Music Industry

[Tribal Spaceman]

Airplay, presumably, like in America.

But most of the songs played on American radio are dictated by the stations themselves. And many get loeaned on by record labels to play certain songs.
That means Beyonce (or whoever) could be number one purely because her recod company wants her to be.

The only way to make that work would be to make every station play requests 24/7.

 

[Steve]

Yeah, I don''t think it''s a fair system in terms of public ''opinion'', but if sales of recorded music did dry up to such a level, it would presumably be the only way to determine what people are listening to, even if it''s dictated for them - perhaps a combination of the TV airplay chart and the radio airplay chart.

 

[Daneeeboy]

Are charts even still relevent though? Do we care about how well a song sells/is played? I don''t think we do particuarly, because our understanding of music changed. Regardless of how the industry screwed us over - Napster changed the way we all THINK about music. I am of the generation that believes music to be a free and accessible thing. Because you CAN find anything online for free (albeit illegally, although I think we all view music downloading in the same way we view doing 35mph on a 30 road...), we percieve music to be free.

And because the music is free, there is no real way of measuring an individual song''s success, making the whole thing very irrelevent. It''s more about coverage than it is about sales these days - the artist is the brand, the music is the advert, the sponsorship/touring is the product. Which is why Prince''s big give away this weekend is actually pure genius! The record company may get a bit upset over a few hundred thousand lost sales, but what it will generate in nationwide recognition of Prince and his music.

I mean, if he has shifted 3 million units in the UK, that''s phenomenal. Madonna''s biggest albums of the recent years haven''t even broken 3 million in the states. The ''value'' of people knowing your music these days is much greater than the monetary value of each individual track.

And another interesting thing of note...

Starting in April 2007 there were rumors from MediaTakeOut that rapper Jay-Z was leaving the Def Jam Recordings record label to create a new "super label" with singer Beyonce.
In an exclusive interview, MediaTakeOut.com spoke to a key person involved in creating the new label. And according to that insider, the new label will launch early next year. Tells our insider, "It''s a done deal. [Jay Z] already has Beyonce and [Mathew Knowles] on board ... She''ll be finishing up her contract [with Sony], and I expect that she''ll sign on to the new label shortly afterwards."

Jay-Z is a popular rapper and current president and CEO of Def Jam -- a record label owned by Universal Music.

At the time, Jay-Z was reportedly shopping this new "super label" around with the major record labels "and to Apple - who [was] very interested in doing business".

Now, Moli.com is claiming that "an inside industry source" says that its a done deal.
[Jay-Z and Beyonce] will move to Apple to run a new music division. It sounds rather incredible: [Jay-Z''s] already got a pretty good job, running Def Jam, and [Steve] Jobs may be too smart to get into the tanking recording business (as others have said). Of course, if it is true, my guess is this would be a new, revamped record biz, one based on digital distribution, not boring old physical products.

Coincidentally, Universal Music recently let their long term contract lapse with Apple for iTunes music distribution and have gone on a short term "at will" distribution deal.

 

[RHOPJ]

I suppose artists could sell their records through the newspapers. Hilariously, Prince''s new album is his best in years!

 

[lisaj]

Good evening.

I have a little project going on and I need to do some research on the music industry. I'm just looking out for really good (auto)biographies by singers, musicians, managers, etc. I'm reading the first of Simon Napier-Bell's biographies but would like some more suggestions from my fellow beloved PJ-ers. Nothing too dry, but something humorous, a little scandalous maybe and informative is what I'm looking for.

Thank you.

Lisa
x

 

[Rachel]

Maybe you'd enjoy Karrine Steffans - Confessions of a Video Vixen. She's not a singer or anything, she's a 'video ho' and has slept with everyone from Usher to Ja Rule. Great book and insight into lives of celebrities.

 

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross is amazing. I'm not a Kurt/Nirvana fan but the book is so emotional and informed, and is definitely worth a read.

The Michael Jackson book by J.Randy Taraborelli is good too, un-putdownable!

 

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Maybe you'd enjoy Karrine Steffans - Confessions of a Video Vixen. She's not a singer or anything, she's a 'video ho' and has slept with everyone from Usher to Ja Rule. Great book and insight into lives of celebrities.

Haha. That reminds me of this book which I toyed with buying, but then decided against it as buying it would confirm I was trashy!

It's No Secret: From Nas to Jay-Z, from Seduction to Scandal--a Hip-Hop Helen of Troy Tells All (Paperback)
by Carmen Bryan

She has a baby with Nas (I think) and calls Kelis a "wicked stepmother".

 

[Rachel]

Maybe you'd enjoy Karrine Steffans - Confessions of a Video Vixen. She's not a singer or anything, she's a 'video ho' and has slept with everyone from Usher to Ja Rule. Great book and insight into lives of celebrities.

