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Grex > Music2 > #112: Changes in the Music Business | |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 189 responses total. |
lumen
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response 125 of 189:
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Jan 12 17:55 UTC 2000 |
Right-- I did find it interesting that MTV chose "Thriller" as the #1
greatest video of all time. The director had worked on the film _An
American Werewolf in London_, and he was chosen because of his
reputation stemming from that film.
I don't think horror had been used in a music video before.
I also thought it was fantastic that Michael worked with a
choreographer-- the documentary said he was quite a natural who had
acheived a lot of talent relatively quickly, compared to the other
extras who were skilled and highly trained dance professionals.
I think the video looked a little bit more like a film. I'm assuming
it was shot on 35mm, and a lot of the storyline constructs were more
like that of a film. That may have been the difference. Of course,
the budget was comparable, too.
A pretty impressive feat. Most precursors to video *were* films,
especially in the '50s and '60s (Elvis and Beatles movies, for
example), but Michael appears to have taken the genre and integrated
the song more fully into such a video. I still enjoy watching it-- the
craftmanship is fantastic.
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orinoco
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response 126 of 189:
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Jan 12 18:21 UTC 2000 |
It also helped that Michael Jackson had something visually interesting to do:
he could _dance._ That right there made his videos worth watching in a way
that most other bands' videos aren't.
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krj
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response 127 of 189:
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Jan 17 18:32 UTC 2000 |
Radio news report: The BMG conglomerate, one of the Big Five music
companies, is seeking to make itself even bigger; it wants to buy
either Sony Music, or EMI.
This would take us down to four major music companies.
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orinoco
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response 128 of 189:
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Jan 17 18:42 UTC 2000 |
<sigh>
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goose
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response 129 of 189:
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Jan 18 16:46 UTC 2000 |
good lord...will it ever stop?
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krj
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response 130 of 189:
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Jan 18 18:36 UTC 2000 |
"There can be only one!" :)
I haven't been able to find a web confirmation on the BMG buying binge
story.
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dbratman
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response 131 of 189:
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Jan 19 23:16 UTC 2000 |
Silver lining: the fewer big corporations, the more niche markets open
for small companies.
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krj
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response 132 of 189:
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Jan 23 05:02 UTC 2000 |
CNN: "Time Warner Inc. of the United States is set to take a majority
stake in Britain's EMI Group Plc in a multibillion-dollar deal to
create the world's largest record company, the Sunday Telegraph
newspaper said."
The CNN story mentions the previous rumors that BMG was looking to
buy EMI.
Time Warner, as you are probably tired of hearing, is also merging
with AOL.
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krj
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response 133 of 189:
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Jan 23 20:24 UTC 2000 |
The merger story is everywhere today. The Washington Post says the
merged Warner EMI Music would be only the second largest record
company.
The Post says further: speculation is now circulating that BMG
will be in play. BMG is the largest media company in Europe, but
it would be the smallest of the remaining record companies, I think.
The Post says BMG doesn't have the stock values or assets to acquire
another record company to try to become too big to swallow.
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krj
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response 134 of 189:
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Jan 26 06:24 UTC 2000 |
A number of analysts argue that this is a merger of fading giants.
I remember when Warner/Elektra/Atlantic was the coolest of the major
labels, renowned for being artist-friendly, but that was
back in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s
the label has been ripped by corporate infighting and their market
share has sunk badly. And as for EMI, well, their peak was with
the Beatles.
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mcnally
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response 135 of 189:
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Jan 26 10:47 UTC 2000 |
So who are the remaining competitors at that level?
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krj
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response 136 of 189:
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Jan 26 13:42 UTC 2000 |
Assuming this merger goes through, the four major labels will be:
Universal Music Group (formerly MCA and Polygram, merged 1998, and
owned by Seagram's)
Warner Music EMI (owned by AOL Time Warner)
Sony Music (Columbia is their major label in the US for pop)
BMG (European conglomerate Bertelsmann)
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krj
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response 137 of 189:
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Feb 5 04:34 UTC 2000 |
... and Yahoo Reuters Entertainment news says BMG is looking for a deal.
