75% Want a Record Deal

On the back of the Reverbnation survey of over 1,800 artists, 75% of whom would like to sign a record deal, it has to be asked: what’s happened to the DIY digital pop revolution?

What amazed me, in particular, about the survey was the record companies listed as Most Wanted: the majors…  Sony, Universal, Warner etc

Is it the innate stupidity of hundreds of music artists?  Or are they recognising the basic flaw in the DIY argument: to promote a group successfully you need money and resources beyond those possessed by most bands and soloists?

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Future Now Pt1: The Folk Who Live On The Hill

As a result of a slightly intense email exchange with Andy ‘Hobbes’ Richardson, DJ and promoter of, amongst other nights, the consistently smart Limbo nights at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms (together with partner Dave Cumings) I felt inspired to explore just how I really felt about the music business.  The exchange was triggered by a small review on my blog of a talk given, on the day of Malcolm Maclaren’s death by Gavin Blain, a Scot who faked an identity as an American rapper in order to scam a major label record deal and has recently released a book about his experiences.  My view was that he appeared to be ungrateful and unnecessarily harsh about the Sony employees he hoodwinked. 

This is what Andy thought, though: ‘perhaps McLaren’s death has coloured your interpretation of (the talk) but i see the death of the arch manipulator as heralding a new dawn, the beginning of a more genuine and authentic music industry with less cynicism and more integrity all round….i see Gavin Bain equally as a harbinger for this change.  his bitter-sweet experience emphasises the need for more authenticity and underlines the soulless vacuum offered by (more or less) anything else. ‘

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