I had a call yesterday from a friend very high up in a major.
He said "sadly the business as it exists is over. Those who made it up the ladder are now too old to bother fighting anymore and anyway have lost their interest in music. The new arrivals never really cared for music and only succeeded because they knew how to play corporate politics. Contributors to boards like yours or Velvet Rope are usually business losers who truly care about music but couldn't cut the corporate gig and are useless and unemployed anyway. Too much time on their hands and since they never made it, it's the blind leading the blind. New kids keen on music don't understand that element of real mass appeal and global success - the only truly profitable area of music these days - they can only understand specialist sounds which make tiny money. It's like a morgue out here"

He had noticed the posts and threads drying up on here, ROTD and the Rope.
He said Music Week will fold in the new year.

Depressing stuff.

Except we still get thousands of visits every day.
But are they just habit?


Please let's have some constructive posts to prove that music lovers really do still exist in the world today.

I realise it can be seen as depressing reading some of ,what may seem like desperation in some of the posts, but in obviously being read on here, I feel firstly, a personal clarification is needed.

I actually started posting on here due to illness and yes, having a lot of time on my hands.
But the pluses outweigh the minuses for me and I have found the last few years a fascinating time to help the commentary of.
Like most posters, I`m pretty sure I`m correct in assuming that three years ago I was making a lot more money than I am now as the "corporate" side was spinning well but was showing cracks and becoming boring and heading for a fall.

However, contact wise the ante has been extrememly upped by the writings and musings of everyone and I still feel much more optimistic about the future of music than I did when I took the previous monthly (yearly) payments for granted.

As long as one accepts there will allways be competition for ones job, one can adapt and survive.
Telling people that they may not have a job soon, on the whole does not seem to install passion in people obviously.

Secondly,it`s very easy in middle age to forget what drew you to the best job in the world anyway, and I despair at jaded musicians, music staff who have forgotten this ethic.
For me, it has allways been to get one decent hit.
On achieving this, it will undoubtably be ten decent hits.

If that sort of fire is lost in any posters, musicians , writers or new record company execs, be it hit records, sell out gigs, or succesful PR campaigns then the problem in the industry is now so deep , everything must be ripped up and started again.

Lastly, as for the kids being blindly led,musically, this is inevitible at any period.
Dreams of careers do not have to be dressed up like a birthday cake but realistically mapped out in the same format as to which they have been accustomed to hearing at school and colledge but with enough hard facts shown, as they allways were. Anyone not displaying this in management is a bad example and there surely is no place for them in these times.

Habitual reading?
Who knows.

Do we love music?

Let me hear you say yeahhhhhhhh!

An anonymous poster attacking anonymous posters. Not much to say there.

All I can add is, it really is time for a change of guard. We need new execs with perhaps more realistic expectations. I don't envy the heads of majors at all. And their demise is not something I revel in.

It's worth pointing out that the only real money that I see changing hands is not for individual tracks but for catalogues - a sobering thought as we are usually busy producing individual pieces of music on here. It takes a different type of skill to negotiate a deal with Nokia or Amazon than to develop an artist. But after a while, all the catalogue deals will be done. Then it will be back to filling them with new "content".

The role of the publisher is under threat, as mechanicals and other rights are nibbled away in the US and online.

I think the managers and the live sector are probably in the stronger position for the moment, rather than the labels.

We've been posting constructive topics all year, particularly about the way forward.

Your mate on the other hand is one of the people responsible for the current situation and his views are completely antiquated.

[quote]Sadly the business as it exists is over

Unemployed and too much time on my hands? Dream on Mr. Record Company Executive I can only wish.

As far as "making it" goes, I did what I always wanted to do as a younger musicician i.e. tour different countries and make a good living making music. And I had the "major" record deal to boot. Ironically, my time signed to a major was my unhappiest time.

What I love to do now is develop young acts both in the studio and live. Maybe I will not make it as a small label, who knows. However, I make music for the same reason that I always made and played music. Because I love it.

Now, Mr. Record Company Executive, what are you doing about the horrendous stagnation in the industry? Oh, yes, I forgot, you're planning to retire. Great. Please do and let the rest of us get on with it to try and salvage something from this mess.

