Kings of A&R

Even before the internet boom, there were tales of US based artists without label representation making a killing as rock superstars in Asia. A classmate of mine in high school was one such rockstar, building an extension onto his parents home for his state of the art recording studio funded by his millions of records sold across Asia, all before his senior year. His music was mediocre- acoustic coffeehouse garbage typical of the time. How his demo made its way to Asia, even he didn’t know, but it was topping radio charts and copies were in high demand. He secured a distro deal and the CDs flew off the shelves, which he followed up by playing 10 sold out arena dates in 3 countries…over spring break. He hasn’t done anything since then, but for 2 years he was a faceless American high school student by day, Asian Rock God by night.

He was definitely the exception at the time, but today with the internet being the primary tool for artists, bands can find a fan base anywhere in the world. Let me put this in perspective. The population of the world is about 6 billion. After you subtract the population of the US from that number, it’s still 6 billion. Tastes around the world are quite varied. Hasselhoff may be a joke and a novelty here in the US, but he’s still gigantic in Germany. Pop punk comedy act, Bowling For Soup has never picked up serious traction in America despite their Grammy nomination, but their records do very well across Europe and they’re still big ticket sellers. The misconception that American mainstream is the be all end all measurement of success is completely wrong, more so today than ever.

The global reach of television is a good indication of how off American taste is from the rest of the world, with television shows produced in the US being shown in other countries. Programs that did not resonate with the American public and were canceled after only one season are finding audience with television fans around the world, disappointed by the short run the shows were given. It’s unlikely that studios will attempt to reassemble the cast and crew to produce more episodes, but there is certainly money being lost here. The same is true for artists who cannot see outside of their own neighborhood, state, region or country. You’re excluding people and doing a disservice to yourself and your music.

Artists in the alternate industry need to be aware that what is happening in US magazines and television and the hype and trends they feel they need to follow aren’t that important in the bigger picture. You may not have a chance on commercial radio in the US, but what about in other countries? If you’re obsessing over trying to land a good review from Pitchfork so you can be an indie superstar, you could be completely neglecting the audience that would enjoy your music just the way it is, without all the pretense. Mimicking what is on the Billboard charts or being hocked on MTV is not the only way to make it. Actually, the more you follow the mainstream and what’s been done, the more you suppress your ability to be original and creative…and if you’re not those things then what good are you? Be honest with yourself as an artist and stay true to your unique voice and perspective. You don’t have to compromise and you don’t have to sacrifice your integrity to find ears that can really hear you. There are more than 6 billion people in this world and you have access to most of them. Find your audience.

AJ, KOAR

 The Digital frontier…………………..

Just as we expected USA Network and Yahoo! Music have entered into an agreement to discover and promote new music and emerging artists through a non-traditional marketing model. These type of pairings will be typical in the upcoming decade.

Old media turns combative against new media….

Leading media executives have taken a combative tone against Internet companies suggesting that Big Media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google to be more of an enemy than a friend. Read the full article here.

2.5 Million Less Watching TV…………….

Speaking about OLD MEDIA, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show

Everyone has a theory to explain the plummeting ratings: early Daylight Savings Time, more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded or downloaded or streamed.

Television has made billions based on how many people watch a show at its regular time. That idea may already be obsolete.

“if we continue to do business assuming people will watch television as they always have,” said NBC’s Wurtzel, “it’s a dead-end game.”

Just before the announcement of declining quarterly results Warner Bros. put out a press release that they will develop a TV Video Programming dubbed oddly enough “Den of Thieves”. What a creepy and bizarre name branding the image with stealing. Anyway, the move by Warner comes amid an industry downturn caused by a multiyear plunge in CD sales.

According to Warner Bros. the sole purpose of ‘Den of Thieves’ is to promote new albums and artists on television, the internet and mobile services.

The indirect sole purpose is to brand Warner as being HIP, Cool, and Engaging the Alternate Industry.

Will this work? or will the Den of Thieves drown into the grand sea of nothingness?

**Warner Music Group shares fell 12 cents to $17.30 on Monday

 Label news……………………………….

According to Sources Def Jam is laying off 40 staffers. “Jay-Z, L.A. Reid and Jermaine Dupri are still getting paid millions … and running the company into the ground,” says a source

And….

WEA is cutting 70 staffers serving the traditional brick-and-mortar marketplace. Warner’s goal is to become digitally focused.

Artist news….

Sounds Under Radio will be showcasing for several major labels on May 29th at 10pm at the Mercury Lounge.

KOAR will be talking about NEW artists’ shortly…stay tuned.

Music videos haven’t been the central part of programming on MTV and VH1 in EONS, but thanks to YOUTUBE and MYSPACE they have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.

