Missouri voters have known for a couple of weeks the new gov. Holden had sworn to appoint Mr. Carnahan's wife to the Senate in place of her late husband. She's on record as saying that she will accept the post.
So Missouri voters really elected a living woman yesterday: Jene Carnahan
Anyway I agree with most of what herbierobinson had to say (except from the yuppie and nosering bit).
I especially agree with the stuff about the majors paying a lot of money to make you want records by those major label artists. First they put up money for recording and an expensive producer (which the band has to pay back of course).
Next they put up money for promotion. Don't laugh this off. The system of music promotion is very very developed and quite tricky, but the main way they do business is the same way anybody else does it, by building relationships.
Mostly the promotions budget pays for perks and phone costs, although these things get pretty much intertwined.
Here's how it works:
The majors hire a bunch of college students for minimum wage internships. The interns (a surprising number of whom are attractive young women) spend there days calling radio programmers, DJ's, record store managers, and venues where their artists are booked. They have a quota of calls to make. Also when one of their artists is playing at a local venue they go there and put up a bunch of posters. So far any indi can do the same right, read on....
OK, so you have this room full of what amount to groupies who are very excited to be working with so and so A&R guy (who is maybe a couple of years older) and he comes in one day with a radio dj, or programmer, or record store guy, or whatever and says "Hey who wants to go to the [fill in the band] show, and dinner with me and my good friend blah blah blah..."
This (plus the coke... do a search on the name Joe Isgro...) is what keeps major label artists famous.
I believe that this piece first appeared in Maximum Rock and Roll about five or six years ago. In it Albini exposes the finance mechanisms behind a major lable record, including an sample balance sheet:
(I found this particular URL by doing a google search: '"Steve Albini" trouble music')
Anyhow around the same time I first read this I was enrolled as a grad student in Music Business at Columbia, where I was taking a course with Irwin Steinberg, the guy who founded Mercury and later Polygram.
He was totally convinced that the majors were about to take a fall, because as soon as real artist realized that they could distribute there music for free they would, since they usually wind up loosing money on a major label deal anyhow.
It's funny buy in the class they actually gave us copies of a major label contract, and ran us through the negociation process, and yes, the whole thing is designed to make the artist think they are making money from the records while actually making them NOTHING!
So why would anyone make a major label record?
People who make the decision to sign with a major are usually following one of two lines of reasoning:
1. (the smart ones) A major label record will get us a ton of exposure, and we'll make a lot of money when we tour.
2. (the stupid ones) We'll sell a bunch of records and get rich.
Obviously anybody thinking either way about this is couting on the label to do a lot of marketing work, and that the marketing is going to provide the exposure, but really anybody who is confident that their music is truly worthwhile and is savvy enough to be thinking along the lines of the first line of resoning would not be at all threatened by mp3s, napster, the hacker ethic or whatever.
As for those following the second line of reasoning, I think everybody can agree that the music scene will be alot better off without "musicians" who make music in order to "get signed and get rich".
Wanna prove that our way is the right way? Try this (if you have some cash):
Find some band or DJ or whatever that you really really really like that hasn't been signed to a major label, and offer to pay for a recording, so long as you can give the recording away in mp3 form, and more importantly under a licence like the GPL which will prevent somebody from signing them later and taking the recordings back.
The artist still owns the songs themselves, only the recordings will be gpl'd (or equiv.) That way they will still get the paid for radio play.
Of course they (or anybody else) can put the record on a CD, with or without nice cover art and shrinkwrap (whatever).
Build a fancy website about the group, put the recordings up in their full form, and start telling people about it. If the music is as good as you will get lot's of hits and can sell ads, and the band will start getting a bigger turnout at shows, and can start reqiring much much larger amounts from venues. Everybody wins.
Berst is just too consistent as a Microsoft booster. I've read his badmouthing of MacOS and OS/2, and now this unwarrented attack on Linux. He's got to be taking MS money, either behind Znet's back or with its cooperation. It seems to me that reporters have gotten in a lot of trouble for this sort of thing. Is there anybody out there in a position to look into this?
Slashdot Mirror
Missouri voters have known for a couple of weeks the new gov. Holden had sworn to appoint Mr. Carnahan's wife to the Senate in place of her late husband. She's on record as saying that she will accept the post.
So Missouri voters really elected a living woman yesterday: Jene Carnahan
But shouldn't that read:
:)
"today humans will begin their permanent lives off of earth."?
I did it too.
