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| From | "W. Colter" <deedlemusic@sbcglobal.net> |
| Subject | Owsley thread |
| Date | Wed, 19 Feb 2003 13:41:19 -0800 (PST) |
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Jeez, the sermons that seem to be coming thick and fast about Will's choices are annoying the hell out of me, so now I'm going to subject you to one of my own. What do any of you people know about the experience of being signed to a major label, or why an artist would make that choice in the first place? First off, comparing Will's career or "work ethic" to Adam Marsland's is idiotic. Don't you think Will has worked his ass off playing, recording, touring and promoting before, during and after he was signed? Of course he did, and so does every committed artist, to the n'th degree he/she can. Secondly, Will has a public presence and career far beyond the scope of what Adam has been able to achieve specifically because of his association with Giant/Warner. Signing with a major is a calculated and intelligent risk an artist who has a desire to reach the widest audience possible should take. Why? Because, even with all the corporate stupidity and bad deals, a major label has the necessary money to ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE. Every indie label, every artist's manager, and every artist who's wanted to DIY it on a level bigger than their own backyard will tell you that that's the key, critical, most important, make-or-break factor in selling CDs on a national/international level -- and it's incredibly expensive, even with a small-scale, low-budget regional plan. Making and pressing a CD costs absolutely nothing in comparision to the cost of advertising and promotion. It's what independent labels usually can't (or won't) do, it's the best, and perhaps only, reason to sign with a major, and it's what all professional artists know will either create/maintain or nullify their careers. Yes, there are lots of people like Adam who tour constantly and sell CD's out of the trunks of their cars and on their websites, and are lucky if they break even on a tour, luckier if they make enough cash to record another album. The artists that we talk about on this list are extremely lucky to sell 2000 copies, most sell closer to 200. 2000 or 200 copies is not a sustaining career in music, friends, it's a hobby.
Of course Will is in a potentially good place to take over his own career, thanks to his success via Giant/Warner. There are countless artists who tread that path now and the ones that do well enough at it to continue are the ones who've had previous international success when signed, like Graham Parker, Jonatha Brooke and Aimee Mann. (And FYI on the fileswapping subject, most of those artists are NOT happy about fileswapping and DO believe it is hurting their sales, and have been public about saying so.)
I understand why Will would want to wait and see if Warner will pick up the ball for many, many reasons. One is the potential advert/promo bucks, one is that legally he may not be able to simply waltz out of his contractual obligations without giving something critical up, (and on a related note, any artist who signs a contract with no guaranteed release date should fire their lawyer), one is that it may not be contractually possible or too expensive for him to buy back the masters. Another very good reason may be that he doesn't want to run his own career because of the work load -- it's a full time job in itself and most say deals their creativity level a severe blow. Perhaps he doesn't want to sign with an indie label that has limited funds and scope, if he can help it. Or perhaps he's just too fucking discouraged to put energy in that direction right now, and who the hell can blame him? YOU people? His fans? That's just terrific. Thanks so much for understanding.
The thing that has consistently burned my butt about this list over the years is not the idiotic pissing matches that come up every so often, or the silly off-topic threads, or even the heralding of music I find to be seriously lacking in anything resembling art or soul, but the general lack of understanding, and the seeming desire to remain ignorant, of what it means and what it takes to be a musician/artist in the real world. It's a DEPRESSING time, friends. It STINKS. It's never been easy, but right now it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE. And the purportedly music-loving public makes it harder by saying they support artists and then doing/saying things that are completely anti that sentiment. I expected to have a career as an artist, not as a hobbyist with a day-job, and until relatively recently it was still a possible goal to realize. When corporations took over labels, when label heads became penny-counters instead of visionaries, when a huge demographic of pre-teens were allowed to dictate popular music, when A&R people became afraid they'd lose their jobs, when faceless conglomorates took over radio, when distributors went bankrupt and record stores closed down, when indies were wiped out -- that's when the music business died. I don't blame any artist for wanting to re-focus or give it up.
W.
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