Check out the Wall Street Journal Article ‘Bands Walk Fine Line With Contests That Invite Fans to Shoot Music Videos’

Today, artists aren’t turning to Big Directors to shoot their videos, instead they are turning to fans. Björk, Red Hot Chili Peppers , Ozzy Osbourne, and the Decemberists, are holding video-making contests in conjuction with the release of their latest albums.

Epic Records was ready to prepare to produce a new Incubus video for the song dig just in case the contest failed to garner results. Lee Stimmel, Epic’s senior vice president of marketing, said the label was impressed with the submissions, which totaled more than 800. Also, Fans have submitted more than 350 videos for “Charlie,” a new Chili Peppers song.

The labels also see the contests as a marketing opportunity and an opportunity to cut costs.

Epic’s Mr. Stimmel said the contests are a relative bargain compared with the cost of producing a full-blown music video. He estimates the label spent about a quarter as much on the Incubus contest as it might have spent producing a video, which can cost $150,000 to $250,000. And with a traditional video, there’s a risk the fans won’t like it, he said. In the contests, “your fans, or your potential fans, are part of the process.”

Check out one of many fan directed Incubus videos.

I have been trying to think of a movie that has been as overhyped as Spiderman 3 that actually turned out to be halfway decent. Er… I can’t think of anything. The last movie this hyped was Mission Impossible, which was a steaming pile. Now, I’ll admit, I was looking forward to the new Spiderman. I liked the first two and after hearing they spent over $500 million on this third one, I thought it would be a non-stop roller coaster of action and adventure. I was very wrong.

What did Sony get for their $500 million? A two and a half hour long chick flick which sets records for both most expensive movie ever made, and most man tears shed in a film. Now, Sony is well aware that they will be lucky to break even. They didn’t allow any pre-screenings, and there were no free tickets to anything. God forbid they let some theatre ushers in for free. Anyway, despite the fact that Spiderman 3 is a $500 million disappointment, they still managed to dominate the box office this weekend, grossing $151 million.

Although Spiderman 3 got asses in the seats, there’s no telling whether this film will be able to break even. They have to rely on people not telling their friends it sucked, which is harder and harder to do in this technological age. I saw it early, but by the time I got on MySpace to warn my friends against it, there were already 9 other posts saying the same thing. The level of turd burgery in this movie is so high, it seems the cast can’t even get excited about it, with some of them skipping premieres and bashing the movie in interviews. Even the ‘complimentary’ reviews aren’t THAT complimentary. Most of them reek of Sony ad money, remaining completely neutral throughout the review with a few well placed quotes that could be easily taken out of context and a rating of A+ or 5 stars or something else not reflected in the text.

Hey, all of this sounds really familiar. Maybe when the majors finally fold up, execs can find a new career in film, where its all about overblown budgets and egos, low quality products, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and blowing smoke up each others asses! See? There is a silver lining…

AJ, KOAR

Who will buy EMI?

EMI the third largest record label is still a target for a take-over. EMI recently hired Roger Ames giving them some new talking points to potential buyers. Still, Warner Music is the only company with a solid offer on the table.

Warner Music Group will LAYOFF 400 employees and place further emphasis on digital strategy and distribution, sources say. Also Warner Music will jump on the bandwagon and engage the ALTERNATE industry by partnering up with Snocap and selling music on myspace.

Google’s YouTube will now begin paying top users for the video content they submit under a new revenue haring partner program that will let the creators share in AdSense revenue generated by their videos.

The Takeover UK has officially signed with Ryko Records

Ann Coulter sounds off and doesn’t paint Rage Against the Machine members as liberals but a bunch of ‘losers’ and “dopey, hippy rock ‘n’ roll numb nuts”. She goes on to say that unlike Rage Against the Machine, people care what she says. Ann  lastly says they broke up 10 years ago, the frontman has a flop of a solo career and she is looking forward to the VAN HALEN reunion.

Verizon has pulled sponsorship from the Gwen Stefani tour and severed their partnership with her opener, Akon, after the artist was caught on tape dry humping a 15 year old during a recent show in Trinidad. Actually, that’s putting it a tad lightly. It looked more like dry raping. In Akon’s defense, it was an 18+ show and the young Pastor’s daughter had no place there to begin with. However, the young woman was under the impression that she was participating in a dance competition to win a “trip to Africa,” only to find out it was a sex contest, and Akon considers himself to be ‘Africa.’

The ‘dancing’ that was caught on tape and spread virally across the internet depicts Akon throwing the young woman into several lewd positions while essentially humping the hell out of her. It was very reminiscent of the Tara Reid video where Akon and cohort double team the ‘actress’ in a rather vulgar display…vulgar even for her. Actually, it is reminiscent of just about any Akon show footage, since his ‘dance contest’ is a regular feature at his concerts. I suppose no one from Verizon bothered to checking into this before putting him in all of their commercials and sponsoring his tour with Gwen.

Watch the video below (borders on NSFW)