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Welcome to the Fog Blog #17
Revolutionising the music industry, at least three days a week …
Everyone is entitled to my opinion...
The two biggest stories in the music industry this week offer excellent examples on the current state of the business.
The re-release of the Beatles catalogue is the hottest item. And why not? Their music is certainly timeless. In fact the first song I ever learnt to sing was Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, even before Happy Birthday, when I was three. And I am sure that EMI will have a very nice Christmas this year, but the band have been over for 40 years and there are only two original members still alive.
The other big new was the release of the new version of iTunes.
That’s right, the two biggest stories this week are from a band that no longer exists and a software upgrade.
This is the music industry in 2009.
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APRA… we love them!
Earlier this week I attended a seminar at APRA’s office featuring Ariel Hyatt, a social networking and marketing expert from the states. It was the best thing I’ve seen at APRA since they opened the new office and I’ve been busy typing up our notes from the session to get them out to all our Foghorn artists so they can take on board some of the ideas. Big thanks to Millie Millgate for bringing Ariel out too.
In short, Ariel was able to articulate how to effectively utilise the social networking phenomena to market music and make an income. It was a combination of de-mystifying the net backed with astonishing statistics and examples of artists that are actually making money. With so many choices of social networking sites out there and with new ones seemingly launching every week, it was great to have Ariel narrow it down to her Top Nine sites to be on.
If you want to know more, I can send you my notes, but you will have to give me your email first…
See, I’m learning already…
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The Angel of Death!
I went and saw Slayer play in Sydney a few years ago at the Hordern Pavilion. They were awesome, as you would expect. Unfortunately Dave Lombardo wasn’t playing drums, but Tommy Araya and Kerry king were great (sorry other dude… can’t remember your name). Anyway, like most metal acts, Slayer do great merch.
How’s this for cool?
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You Can’t Spell Star Without A&R
Last week’s post about the Aussie rock band deciding to leave their best song off their new album elicited quite a number of inquiries. Most of you wanted to know if the band in question was Grinspoon. I have to say, it was actually a combination of stories… but it could have been them.
Which made me think… Australia is renowned for our tall poppy syndrome, but this seems to be another unique variation. This is The Reverse Tall Poppy Syndrome where artists don’t even give themselves a chance to become famous before their peers cut them down to size.
Here’s a tip… if you don’t want to sell any records, don’t make one.
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Gig Of The Week
How happy was I last week?
I got to go see Aimee Mann at the Enmore!I was going to embed a video from my favourite AM album “I’m With Stupid” (title track is about her old A&R guy… yeah!) but Universal won’t let me.
So you will have to click on the link here.
What would Dave do??
He’d tell you where he got this jacket with an embroidered Pope on it…
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