But shouldn't that read:
"tomorrow humans will begin their permanent lives off of earth."?
I guess it's time to commit it to memory.
I'm assuming that it isn't the current one.
Anyhow these people sound like one of those clients from hell that we all get now and then.
http://www.compumentor.org
I suppose I could have listed my favorite:
http://www.supersphere.com
Anyway I agree with most of what herbierobinson had to say (except from the yuppie and nosering bit).
I especially agree with the stuff about the majors paying a lot of money to make you want records by those major label artists. First they put up money for recording and an expensive producer (which the band has to pay back of course).
Next they put up money for promotion. Don't laugh this off. The system of music promotion is very very developed and quite tricky, but the main way they do business is the same way anybody else does it, by building relationships.
Mostly the promotions budget pays for perks and phone costs, although these things get pretty much intertwined.
Here's how it works:
The majors hire a bunch of college students for minimum wage internships. The interns (a surprising number of whom are attractive young women) spend there days calling radio programmers, DJ's, record store managers, and venues where their artists are booked. They have a quota of calls to make. Also when one of their artists is playing at a local venue they go there and put up a bunch of posters. So far any indi can do the same right, read on....
OK, so you have this room full of what amount to groupies who are very excited to be working with so and so A&R guy (who is maybe a couple of years older) and he comes in one day with a radio dj, or programmer, or record store guy, or whatever and says "Hey who wants to go to the [fill in the band] show, and dinner with me and my good friend blah blah blah..."
This (plus the coke... do a search on the name Joe Isgro...) is what keeps major label artists famous.
I believe that this piece first appeared in Maximum Rock and Roll about five or six years ago. In it Albini exposes the finance mechanisms behind a major lable record, including an sample balance sheet:
l e.htm
http://www.interstate40.com.au/NEWS/Nov_Dec/Troub
(I found this particular URL by doing a google search: '"Steve Albini" trouble music')
Anyhow around the same time I first read this I was enrolled as a grad student in Music Business at Columbia, where I was taking a course with Irwin Steinberg, the guy who founded Mercury and later Polygram.
He was totally convinced that the majors were about to take a fall, because as soon as real artist realized that they could distribute there music for free they would, since they usually wind up loosing money on a major label deal anyhow.
It's funny buy in the class they actually gave us copies of a major label contract, and ran us through the negociation process, and yes, the whole thing is designed to make the artist think they are making money from the records while actually making them NOTHING!
So why would anyone make a major label record?
People who make the decision to sign with a major are usually following one of two lines of reasoning:
1. (the smart ones) A major label record will get us a ton of exposure, and we'll make a lot of money when we tour.
2. (the stupid ones) We'll sell a bunch of records and get rich.
Obviously anybody thinking either way about this is couting on the label to do a lot of marketing work, and that the marketing is going to provide the exposure, but really anybody who is confident that their music is truly worthwhile and is savvy enough to be thinking along the lines of the first line of resoning would not be at all threatened by mp3s, napster, the hacker ethic or whatever.
As for those following the second line of reasoning, I think everybody can agree that the music scene will be alot better off without "musicians" who make music in order to "get signed and get rich".
Wanna prove that our way is the right way? Try this (if you have some cash):
Find some band or DJ or whatever that you really really really like that hasn't been signed to a major label, and offer to pay for a recording, so long as you can give the recording away in mp3 form, and more importantly under a licence like the GPL which will prevent somebody from signing them later and taking the recordings back.
The artist still owns the songs themselves, only the recordings will be gpl'd (or equiv.) That way they will still get the paid for radio play.
Of course they (or anybody else) can put the record on a CD, with or without nice cover art and shrinkwrap (whatever).
Build a fancy website about the group, put the recordings up in their full form, and start telling people about it. If the music is as good as you will get lot's of hits and can sell ads, and the band will start getting a bigger turnout at shows, and can start reqiring much much larger amounts from venues. Everybody wins.
To Whome it may concern:
It has my come to your attention that failing to find a buyer you will soon abandon your network of communications satellites, known as Iridium.
I am prepared to offer $100.00 US for your satellite network.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I'm sure you will agree that such a remarkable sum underscores the seriousness of my offer.
Regards,
........
Berst is just too consistent as a Microsoft booster. I've read his badmouthing of MacOS and OS/2, and now this unwarrented attack on Linux. He's got to be taking MS money, either behind Znet's back or with its cooperation. It seems to me that reporters have gotten in a lot of trouble for this sort of thing. Is there anybody out there in a position to look into this?