David Byrne Article About the Music Business

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David Byrne Article About the Music Business

Postby JackT » Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:11 pm

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/musi ... Page=all#s

Very interesting. Some quotes (bold mine):

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.


The fact that Radiohead debuted its latest album online and Madonna defected from Warner Bros. to Live Nation, a concert promoter, is held to signal the end of the music business as we know it. Actually, these are just two examples of how musicians are increasingly able to work outside of the traditional label relationship. There is no one single way of doing business these days. There are, in fact, six viable models by my count. That variety is good for artists; it gives them more ways to get paid and make a living. And it's good for audiences, too, who will have more — and more interesting — music to listen to.
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Postby black francis » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:42 am

Yeah cause that's what has been holding Madonna back artistically. Her label. She's now free to rip off the musical fad of the day and have MTV and VH-1 call it "re-inventing" herself.

Has Gabriel Byrne been doing anything worthwhile lately? Right or wrong I have this perception he has been putting out world music crap lately.
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Postby Mr. Brian » Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:22 pm

I just read the print version of this last night. Good article.

I think the most remarkable thing stated by Byrne is that now instead of renting a studio for $15,000 minimum, you can record on the same laptop that you read your e-mail on and get the same quality. Now granted there have been bands over the years to record an album with something like $600 and a week on a 4-track and get remarkable results but that was always an exception to the rule.
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Postby kook » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:31 pm

black francis wrote:Has Gabriel Byrne been doing anything worthwhile lately? Right or wrong I have this perception he has been putting out world music crap lately.


Are you perchance making one person out of Peter Gabriel and David Byrne :lol: :lol:
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Postby withahip » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:10 am

How about the Steve Albini article?

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

How come Brit bands don't have this problem?
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Postby black francis » Tue Dec 25, 2007 4:00 am

kook wrote:Are you perchance making one person out of Peter Gabriel and David Byrne :lol: :lol:


Or maybe it was Paul Simon or Sting.
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Postby Mr. Brian » Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:35 am

withahip wrote:How about the Steve Albini article?

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

How come Brit bands don't have this problem?


It's much much harder to break America. It's a much bigger place. Even Will has said of U2, they were willing to tour America for a year solid while the Bunnymen did 3 weeks.
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Postby JackT » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:36 pm

I was just reading about The Fixx, a British band that garnered much more success in The States than in England.
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Postby Frank The Bunny » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:40 pm

The Steve Albini article was a good read.

Just watched This Is Spinal Tap (in the free movies section of Comcast On Demand right now)

Sad parallels to the Bunnymen
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Postby zabird » Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:30 pm

Frank The Bunny wrote:The Steve Albini article was a good read.

Just watched This Is Spinal Tap (in the free movies section of Comcast On Demand right now)

Sad parallels to the Bunnymen


how so?
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Postby Mr. Brian » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:32 am

JackT wrote:I was just reading about The Fixx, a British band that garnered much more success in The States than in England.


same for the Psychedelic Furs after Pretty In Pink
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Postby withahip » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:25 am

admin wrote:It's much much harder to break America. It's a much bigger place. Even Will has said of U2, they were willing to tour America for a year solid while the Bunnymen did 3 weeks.


It was more than touring a year. Before it became cool to hate U2, they put on an amazing show - especially if you were under 25. A show they played here was stopped because the audience in the balcony was so enthralled that as they jumped to the music the floor began to sag.

Bono's conviction that music could save the world comes across as the youthful hubris that it was, but it moved a lot of people back then. And till Unforgettable Fire, the band was a curiosity here in the states adding to that "It's my band" appeal.
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Postby Mr. Brian » Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:33 pm

withahip wrote:It was more than touring a year.


Oh sure, but the point was that it takes a lot of hard work to cover the US. Bands like the Bunnymen just didn't want to do it or didn't have the funds.
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Postby Frank The Bunny » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:29 pm

zabird wrote:how so?
Dead drummers. Playing smaller and smaller venues since the reunion.

I'm expecting the maquee to read "PUPPET SHOW & ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN" any day now.

Ok, so yeah Albert Hall sold out, and they play large venues whenever they do a festival.

Maybe that's the secret - forgo the touring, and do occasional "event" gigs. I bet they'll make a lot more playing one gig to 20,000 than they will playing 40 gigs to 500
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Postby Dr Cheese » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:46 am

Frank The Bunny wrote:
Maybe that's the secret - forgo the touring, and do occasional "event" gigs. I bet they'll make a lot more playing one gig to 20,000 than they will playing 40 gigs to 500

20,000? Apart from festivals, where the majority of the crowd are there for someone else, when was the last time the Bunnymen played to a crowd that size?
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