Jimmy Iovine in a rare interview describes the current nature of the music biz.
More importantly, he confirms what KOAR has been saying all along. KOAR says we are facing a creative drought and Iovine says there is a lack of imagination that we’re going through in certain areas of music.
“If you put on Alternative radio, the guitars sound exactly the same… a lot of people blame the record companies for that, but it’s not the record companies. It has to do with the lack of imagination that we’re going through right now in certain areas of music, and kids think they’re supposed to copy things on television, or on the Internet.”
“If you’re in a band, make sure somebody in the band can write and be tough on the songs. If the band can’t write then you don’t have the right combination of members”.
“The hardest thing for any artist to do is look in the mirror and say the ‘reason it failed’ was me. Everybody wants to be Shaggy and say, “It wasn’t me… My album was great, it wasn’t me, it was that building.”
Watch the full interview here.
Let me be the first to call “bullshit”
Sure, it’s the artists fault. After all, everyone knows that record companies (who are determined to sell “units” as opposed to art) are desparate to sign really unique, unfamiliar sounds. And radio stations are desparate to play songs that sound nothing like the popular, tried-&-true bands. Yes, the industry is waiting for new, unproven sounds with open arms — it’s those darn unimaginative artists. Pardon my French, but what a dick.
Take it from a (former) artist and a current marketer — it’s infinitely harder for artists to create something unique than it is for labels to find an audience for it. Way to pass the blame, Jimmy.
“The hardest thing for any artist to do is look in the mirror and say the ‘reason it failed’ was me.” Apparently, that’s the hardest thing for any label head to do as well.
[...] fact that the good people over at Kings of A & R, who we usually hold up as fairly reasonable, agreed with Jimmy Iovine’s point that the reason of that modern rock radio is terrible is the … we had to weigh in again. When radio stations keep defining down “alternative rock” as [...]
“Alternative radio” our only Alternative radio here in chicago is now comcast radio. meaning you can request Daughtry or Waylon Jennings.
“If you put on Alternative radio, the guitars sound exactly the same… Bask n Robbins has 31 flavors of ice cream, yet vanilla is still the most sold.
Jimmy Iovine spoke with common sense. You don’t give music away for promotion. That’s silly. Music itself is what people buy. You giveaway stickers or something else, hoping that people will buy music.
You don’t give away IMacs. You buy IMacs, you don’t give away music, you buy music.
If I see another email that says the future is giving away free music, I’m going to croak.
Prince gave away free music because it aint even worth stealing. If kids want to steal, they are going to steal. You don’t need to give it away.