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alloy-digest Saturday, March 24 2001 Volume 06 : Number 076
Today's Subjects:
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Alloy: of interest to musicians (article from the Boston Globe) [Robin Th]
Alloy: Tommy Awards winners! ["Robin" <rthurlow@worldshare.net>]
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Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 13:10:25 -0500
From: Robin Thurlow <rthurlow@binghamton.edu>
Subject: Alloy: of interest to musicians (article from the Boston Globe)
At Co-op Pop, the artists are running the show
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 3/23/2001
It's become a familiar refrain in the music business: A rising band
slips through the cracks of the major label mergers and disappears. Or a
promising young talent is sacrificed to the bottom line, the casualty of
an industry obsessed with instant hits.
Where a recording contract with a prominent label was once the holy
grail for aspiring rock bands, now it's more often a noose around the
neck of creativity, and less an opportunity than a perilous trek across
the hot coals of cutthroat corporate interests.
Enter Co-op Pop, a record label run by three Boston music-scene
veterans. Named for the cooperative philosophy that underlies the
enterprise, the company was launched in January by managers Michael
Creamer (the Sheila Divine, Todd Thibaud, the Gravel Pit, Kay Hanley)
and Ralph Jaccodine (the Push Stars, Ellis Paul), along with Paul
Buckley, head of Lunch Records and the drummer with Orbit.
The founders have at least one thing in common: They've all been burned
in the big leagues. Not coincidentally, Co-op Pop's flagship roster
reads like a major-label obituary page.
The Sheila Divine: Signed with Roadrunner Records in 1998. Released
''The New Parade'' in August 1999. Four months later, after moderate
response at radio and retail, the label stopped working the album and
did not pick up the band's option.
Orbit: Signed to A&M in 1996. Released ''Libido Speedway'' in 1997.
Recorded follow-up album in 1998; it was shelved when A&M was dissolved
in the Seagram-Universal merger. Eighteen months later, Seagram's legal
department released Orbit from its contract.
The Push Stars: Signed with Capitol Records in 1998. Released ''After
the Party'' in 1999, just after the label president who brought them
aboard was fired. The company went through two more presidents in two
years, and the Push Stars, by then strangers to their own label,
negotiated out of their contract late last year.
''We're not bitter, and we're not disillusioned,'' Jaccodine says of
the Push Stars' experience at Capitol. ''Everybody knows 20 people who
have been through this. I think Creamer and Buckley and I are of a like
mind. We have great bands who are talented and profitable, and we want
to keep the ball rolling. But we want to build a different model.''
Co-op Pop's mission, as the creators see it, is simple, radical, and
timely: to create a prototype that emphasizes community over
competition, and channels the synergistic power of the group into
success for the individual. Cooperative touring. Cooperative
advertising. Cooperative Web site (www.co-op-pop.com).
And although there will be no revenue sharing at Co-op Pop - each band
is responsible for financing its own recording and promotion, and
likewise will retain its own profits - the spirit of working together
for the greater good of all is an unwritten bylaw of this fledgling
venture.
All of which sounds righteously well and good. The trick, of course, is
making it work.
''Most independent labels fail at the distribution level,'' says
Buckley, who has run local indie Lunch Records since 1993. ''They may
have great bands, but at the end of the day they can't pay their bills.
Co-op Pop is strengthened by a strong distribution system, one based
here in Boston, and one that's dependable.''
One that brings significant clout with it, as well. In an unprecedented
partnership, Newbury Comics has joined forces with Co-op Pop to
distribute its entire catalog - which also includes Todd Thibaud's new
CD ''Squash,'' and older discs from Letters to Cleo and Ellis Paul -
through a newly established division called Wicked Distribution.
Promotions will be handled by the Planetary Group, and the download
provider is Digital Media on Demand, both local companies. But the bread
and butter of this endeavor, says Michael Creamer, is ownership.
''There's two things that bands make money from: playing and
merchandise,'' says Creamer, whose band the Sheila Divine released its
CD ''Where Have My Countrymen Gone'' on Co-op Pop this week. ''Yeah, if
a major label stepped in right now and said, `We want this record,' I
might talk about licensing it. But the band should own it. It's all
about owning the catalog.''
At Co-op, the band, not the label, owns the music. While the deep
pockets of a major corporation offer the rare opportunity for an act to
reach superstar status, the vast majority of artists stand to make more
money with a well-managed independent release.
According to Buckley, ''You make less than 10 percent on a major label
album. At Co-op, bands will see 60 percent.'' To put it another way,
most bands signed to major labels start making money after selling half
a million copies. At Co-op Pop, bands will need to move around 2,000
units to make a profit.
Overhead is low. With no brick-and-mortar headquarters, Jaccodine,
Creamer, and Buckley conduct business in restaurants and coffee shops.
Good old-fashioned ingenuity still goes a long way; taking a cue from
grass-roots success stories such as Phish and Guster, the Push Stars
have cultivated a nationwide sales force of fans who double as band
reps, spreading the word in exchange for show tickets and merchandise.
All of the bands are focused on broadening revenue streams - placing
songs in movies and television shows, and on compilation discs - with
the ultimate goal of retaining control of their own careers.
''This is all about empowering the little guy,'' says Jaccodine. ''I
think musicians are waking up to a new world order.''
This story ran on page 15 of the Boston Globe on 3/23/2001.
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Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 23:01:09 -0500
From: "Robin" <rthurlow@worldshare.net>
Subject: Alloy: Tommy Awards winners!
Please visit http://www.thomasdolby.com and link through to the Tommy Awards
to see who's won!!
Congratulations to all of the winners of this year's Tommys, and thanks to
*everyone* who cast their votes.
xxxx
Robin T
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End of alloy-digest V6 #76
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