Haha. That reminds me of this book which I toyed with buying, but then decided against it as buying it would confirm I was trashy!

It's No Secret: From Nas to Jay-Z, from Seduction to Scandal--a Hip-Hop Helen of Troy Tells All (Paperback)
by Carmen Bryan

She has a baby with Nas (I think) and calls Kelis a "wicked stepmother".

I know her. Well, not KNOW her but know of her. She has videos on youtube slagging someone off. Funny stuff.

 

[onlinehimbo]

It gets brought up all the time but Wannabe: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (or Wannabe: Spice Girls Revisited as it now seems to be called on the reprint, although there's no different content apparently) by David Sinclair is a brilliant read.

Oh, and Billie's autobiography is good when she gets to the 'I was a popstar and worked very, very hard' bit. I was riveted anyway.

 

[Popjustice]

The Simon Napier Bell books are all good.

The Manual: How To Have A Number One The Easy Way, despite being 20 years old, is still very relevant.

Dave Rimmer's 'Like Punk Never Happened' is also a must-read, and Chris Heath's Literally is great. I'd also recommend Johnny Rogan's Starmakers & Svengalis and Sian Pattenden's How To Make It In The Music Business.

 

[rachel-mary]

I'm not entirely sure what slant your project is taking but in my first year of uni, I did a module on cultural studies with an essay about why pop music was not a form of 'dumbing down'. The main author I was recommended who writes about pop in a critical (as in usable at academic level) is Simon Frith, and his stuff is very readable and informative:

Frith, Simon and Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. London: Routledge, 2004. (collection of essays by different authors that covers a range of topics about the music industry)

Frith, Simon. Sound Effects: Youth, leisure and the politics of rock. London: Constable, 1983 (old but still regarded as an important text).

 

[lisaj]

My project is a story, it involves a band, so I want to write with authenticity about how they make it and how the industry works, but in a light-hearted way. I also want some inspiration for what happens behind the scenes in the pop world.

And thanks for everyone's suggestions so far!

 

[rachel-mary]

My suggestions are possibly a bit too theoretically-based then! Sorry!

 

[lisaj]

That's ok, maybe I should've been clearer in my first post.

 

[BachelorNo2]

The Appleton book is all kinds of hilarious, quote of choice "Shaznay got all the best press, all the lines, and now my coat. What else did she want, every last shred of my dignity and pride?" Or something very close to those lines. Mikey'll know. Probably not very helpful, but it's a good read for all the wrong reasons!

 

[onlinehimbo]

The Appleton book is all kinds of hilarious, quote of choice "Shaznay got all the best press, all the lines, and now my coat. What else did she want, every last shred of my dignity and pride?" Or something very close to those lines. Mikey'll know. Probably not very helpful, but it's a good read for all the wrong reasons!

It is brilliant! They spend the whole book going, "I loved so and so but they were fucking horrible to me and so I did all these things to spite them and that means I'm the more mature person." Really, really weird pair!

 

[DiscoWenchy83]

The Appleton book is all kinds of hilarious, quote of choice "Shaznay got all the best press, all the lines, and now my coat. What else did she want, every last shred of my dignity and pride?" Or something very close to those lines. Mikey'll know. Probably not very helpful, but it's a good read for all the wrong reasons!

It is brilliant! They spend the whole book going, "I loved so and so but they were fucking horrible to me and so I did all these things to spite them and that means I'm the more mature person." Really, really weird pair!

Isn't that the book where she announced she'd aborted Robbie's baby - Nicole I mean? Sorry, but christ, some things genuinely can be left of your autobiography!

 

[onlinehimbo]

The Appleton book is all kinds of hilarious, quote of choice "Shaznay got all the best press, all the lines, and now my coat. What else did she want, every last shred of my dignity and pride?" Or something very close to those lines. Mikey'll know. Probably not very helpful, but it's a good read for all the wrong reasons!

It is brilliant! They spend the whole book going, "I loved so and so but they were fucking horrible to me and so I did all these things to spite them and that means I'm the more mature person." Really, really weird pair!

Isn't that the book where she announced she'd aborted Robbie's baby - Nicole I mean? Sorry, but christ, some things genuinely can be left of your autobiography!

Yes, and that the record company supposedly made her whilst Mel was allowed to have her baby. If you read between the lines, she basically says she backed down whilst Mel steadfastly refused.

 

[Skin of Skunk]

It wasn't just that, it was a botched abortion in some dodgy clinic.

Aww, how I loved "Together", it was so bad it was good. I loved how they misspelled everyone's names, "I was hanging out with Cheryl Crow!"