Media Centric July 24, 2008, 5:00PM EST text size: TT
Drowning Out the Big Labels
Some indies are selling more records than ever while the majors limp along
by Jon Fine
This is how crazy the music business is right now. Certain veteran independent labels, which in some cases spent the 1990s alternating between slamming the majors and begging them for emergency funding, are starting to look as if they know what they're doing.
The grievous state of selling music is well annotated, with total album sales falling 11% in the first half of '08. Major labels struggle to keep platinum sellers (acts that sell a million units) from backsliding to gold (500,000 units) or worse. But some smaller labels—among them Sub Pop, Merge, and Matador—have hit a pocket of relative prosperity, with many of their top stars selling more records than ever.
Seattle's Sub Pop, famed for signing a then-unknown trio called Nirvana in the late '80s and long adept at minting a hit moments before the label's lights went out, has recently notched three gold records. One of them, The Postal Service's Give Up, is nearing platinum. Another, the Shins' Wincing the Night Away, debuted at No. 2 on Billboard. This, for a label and milieu in which selling 50,000 records was once considered an ungodly feat.
According to Sub Pop, in 2007 it posted record revenues, which rose 79%, to around $20 million—14% from licensing its bands' music to advertisers and entertainment properties. It also sold more records in '07 than in any other year. (Sub Pop is private, so these figures cannot be independently confirmed. Some executives familiar with similar labels say that revenue level sounds high. And—disclosure—I play guitar on one Sub Pop release.)
What explains the indies' staying power? For starters, the Web's flattening of distribution, and the growing appetite for licensing less mainstream music. The Shins have provided music for ads by McDonald's (MCD), Microsoft (MSFT), and Gap (GAP). "Advertisers realize: 'I don't have to get the Beatles to have a successful commercial,'" says Ira Antelis, former music director for ad agency Leo Burnett—and indie bands come cheaper, to boot. Other aspects of the indie world—small staffs, modest expense structures, and strong relationships with an audience and its musicians—are built for a music environment that's shrinking even as niches become more important.
Sub Pop, which sold a 49% stake to Warner Bros. for more than $20 million in 1994, is not necessarily the most profitable of its peers. And while indie labels in the late 1980s and '90s typically danced on the cliff rim of insolvency, Sub Pop was especially prone to lurching over the ledge. "The company hemorrhaged millions of dollars" last decade, says CEO Jonathan Poneman, who's been with the label for 20 years. (No flashy music biz type, he. Slap a baseball cap atop his skull and wrap him in a windbreaker, and the 48-year-old could be a weary suburban dad coaching the local Bad News Bears.) By Poneman's account, beginning in 1995 he started throwing in his own funds to keep the label afloat, sums that "ended up being millions of dollars." The label did not begin paying lenders back until 2003; now, he says, all are paid in full.
The Warner deal "allowed me to have a cushion. Normally, if labels make the kind of mistakes I made, there is no cushion to fall back on," says Poneman. At one point, overextension forced him and founder Bruce Pavitt to lay off more or less the entire staff. Later, an abortive mutiny ended with Poneman firing several key employees. Another cushion: Sub Pop still gets a small cut of two Nirvana records on major label Geffen, the cumulative sales of which top 12 million, and maintains the rights to its platinum debut Bleach.
Still, even as Sub Pop et al stumble into what passes for comfortable middle age, such comfort remains tenuous. Label executives admit that the continuing disappearance of traditional music retail outlets will hurt. In response, Poneman says Sub Pop is mulling selling managerial services to bands on its label and others. Which—who knows?—might allow Sub Pop and its peers to stagger onward longer than the major labels that once invested in them.
Fine is BusinessWeek's MediaCentric columnist and Fine On Media blogger .
Xerox Color. It makes business sense.
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Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Natalie Walker Last Night at Joe's Pub
Not only did we get to hear some great new songs like "Now Or Never," she played some old favorites like "Quicksand" and "Crush."
What you need to know about Natalie Walker:
Born and raised in Indiana, vocalist Natalie Walker is an artist whose lilting, melodic voice and lyrical reveries reflect a life journey of determination and self-discovery. Natalie delivers her own unique, haunting sonic landscape that is at once organic, ethereal, elegant and entrancing.