I was actually going to stick my neck right out, then thought maybe not.
But then I realised I may well be thinking like a current record exec and ostricj=hing a bit,and so the neck does indeed go firmly out.

Give me the services available to your label for six months and you shall have new hits.

That simple.

Well I have to say, I have posted on the velvet rope less than ten times. Every time with something substantial to say, born of real record business experience, and almost every time I have, its been greeted with an inane retort from someone with 9,000 posts, that honestly doesn't seem to know anything about reality. So maybe that is where this persons view is coming from. I would say the core group on this forum is much more in touch with reality, and we know who we are.

How anyone has the time to post 4000 times or 9000 times on a message board, well those people (from the VR) really are wannabe's.

I'm too busy making records, and I value the opinions on this forum whenever I ask for them.

This producer could probably eat that particular major laber higher up, for lunch.

Its about the song and the act and being knocked off your seat, the MUSIC, and why Clive Davis could't fill one of Ahmets shoes.

Whoever it is, is pretty dumb for lumping the whole lot as one.

A very good and dignified response GG
I have actually met with few retorts over the particular boast that "Waiting" by Fitzpain should be a huge hit...


www.myspace.com/fitzpain

(2nd track down)

..other than people did not think that a young band would stay together as long as they have and more bizzarely their location.
I would say that maybe the message board prompting of product would appear to be lost in the pile often, the same as the hackneyed and ancient cassette in the post was.

This is a problem if the original poster is correct in his attitude and also a problem if his general view of posters is the opinion of many other readers or browsers.

The business is over not because "Those who made it up the ladder are now too old to bother fighting anymore and anyway have lost their interest in music" but because these same people destroyed it with their own complacency and greed. It is not unlike the situation with the England national team, with a higher than normal expectancy in comparison with the actual talent on the ground.

The industry has lost its identity and has for the last 10 year played Russian Roulette with shareholders money whilst living it large in expenses.

Young executives, radio producers and DJs all operated in a Bilderberg style 'olde boys club' where pet projects ruled rather than talent, songs or real hits. Where the only way to get a promotions team to push your record would be if you paid thousands for one of their 'remixers' to do a remix. It became all about egos of those involved and not the music.

It has also become a case of "recycled music" and formula. Rock hasn't moved a day forward since the 1970s, Dance music rehashing 80s music, pop going all retro. R&b well one producer a genre does not make.

But worse than that in a culture of 'dumbed down' illiteracy and computer games I am afraid the music business is dead. The public don't care, they have switched off. Will the last person to leave the building turn the lights off.

Many may think that I am being alarmist and over negative but the stats don't lie. Freeloading dwarfs sales 10-1. When you do buy the record it is unlistenable after 3 plays.

It is not the end of the world but in fact a return to an age when making music was more for the love of music in all its facets. From JK's novelty songs to so called 'serious' artists.

The current major label empire has to crumble and change to something new that would be built on honesty integrity and passion. Where artist and label alike share in the wonders of making and selling music. Where it has some form of meaning even in its meaninglessness. Creativity in disseminating music as well as transparency when it comes to accounting. Release music YOU like and not what your focus group thinks or what the software tells you is a hit.

Where are: Mr Blobby ?, Capt Sensible ? Dollar ? Spice Girls ? Shakin Stevens ? The Wombles ? Madonna ?

We need only 1 of each not a hundred million clones.

X-Factor is fine and great but let not make the mistake of becoming music snobs who only appreciate 'real singers' playing their own music or other bollox like that.

The business has to change. Sales is no longer the primary income stream but a second or third income stream.

Guy Hands has the right idea. Utilize Myspace and Youtube, trim the fat and let the music do the walking.

Well said GG, Mart et al. I wonder if the reverse is true of this guy at the top i.e. he's got too much time on his hands making sweeping generalisations and wondering where the fuck it all went wrong.

As for Velvet Rope, it's a shame because there are some good guys posting. However, they tend to get lost underneath a pile of complete nincompoops.

Now, all that said, I read a recent post on another, ahem, well known board, which proudly proclaimed the death of physicals.

IMBECILE...NINCOMPOOP...BLITHERING IDIOT...where have you been for the last three years?

Attacking the person (people) and not the point(s) they make shows the man has nothing to say.