How music is broken and what to do about it
by Steven Masur
You’ve heard all the arguments for and against 360 deals already, and if you are lucky, you may even have figured out what one is. The trouble is that in the current configuration, the value proposition still just ain’t there.
Let’s talk about passive participation. There are some things the majors are very good at. Those things differ from major to major. There are things that mini-majors, independent labels, live touring and merch companies are each good at too. The trouble is that signing a deal with any one of these entities does not give you the whole package. There will be areas where the entity will fall short, which you really can’t afford if you want to come correct to market. Which good business person would give away a passive participation chunk for the things for which they have to pay on top to outsource in order to get good value? None. The value proposition is just not there, and that’s what all the arguing is about.
So what should we do? Stop pulling punches, knock it off with the dirty, sneaky tricks and get back down to the real business of music.
Make a Good Product
First and foremost, start with a killer product, that stands head and shoulders above all of the mediocre noise and stupid, hackneyed musical confections. It’s just amazing how bad you can be at everything else and still make money if what you have to sell is good.
Don’t spend a bunch of money on music you wouldn't be proud to promote as if it were your own. Get back into the hardcore art of A&R and artists development. Find artists who are killing it even with terrible instruments and bad production. Work with those artists.
Keep it Simple
Even for lawyers the deals are too complicated and full of cheap tricks. We might be stuck with that for the older artists, but let’s throw it all away for the kids. Ian MacKaye had it right 20 years ago. Pay the artist a straight percentage rate across everything. It’s easy to understand, easy to account, easy to collect. Stop hiding things from artists. Stop lying to your own team. Instead, become their trusted partners in business.
Wash Out the Middle Men
It’s awe-inspiring the degree of complexity involved in the buying and selling of a product which in the end can be so simple to make and such a joy to use. Why do you have to read This Business of Music or Kohn on Music Licensing to gain only the vaguest understanding of how to write a buy-sell agreement, when you can sell your car with a bill of sale written on the back of a napkin? Movies are far more complex, and yet so much easier to buy and sell.
Let’s make our business run the way other businesses run. Let’s just let all the old licensing agreements whither and die through nonuse, and only do simple new deals; One flat, across the board percentage. The people relying on the old deals will come scrounging around like coyotes when they start to get hungry enough.
Outsource
Create jobs for your country. Acknowledge your weaknesses and pay other people who are better at those areas. There are some incredibly good marketers and promoters out there. Merch is cheap to produce, easy to sell and commands a high price point. Hotels and supermarkets need better music. Film, TV and commercials can’t survive on 60’s classics alone. Don’t hold up commerce for an outrageous advance. License simply and easily and let the licensee pay for the implementation. You can always pull the plug after the fact if the licensee’s product doesn’t succeed or they try to steal from you. You’re not DeBeers for God’s sake. These aren’t diamonds that last forever. Get your product out there before it goes sour.
Piracy
What, you don’t want to work hard if all that’s going to happen is kids will steal your product off the internet? Give me a break. If you can’t muster enough creativity to find ways to make money on something that has so much value that regular everyday people want to steal it, then you’re losers and no one should cry for you. The live guys don’t seem to have the same problem. Doesn’t it amaze you that people who can barely afford to put gas in their cars will put themselves in a dirty, dusty line to pay hundreds of dollars for a couple hours of music? Perhaps if you didn’t make it so hard for people to actually buy music off of the internet, and perhaps if you dropped the price point even slightly, more people might buy more and steal less. Why do folks have to sideload music onto their iPhones, Blackberries and other connected internet appliances, when they can easily download software onto them? Don’t get me wrong, I love my Pandora and last.fm, but why can’t I pay for a streaming service that allows me to play the actual song I want to hear AND fast forward, AND reverse? Do you have any idea how much money you are losing by not letting me remember how great Steppenwolf’s early 70’s Live album was, and by not letting me buy the latest Kanye on the spot when it comes up in conversation?
We are not giving consumers good value and convenience. That’s why they don’t want to buy our stuff.
Conclusion
Does the above sound too simple and easy to be true? Good. This ain’t rocket science. We just have to get back to giving people what they want and charging them for it. Good music, conveniently delivered. As everyone knows, doing this is much harder to do than to say. You have to work hard, promote well and be lucky, and even then, your best product might not sell. That’s business. Pick yourself up, grab a new product and try again. We can do this.
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