Recorded in late 2007, 'With You' is a diverse and dynamic album rooted in classic pop and new wave soundscapes. The release comes on the heels of last year's 'Urban Angel', Walker's debut that has become an indie favorite among electronic fans. Armed with a voice that softly swirls and induces chills just the same, 'With You' doesn't so much depart from her debut as build on its strengths. It also reflects Walker's increasingly varied influences from the upbeat to sublime and serious. 'With You' firmly establishes Natalie Walker as one of the electronic genre's brightest new stars.
Her latest album, With You, releases in a month on August 19th. Here's the latest single, "Pink Neon." Give it a listen.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
From Billboard Yesterday ....Finally!
MTV Launches TV 'Soundtrack' Site
July 16, 2008 - Digital and Mobile
By Antony Bruno, Denver
MTV unveiled an online, interactive music guide designed to help viewers learn more about the music they hear on the various MTV channels.
Soundtrack.mtv.com is a real-time listing of all the music being played on every MTV show and every MTV channel. This includes the short music clips heard as the soundtrack for such shows as The Hills and The Real World. The guide will also keep archives of all songs played as of today's launch -- providing listings by day, show, and time -- as well as a look ahead to what songs will be played in the next 24 hours at any given time.
Going further, MTV will allow viewers to play 30-second clips of each song discovered via the guide, as well as link through to a more robust artist profile page, where fans can listen to songs in full, view music videos and see other details about the act.
MTV is positioning the Soundtrack site as a music discovery tool first and foremost, touting the 1,500 songs featured in its shows every week, not including music videos, across all channels.
"We are playing more music than we ever have in our entire history," says Amy Doyle, senior VP of music and talent.
But MTV is also angling the site as a forum for new artists to promote themselves. Artists will have the opportunity to create their own profile pages, where they can upload as much music as they like for fans to stream, post videos and promote upcoming events. A soundtrack ratings system will rank artists and songs that receive the most votes from fans on the site.
These profiles are open to all artists, not just those with music currently airing on MTV. The company says its music supervisors will monitor the rankings, and in some cases may decide to place certain songs on air if they receive enough votes.
Exactly how music is streamed from the service varies by artist. Indie and unsigned acts can choose to have their entire album available for full-song streaming, so long as they upload their music to the site. Songs by major label acts will be heard, at first, by streaming the music video - which MTV has licenses to stream.
In time, MTV will incorporate the Rhapsody backend service into the site so users can stream any song in full, with a limit of 25 songs a month for non-Rhapsody subscribers or unlimited plays for members.
And as MTV adds links to Rhapsody's new MP3 DRM-free music store, all songs featured in the Sountrack.mtv.com site will feature buy buttons as well.
July 16, 2008 - Digital and Mobile
MTV unveiled an online, interactive music guide designed to help viewers learn more about the music they hear on the various MTV channels.
Soundtrack.mtv.com is a real-time listing of all the music being played on every MTV show and every MTV channel. This includes the short music clips heard as the soundtrack for such shows as The Hills and The Real World. The guide will also keep archives of all songs played as of today's launch -- providing listings by day, show, and time -- as well as a look ahead to what songs will be played in the next 24 hours at any given time.
Going further, MTV will allow viewers to play 30-second clips of each song discovered via the guide, as well as link through to a more robust artist profile page, where fans can listen to songs in full, view music videos and see other details about the act.
MTV is positioning the Soundtrack site as a music discovery tool first and foremost, touting the 1,500 songs featured in its shows every week, not including music videos, across all channels.
"We are playing more music than we ever have in our entire history," says Amy Doyle, senior VP of music and talent.
But MTV is also angling the site as a forum for new artists to promote themselves. Artists will have the opportunity to create their own profile pages, where they can upload as much music as they like for fans to stream, post videos and promote upcoming events. A soundtrack ratings system will rank artists and songs that receive the most votes from fans on the site.
These profiles are open to all artists, not just those with music currently airing on MTV. The company says its music supervisors will monitor the rankings, and in some cases may decide to place certain songs on air if they receive enough votes.
Exactly how music is streamed from the service varies by artist. Indie and unsigned acts can choose to have their entire album available for full-song streaming, so long as they upload their music to the site. Songs by major label acts will be heard, at first, by streaming the music video - which MTV has licenses to stream.
In time, MTV will incorporate the Rhapsody backend service into the site so users can stream any song in full, with a limit of 25 songs a month for non-Rhapsody subscribers or unlimited plays for members.
And as MTV adds links to Rhapsody's new MP3 DRM-free music store, all songs featured in the Sountrack.mtv.com site will feature buy buttons as well.
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