Quote:
Originally Posted by RawAlex
Brad, here is a funny story for you.
Radiohead has had all the hype about the "online download for whatever price" album. What I found out today is that starting in about 30 days, the box set will be sold worldwide in music stores. That's right, behind all the hype, Radiohead has a distribution deal with a record label to get the box set out to the public in time for christmas.
So the hype ain't the reality.
As for Live Nation (and similar projects) it would appear that they are trying to get under contract all the things that artists for years fought to NOT give the record companies. Image, marketing, and similar rights. Cradle to grave, from record to souvenir programs, Live Nation is getting the money, and the artist gets a contract.
Sounds like a record deal to me. People can play the game and call it an "artist entitlement deal" or some other crap, but it is just a record label in wolf's clothing.
Most of us aren't going to pay $30 - $40 a ticket to go watch some band we have never heard of. It's just not in the cards. So this sort of deal works for existing established acts, and there will be nobody to do the establishing.
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Learn how to connect the dots here.
Live Nation is a subsidiary of Clear Channel. Clear Channel owns over a thousand radio stations in the US and over 10 channels on satellite radio. They will use these stations to promote their artists more than the do currently. So these bands will be very much in your face, just as much as Britney Spears. I agree that this is a departure from the model that artists want, but it comes with the changing landscape of the industry. Soon, I think you will see more and more people going away from the radio and using the internet to find new music. New artists are going to have to take a DIY approach and find new ways to get themselves heard if they don't want to be associated with Clear Channel. But the fact of the matter is that anyone with a keen knack for PR will be able to exploit the internet to their advantage. Eventually whole cities will be "hot spots" and there will be less and less use for traditional radio and or satellite radio even and therefore that method of promotion will go the way of VHS.
And Alex, the fact that you only learned about the Radiohead album going to stores yesterday shows that you are not up with what is going on in the industry. Before I bought the box set (on the 6th) I knew that they were going to release a cd version of it in stores. I am not sure where you read that the cd is dropping before Christmas because everything that I have read states that it is going to come out in stores in January.