at the curiously named Hospital in Covent Garden showing my ignorance here cos there were no doctors or nurses or beds just lots of new media types on MacBooks but guess the building was something health related in its past). The site claims to be trying to use the internet and social networking - to disrupt the traditional A&R process. Instead of A&R men trawling around gigs looking for the next big thing bands can sign up to the site for free and then encourage Believers or fans to invest in them in buy buying $10 chunks. Once the band has $50,000 worth of believer money they get to make an album the profits of which are then split between the believers, the artist and Sellaband. Now there are all sorts of financial details here of which I don't have the time or expertise to go into.
However on the plus side it generally seems like a innovative approach to making and distributing music and one of the Sellaband artists, Mark Maclaine from Second Person, was certainly keen to promote it to the journalists present (but then he would) and extol the benefits of having a group of 75 believers pushing his band and even organising concerts in Paris.
But while Sellaband appears disruptive, and dangerous to the record companies on some levels effectively all it is really doing at one level is helping to reduce the costs to record companies of the A&R process. It still felt like the end goal of Second Person and the other artists on Sellaband was to get signed by one of the big record companies and get the record contract that has been the standard way for artists to make it for years. I may be wrong and I haven't explored Sellaband's business model thoroughly enough but there doesn't seem to be a long term strategy mapped out for how the artists can operate outside of the traditional music business in the long term. I guess knowing that you have Sellaband believers behind you and a certain amount of success puts artists in a better bargaining position and there is a lot to be said for that.
However, Sellaband still hangs onto the band's master tapes for a year and I was still struck that Mark from Second Person was still essentially a young and relatively inexperienced guy having to do a deal with experienced middle men in this case Sellaband who's board consists of lots of ex- big label executives. The model isn't quite the internet ideal of the artist being able to deal directly with the public with no hoops to jump through or middle-men to pay but maybe we're not quite ready for that yet. We still need the reassurance of the crafted marketing and PR that a big label can provide.
PreviousComments on this post
Sellaband is a fantastic initiative. btw I think you meant to say 750 believers behind Second person, not 75.
Sellaband knocks the traditional record industry on it's head in so many ways..... masters are owned by the artist after 12 months (normally the record co. would own them forever), the artist is free to do whatever they want, career-wise, after they release their album (normally an artist is locked-in to a record co.), and most important of all, the artist who is recording an album with Sellaband has TOTAL creative freedom. Sellaband are just there to advise and provide a platform for the artist to express themselves.
And once the album is out..... 3 free mp3 downloads for everyone! So far 3 albums have been released which you can download the free mp3's from.
Sellaband isn't perfect yet, but it has the potential to be, and they are listening to the community and making theings better all the time. Where it lacked was in promotion and distribution, but that has all changed now with worldwide distribution deals and advertising on the net, showcase gigs (like at the famous Paradiso in Amsterdam) etc etc.
My wife (Mandyleigh Storm) is a Sellaband recording artist, who will soon be flying to London (from Australia) to work with Mick Glossop (Van Morrison etc) and world-class musicians, on her debut album. Look out for it early next year.
atm I can't see anyone else shaking up the industry like Sellaband is doing. Only established bands like Radiohead and NIN can release all their material for free and expect to not lose money on it (and it costs alot of money to record an album.... families need to eat). And Sellaband is the only place where the profits are shared equally between artist/investor/platform. What's not to like???
Hey Gary - thanks for your comments - you are indeed right and Second Person do indeed have 750 believers according to my notes - so thanks again for spotting that.
Don't get me wrong, I think Sellaband is a really innovative concept and it's great to see (ex) record company executives embracing technology and the Internet rather than trying to beat it to death with a big stick or hoping it might go away.
All I am saying is that from my perspective, while Sellaband is a great idea, it still carries some of the baggage of the traditional record industry. When we asked them yesterday, the Sellaband panel, made up of execs from record labels including Sony (they of the evil Digital Rights Management), sort of ummed and errred about whether they were a record label or not.
They are keen to avoid the mistakes made by the record companies but maybe Sellaband should be seen as an innovative label rather than a radical new approach. The whole masters issue is a bit old-school to me - other bloggers have pointed out that its not clear whether the artist has to buy back their masters or not at the end of the 12 months or whether they get them back for nothing - either way it's still smacks of a middleman having too much influence. The purest model would see an organisation like Sellaband serve the artist - to act as a transactional and marketing engine for the artist and their management and nothing more. It's really a question of who has the power and there is still this king-maker approach in evidence.
But these are just my perceptions based on some reading and one roundtable - so I am fully prepared to change my opinion the more homework I do on this.
Other sites are appearing now that seem to have similar models to Sellaband such as Slicethepie.com - which launched in June.
Hi Andrew,
The masters are owned by the artist (no payout necessary) after 12 months. The 12 months is so that the investors/fans/believers can get some of their money back for supporting the artist.
Sellaband (SAB) initially just wanted to be a stepping stone to the record industry for talented artists, they didn't want to be a record company. Then people clamoured and pretty much forced (imo) SAB to do more more more for the artists and fans, so now they have changed their slogan to "YOU are the record company" to reflect their bigger involvement in the whole process.
Before (when the slogan was "Your music, your choice"), they offered a platform where musicians could show their wares, people would invest (and get limited edition cd's/profit share/direct access to artists), and the SAB artist would go and record an album (with whoever they wanted to, anywhere, with whatever music they wanted... all totally their choice), and SAB would be there for guidance and contacts if they wanted them there.
Now, SAB have grown into a record label that is controlled in a large part by the community. SAB have used their contacts, expertise and money to sort out distribution deals with Roughtrade (for European stores) and Proper Distribution for the UK, with more to come elsewhere in the world. Plus they are using more of their own money to advertise and promote the Sellaband artists.
At the moment, I think SAB are the best model for helping new artists get heard, and still giving the artists complete creative control. Everyone wins. It's a community driven new-model record company. They don't feel comfortable calling it a record company as that is what they all escaped from at Sony and EMI etc. They wanted to create something new that is about the music, not about the accountants or marketing departments.
I think they've succeeded, and they still continue to listen and adapt.
Nothings perfect, but nothing ever is, but it's the best thing I`ve seen so far.
SliceThePie is far too difficult for me to understand, to be honest.
Radiohead can get away with giving tracks away for free because they have such a HUGE fanbase (gethered over many years of touring and albums sales), of which a healthy proportion will pay for the tracks and also buy the physical product. There are other bands in the world who give their albums away for free online.... 99.9% of which you have never heard of.... because they don't have the fanbase or column inches like Radiohead. New artists will never cover the costs of recording by doing an "In_Rainbows". Radiohead can pay the mortgage and eat, whereas new artists couldn't hope to break even, or afford to record another album or pay for a tour.
Free albums is the death-knell of new artists and their creativity in my opinion... unless Radiohead etc sign them up on their own labels and help finance the early years until they can get a decent fanbase of their own.
