The Herald On Sunday had Ben Lummis as one of its cover stories yesterday. It talked about his second single from his first album flopping, the trials of building a career (he's playing school fairs these days), and what he's planning next. The story continues inside the paper, under the title "Fallen Idle: Is Ben's dream over?" The cover headline said "I wish people would take me seriously". Boo hoo. Poor starving artist.
According to HOS reporter Amanda Spratt, Lummis is currently working on his third album. What happened to his second album, then? Slight factual inconsistency there. Still, Spratt runs the numbers on Lummis' album sales, and notes that revenue from his 30,000 album sales would be negligible, "as artists do best if they've written the song". After promotional costs, videos and BMG and Idol creator Simon Fuller take their cut, she suggests that Lummis is probably even. (I wrote about this back in May, when BMG marketing manager Jake Shand said to the Sunday Star Times that the winner of NZ Idol would be well rewarded: "For them not to make any money is not a reality. I'd be astounded if they didn't." He aint out buying houses, tho, is he?)
Lummis doesn't know how much he earns each week, but says its better than what he was getting as a teacher's aide. Several NZ music biz movers and shakers pitched in their thoughts, including Peter Urlich. 'New Zealand, say music industry gurus, is a tough crowd to serenade. Urlich, depite his screaming silence when told of the success, or lack thereof, of Lummis' follow-up single, has faith... "You have to leave, have some success in another market. It's going to be an uphill battle. It comes down to songs. You need great songs."' Just watch out for that screaming silence.
Isn't it ironic?
The Beastie Boys are on the cover of the latest issue of Wired magazine, with the entertaining headline "The Beastie Boys; fight for your right to copy", which is hilarious, coming from a group whose latest album was copy protected, much to the chagrin of their fans. Wired comes with a free cd featuring music distributed under the Creative Commons license. Looks like a good read, apart from the dodgy cover line. Public Enemy, Dangermouse, Thievery Corp and Gilberto Gil feature also. There's more about the CD here.
"Rip, mix, burn. Swap till you drop. The music cops can't do a thing - it's 100 percent legal, licensed by the bands. Call it copyright for the 21st century."
"I'm the old git with the chick, the Roller and the rock band'" - Iggy Pop interviewed by the Guardian's Miranda Sawyer. She gets a look round his house in Miami.
"...Iggy takes me on a tour. His place is small but stuffed: Haitian love goddesses battle it out with Mexican madonnas on Italian marble tops and Chinese antique dressers, which cuddle up to cow-skinned chairs, curly mirrors, a cartoon of the serial killer Carl Panzram, a 'cut-up' work by a contemporary of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin. There's an Iggy painting of a Stooges gig on one wall; a Shirelles CD sits like a single on the old record player..."
Allhiphop.com interviews Olu Dara, musican and father of Nas. Dara features on his son's new album, on the tune Bridging the Gap. Wicked tune.
No comments:
Post a Comment