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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Josh Chasin" <jchasin@nyc.rr.com> |
| Subject | Re: More stupid questions.... was Re: Owsley |
| Date | Tue, 18 Feb 2003 11:49:57 -0500 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "MTN HIGH" <mtn-high@msn.com>
> Another question: Do they "own" his works just as "Owsley"...or could he
> create/record/release music under another name and circumvent the
contract?
>
> Ironically/from what I see, (correct me if I'm wrong) here's an INCREDIBLY
> ironic set up where they have him/his tunes tied up...won't support
> him...etc...yet my guess is that if he went ahead and told 'em to F-off
and
> recorded anyway, they'd spend more money sueing him than they did to
support
> him.
Pat, the craziest (I think) example is that when Wilco delivered Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot, their record company didn't want to put it out... so the band
got it back and sold it to another record company. But both were owned by
AOL Time Warner-- meaning AOL paid for that record twice.
Several of the "individualist" artists-- notably, I'd say, Prince, Ani
Difranco, and Robert Fripp-- are big into, the artist owns the masters.
Each has a record company that puts out music by other artists. (Of course
the Rosenbergs' story dealing with DGM, Fripp's label, was less than
glowing, although there are two sides to that story). The whole notion of a
record company holding your career for ransom in exchange for the ownership
of every note you play is now technologically obsolete, and this
obsolescence is the pain you see the industry writhing through right now. A
new model will emerge.
Here is my prediction. I think we are going to see an evolution in the
record business, where artists become the core customers of record
companies-- not consumers. The consumer will be the customer of the artist.
A record company will be an entity that provides a la carte production,
promotion, manufacturing, and distribution services to an artist, probably
for some combination of fee plus sales commission. But without owning the
output. The old mega-record companies will adapt-- or they will die, while
continuing to blame the consumer for their demise (it's those damned mp3
traders!)
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