I was following a chain of posts from Harry Allen on Twitter today, and they make for interesting reading, So I strung them together, below. He talked about a seminar where he posed this idea...
"I make the illustration of someone getting a mortgage, paying it back faithfully, then, after the last payment, having a mortgage-burning party, only to find that the bank has taken back the house. Foul, correct? They listened. I then asked them, in like manner, if artists pay back advances through royalties, why do labels then take ownership of master recordings?"
Response? Oh boy.
You know who Harry Allen is, right? He was Public Enemy's media assassin. Need more? His bio is here.
from @harryallen (via Twitter)
The music business is, essentially, an interface between children and sharks.
Artists, for the most part, are distracted and pre-occupied with bright, shiny things we call "art." Put a contract in front of an artist...
...on one side, then a pretty picture, or lovely sound, on the other. 98 times out of 100, the artist will pick up the art. The music biz...
...is designed to exploit that tendency.
Two Lyor Cohen memories: 1) Him, backstage at Nassau Coliseum, egging Eric Sermon on to spit some new rhymes the Green-Eyed Bandit had...
...recently composed, and of which the rapper was especially proud. Even at that moment, I knew I was watching skillful patronizing.
Second Lyor Cohen memory: NYU, about 5 years ago. Roundtable with Russell, Kevin Liles, Lyor. I'm moderating. 500+ people in audience.
I make the illustration of someone getting a mortgage, paying it back faithfully, then, after the last payment, having a mortgage-burning...
...party, only to find that the bank has taken back the house. Foul, correct? They listened. I then asked them, in like manner, if...
...artists pay back advances through royalties, why do labels then take ownership of master recordings? Lyor made this loud, annoyed...
..teeth-sucking, displeased sigh sound, and started talking about people having other things to do, as the audience when, "Ooooooo...."
When I went there, one of the Def Jam execs sent me a note asking me to not talk about this. I don't have audio of the discussion because...
...the Grammy's, or whichever organization was sponsoring the event got pissed and wouldn't give me a tape, though they'd agreed to before.
I've been waiting for this day for years. I've been talking about the electronic dist. of music since the early 90s. See http://bit.ly/kQxSL
I did a panel in July 1994, at the last New Music Seminar, the one where I heard Marc Josephson tell an n-word joke. The title was...
"Multimedia: Will Digital Technology Make Record Companies Obsolete?" Six people from the industry, six renegades, incl. Chuck, the IUMA...
...guys, Adam Curry, who'd registered mtv.com when the company didn't know enough to care, and Free Software guru Richard Stallman.
To the thesis question, the industry guys said no, tech wouldn't obsolete the industry. The others said yes, and Stallman said that, not...
...only would it obsolete it, but the only thing that would keep it around would be in the gov't did so. Like Bear Sterns, in other word.
Not Bear Sterns: Like AIG, in other words.
[Lyor’s response?] He couldn't answer. The relationship is insane & unjust. Plus, framing it in mortgage terms made it ultra-clear to the crowd."
Source: twitter.com/harryallen
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