Our posts are down but even our views are down.
Other music sites are noticing the same.
I think the reality of job losses has kicked in. Those about to be chopped (we gather TWO THIRDS of all the major employees are due to be let go) have lost all interest in music (not that they had much ever anyway).

Fan sites are doing fine (but almost brain dead).

We have literally thousands an hour to our RECORD OF THE YEAR site with similar stupid comments.

But serious industry opinions?

The music business as we knew it is not dying any longer. It's dead. Like the parrot.

Incidentally our YOUR VIEWS activity is UP!

Sad but true. Though the live scene continues to do well at the top end and is frenetic at the bottom end.

Lack of UK signings - lack of anything groundbreaking - X Factor dominating both sides of the pond.

Even the Christmas Number 1 has been hijacked by a TV series that has little to do with groundbreaking music and is just for the title of UK Karaoke King or Queen ( though Leona may yet confound us all by developing into a top artist - she has started well )

Classical Music likewise had its glory days and then quietly slipped into the background - maybe Pop/Rock is now just part of the furniture rather than essential ?

Though I know many hardworking people will lose their jobs this Christmas - many of us will not lose great amounts of sleep because the UK industry was more happy just to make money rather than create acts and songs with any sort of shelf life. Instand gratification over excitement and careers. They say what you reap you sow - the big bands are all doing their own thing if they can - and the new model is basically Old Gold and Small New bands who occasionally may break through.

Just discussing this with a work colleague. We

Doom 'n' gloom wrote:

Who honestly wants to stick at it right now?

me I didn

Quite which side of the fence this observation sits I don`t now, but last night in Camden from the little Indian restuarant, the in game was, spot the pedestrian WITHOUT a guitar on his back.

Perhaps the percentage of buyers has transformed to tryers, in which case we have a very new thing upon us.

[quote]me I didn

Doom 'n' gloom wrote:
[quote][quote]me I didn

In Popbitch today you'll see it confirmed - 2 out of 3 major label execs will lose their jobs by early next year and not one major expressed interest in picking up the Ernie K Doe track we're raving about.

Could it be that advertising executives care more and know more about music than our industry types?

Yes it can.

Don`t forget a couple of them do a slight side step in the industry to advertising though.

I'm having trouble getting people to pick up the slack. Just had a track in a hit movie over here with no label release. And I can't even get a copy of the soundtrack to stick on the digital stores = loss of money. Another track I've been trying to licence: can't get the apparent owner to tell me which company name to put on the contracts.

Some things in the music biz are really vary basic. But if you don't go through them, nowt will happen.

me! It is very easy to forget that you make music first and formost because you love doing what you do. Strange times we live in for sure, but things can and will change.

It goes to show that TV is the most important vehicle for breaking an unlikely smash.
Now this is where things get really exciting.

I've just finished producing a TV pilot for a local TV station down here and when doing the research for it found a number of interesting things which completely changed my outlook and approach.

I will also say I thank 2 people for inspiring comments.

1. Steve Levine who back in 2001 i was fortunate to attend a seminar/presentation in Wembley when he was showing off production techniques using Apple and they talked about Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody song and video. He also mentioned a band he was working with and he produced their video using a small hand held camera.

2. Of course JK from tipsheet for saying "if no one puts your music on radio, make your own radio show and if no one puts your music on TV make your own".

Now let me move onto a serious point because there is something happening with the song and indeed any song that comes off the back of a TV advert.

It has been said many times that you cannot sell a record on 30 sec samples. WRONG !
It is evident that with nothing more than a 30 sec spot on a Boots TV advert Ernie K Doe is in the top 40. People are responding and buying the song because it is a good song.

The new model is out there, we can't see it because we are looking in the wrong places and are still steeped in old world mentality.

I will make a prediction.

Google/Youtube will effectively bring the house down on TV advertising which will ensure that there will be a lot more affordable TV advertising and airtime will become cheaper. Therefore a label/artist can get on TV by either creating their own ads or by making a short 30 sec film set to their music which will then proliferate online and with clear direction to the iTunes site voila sales galore.

Well done Tipsheet for making me aware of this track and well done for the Youtube page which should be shown to all labels.

DJKZ wrote:
It goes to show that TV is the most important vehicle for breaking an unlikely smash.


...It has been said many times that you cannot sell a record on 30 sec samples. WRONG !


The use of Television to promote and sell music has been a powerful medium since the early 60s.

It was Robert Stigwood who really pioneered this. At the start of that decade he represented various actors and encouraged them to indulge in singing. He had a deal with Joe Meek and when John Leyton recorded "Johnny Remember Me" in 1961, Stigwood got Leyton a part in a current soap opera called "Harpers West One".

Leyton was playing a pop star opening a record department in a department store and Stigwood arranged a deal whereby Leyton's character performed his latest single within the show and the producers none the wiser allowed this to happen. So within one episode Leyton was seen performing the song. This was seen by many millions and the result?

Instant demand for the record, a number one hit and a worldwide smash, all on the back of a sly promotional tactic using a TV soap opera! John Leyton became a big pop star and his acting career also took a turn for the better. And all that was down to one piece of TV exposure and Robert Stigwood's nerve and understanding the promotional power of television in an era when pop music and television was still pretty much in its infancy.

Depending on where you're located, you might want to check the rates of local TV. It's virgin territory as far as music promotion is concerned, although there has to be a local connection (concert + record out). I'd also look at the possibility of co-branding to cut the expense.