KOAR News
Posted June 19, 2007 — in Music News
Matchbox Twenty Rob Thomas and EMI Evan Lamberg start a label with no Economic Pressure…..
Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty and EMI publishing Exec Evan Lamberg will be starting a label called R Tel Records that will develop, and make long-term commitments to, new songwriter/artists.
Under a deal with Sony BMG’s Epic Records, Thomas and Lamberg will consult with Epic president Charlie Walk and others at the major label. If R Tel and Epic agree they love an act, then the major will fund the project, releasing the record through RED or Epic. The first act funded under this deal is British songwriter/artist Garfield Mayor, whose release is expected this fall.
While Thomas says he hopes to have two to three releases each year, R Tel isn’t under any delivery or time constraints to keep that benchmark.
“If you sell 30,000 records, we don’t blink,” Lamberg says. “We’re making a second record. That’s where patience factors in. We’re not under the rule that we’ve got to ship a bunch of records in the next 90 days or our cash flow won’t be right –there’s no economic pressure.”(Billboard)
Very smart, working out the financials when the artist and the bank can be successful moving 30,000 units instead of 3 million units.
EMI paid ousted Music Chief Alain Levy 4.6 Million who was forced to leave….
Levy was given “compensation” or loss of office of £2.5m and a £1.1m “incentive remuneration” alongside his basic salary of £912,100, nd his benefits have continued beyond him leaving the embattled company on January 11. (Guardian)
UK Buys More CD’s than US……
Music fans in the U.K. are top of the world CD buying charts for the fourth year in a row, despite the nroads being made by downloading songs from the Internet.
Figures produced by the IFPI for international CD sales point to the U.K. population buying an average of 2.7 discs per head, beating the United States and Norway who were joint second with recorded sales of 2.1 discs per head.
Would love to see what type of deal points R Tel will be offering up to artists. Evan’s a smart guy so this could do well. Wonder what will happen when Walk …”walks.”
Comment by Stu Gots — June 19, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
wait for rob’s documentary about his solo-record. this will cause a lot of controversy. he’s exposing the workings of the industry big time in it.
Comment by randy — June 19, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
If you sell 30,000 records, we don’t blink….yea right..there’s unsigned acts that do this well.so the plus with signing with this label is…?
Comment by larry anderson — June 19, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
I agree with Larry.
Why give up your masters (and most likely in this case publishing)?
And regarding Rob’s “expose”, I can’t imagine it’ll be too revealing since he’s now drinking Sony Kool-Aid.
Comment by Stu Gots — June 19, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
Lamberg & Thomas = Two smart guys with good instincts and good hearts. I hope they can create a business model that works. The point of signing with them would be to gain the financial freedom to be allowed to work toward a future making music, not working a day job while you slowly sell an unlikely 30,000 units from the back of your car while borrowing money from everyone you know that you will probably never be able to pay back.
Saw the Thomas documentary and it’s a very honest, revealing film. More power to him!
Comment by Jim — June 19, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
Nah…the act will get a half-arsed record made for way too much money…Epic’s promotion/marketing staffers won’t make the act a priority since they’ll have too many releases coming out on Epic proper to worry about…Rob will lose interest and start to focus on his own music…Evan will try his best but won’t get the love from Walk’s team…THE END. Oh, and Sony keeps the masters.
Or…
Artist partners with well-connected manager, gets a record made on a modest budget, a solid film/TV plugger is brought onboard to nab a few lucrative sync opportunities, that money gets put into the ‘tour kitty’ while fan club members infiltrate blogs to help create awareness of said band and said placement…record is put onsale through online outlets, monies paid directly to artist with no recoupability, a well-thought-out tour is put together and manager brings aboard quality tour PR person, handles micro-marketing…band documents tour via homemade videos on YouTube/MySpace page…band continues to write while on the road and the cycle continues. Artist keeps masters. Artist owns publishing. And things continue.
Comment by Stu Gots — June 19, 2007 @ 8:50 pm
Artist partners with well-connected manager, gets a record made on a modest budget, a solid film/TV plugger is brought onboard to nab a few lucrative sync opportunities, that money gets put into the ‘tour kitty’ while fan club members infiltrate blogs to help create awareness of said band and said placement…record is put onsale through online outlets, monies paid directly to artist with no recoupability, a well-thought-out tour is put together and manager brings aboard quality tour PR person, handles micro-marketing…band documents tour via homemade videos on YouTube/MySpace page…band continues to write while on the road and the cycle continues. Artist keeps masters. Artist owns publishing. And things continue.
Comment: this was a nice well said observation, in fact its text book. But, this only works if you have a HIT. A HIT song or a HIT band. Thats the tought part.
Comment by koar — June 19, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
i hope. abcbafb71b thanks
Comment by qkqohb — April 10, 2008 @ 6:48 am