The February 2000 issue of Stereophile magazine reports the demise of
Mobile Fidelity, a premium-priced reissue label devoted to quality.
They championed LP quality in an era when major label pressings
were crap; they claimed their gold CDs were somehow superior, a claim
I could never really buy into. Their mastering work was generally
regarded as the best. Mobile Fidelity shut down in November after
one of their main distributors went bankrupt, owing MF lots of money.
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krj
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response 138 of 189:
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Feb 9 06:29 UTC 2000 |
From the New York Times, February 1: Neil Strauss writes a piece about
bluegrass musician Johnny Staats, who has just signed a major label
contract with a Time-Warner imprint, but who has chosen to keep
his day job as a UPS truck driver. In discussing the new unpredictability
of the music business and the number of artists being cut from their
major-label deals, Strauss mentions: "the difficulty of breaking
even on any release that sells less than half a million copies..."
What? 500,000 is now the breakeven point? That's halfway to platinum
status...
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lumen
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response 139 of 189:
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Feb 9 17:34 UTC 2000 |
you sure? There are so many people involved in the music business pie
that it's difficult to recoup all production and marketing costs.
TLC sold 3,000,000 copies of _CrazySexyCool_ and still went bankrupt.
Just how well produced and marketed is this musician? Costs can add up
fast..
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goose
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response 140 of 189:
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Feb 9 21:48 UTC 2000 |
Just looking up the word 'recoupable' in the dictionary should scare most
people out of the music business.
I'm not surprised by that statement Ken, selling 50,000 units is an amazing
feat, but it won't make you *any* money if you're on a major...it will gross
about a half a million bucks for the label though...
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scott
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response 141 of 189:
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Feb 9 22:31 UTC 2000 |
...which is why you need to avoid being a "major label" artist.
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krj
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response 142 of 189:
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Feb 9 22:33 UTC 2000 |
I looked it up on www.riaa.com. A Gold Record award is for sales of 500,000.
This used to be an exceptional, award-worthy number of sales, but according
to Strauss it is now the typical breakeven point for the majors.
It sounds like record company costs have spun completely out of
control for the major labels.
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lumen
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response 143 of 189:
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Feb 11 00:29 UTC 2000 |
That was exactly my point. Gee, watching MTV and VH1 is good for
something.
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dbratman
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response 144 of 189:
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Feb 18 22:00 UTC 2000 |
It's like credit cards. First, a gold record (or card) was something
special. Then it became ordinary. Now it's platinum that's becoming
ordinary. What will be next?
(And we had stars, then superstars, then megastars, and now we're
getting gigastars. Sheesh!)
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tpryan
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response 145 of 189:
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Feb 18 23:59 UTC 2000 |
Does that make OJ Simpson a kilostar?
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krj
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response 146 of 189:
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Mar 27 22:18 UTC 2000 |
item: http://music.zdnet.com/news/2000_03_20_cdnow.html
The investors' journal Barrons has a death watch list of 51
Internet businesses which are running out of money. Included in
that list is CDNow.com, which was the premier retailer of CDs on the
net for quite a few years.
The CDNow/Columbia House merger which we wrote about somewhere in this
conference fell apart, because it turned out that neither party to the
merger was making much profit. CDNow has about six months of cash
available to it right now.
My personal opinion is that Amazon.com is killing them with a much
better web site.
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diznave
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response 147 of 189:
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Mar 29 15:57 UTC 2000 |
The real winners in all of this, of course, are UPS and FedEx
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goose
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response 148 of 189:
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Mar 29 19:24 UTC 2000 |
Not with a move to electronic distribution.
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diznave
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response 149 of 189:
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Mar 31 15:33 UTC 2000 |
well, an item ordered electronically still has to be delivered to your door,
right?
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