[i]Guys, get over to the Intel PowersMusic page and check out the Intel SuperGroup competition. Intel wants you to vote for the 5 best musicians on MySpace, each of whom will win a 1-on-1 playback of their band

I kid you not, I was with a band the other week who asked me what A+R was.

This sounds daft, but you try and explain this to a band in their early 20`s who are already on their 2nd I-Tunes release independently with a fan-base.

That's it Mart, nail on head, the existing music people, even most of the younger ones, do not have a clue what the NEW MODEL is all about.

A&R always was a stupid outmoded concept. I'm surprised the majors aren't still discussing wind up gramophones.

Acts, producers, writers all doing it for themselves. It's a great, and very tough, world out there, but it is happening nevertheless.

I still think that the new model will evolve from all this DIY. Remember that dreadfully boring period in the seventies? Then BANG! Some high octane kids turned everything upside down. Maybe we need a movement more that a model?

JK2006 wrote:
That's it Mart, nail on head, the existing music people, even most of the younger ones, do not have a clue what the NEW MODEL is all about.

A&R always was a stupid outmoded concept. I'm surprised the majors aren't still discussing wind up gramophones.

True but what is this "new model"?

Maybe we need a movement more that a model?

Maybe there are lots of movements / musical trends out there but they get
a) picked up to early to establish identities (as a basis for a "new wave",
b) don't get picked up at all (because there is no model for "breaking" songs/acts.

And there is another problem: There is no mainstream anymore, only niches/small markets.

interesting points DJones. I do not think acts are being "picked up" since they are doing it themselves. As they develop and build the fan base, so they grow and sales will follow if, that is, people like what they are doing enough to actually spend some bucks on itunes.

The really tough part is getting some radio play, but it can be done albeit on a much smaller scale. For me, the real problem lies in younger acts not having enough money and/or expertise to produce a really professional master. Clearly, that is where record companies, particularly the majors and talented producers, used to give the acts the sound they needed to succeed. Not any more.

So, in Endus Maximus world, lack of development is the real problem. Thousands of crappy underdeveloped Mp3s cluttering up the internet, no real promo campaign and "hey guys, download my music from myspace for free 'cause I'm a star 'cause I've got 5,000 friends who think I'm cool". Err, um, oh dear!

With the integration of the mini-majors (virgin, a&m, chrysalis etc.) around 1990, there is a whole mid-level - between DIY-Labels and the Majors - missing. (Almost) all of the new "independent" labels are (more or less) integrated into the big 4. So if there are promising new acts they get too early the full major-label-treatment, they don't have a chance to delevelop.

myspace: I've read somewhere that there are 80.000 registered download shops on myspace - and 170.000 registered customers (2 for every shop).

Given the poor product on offer and the cyclic nature of the music business (Sales are up or down, depends which time period you use) I don't think the "problem" is at all clear.

Zooloo, you are insufferably negative about everything. I pity you.

SW wrote:
Zooloo, you are insufferably negative about everything. I pity you.
What was negative in my post?

The industry cry of "It's all the fault of illegal downloads" is a red herring.

If sales are up or down depends on which 5 year period you pick - the last 5 it's down, the mid to late 90s it's up, previous 5 down, previous 5 up.

The problem is the industry is itself and the product it is releasing. Unless the industry accepts it's own role and shortcomings it will continue to decline.

Recognising the negative is positive, ignoring it is negative.

Quite well illustrated there by Zoo as well.

Whats more, is we are stuck with endless 5 year plans causing further slumps with the introduction of the 360 deal.
It seems to all have to be either all encompassing, massive, or non existent in the majors, one could say it allways was, but the over muscling in of "watch out here come the professionals!", is genuinely destructive in a time in which creation is available to so many.
We so nearly have corporate run ears in line with Murdoch tv.
How fitting, if it does not work, which I think it won`t ..Kaboom!

I find Zooloo rather refreshing. In fact, the name reminds me of being caught short at Chester many moons ago, but that is a different matter.

The new "mid range" labels are in the making as we discuss all this stuff...it's happening now. Lean, scaled down, artistic control, low overheads blah, blah.

and further Mart, what the hell are people thinking in terms of "five years"? The rate things are changing, it's hard to see five months down the line.