IMO one of the best voices over the last 25 years is Annie Lennox, though you very rarely see her name in those posts and polls. Now Annie is at a different crossroad, with the release of her current album "Songs for Mass Destruction" she is looking to go another way now that her contract is up and she is free, but she has issues with that word "free" as you will see.

ANNIE LENNOX is stuck with no way to release her new material - because she's refusing to resign to a record label, but hates the idea of internet downloads.

Lennox's last record deal recently came to an end, and she has no intention of committing to another long-term contract.

But the Scot isn't ready to follow in the footsteps of Radiohead and distribute her tracks online because it allows fans to download for free.

Lennox tells Spinner.com, "I don't want to go into the corporate structure. I never wanted to be in the corporate structure in the first place.

"I have issues in some way with people downloading. If I want to make a certain kind of record I personally have to get the band together, the studio engineer, the producer.

"I have to pay a good deal of money to make that happen. If people just download it that means I'm indulging in a very expensive hobby.

"I don't quite see how people can do that and have it make sense. I can't go into Starbucks and demand free coffee. We're in this capitalistic system where nothing is for free except music."

Source: WENN

AnnieLennox said:

AnnieLennox said:

AnnieLennox said:

AnnieLennox said:

What did she say?

PANDURITO said:

AnnieLennox said:

She's right
You can't download Starbucks Coffee

Well she has a valid point, i mean Music is not a priority, everyone doesnt need it, i could see FOOD being free because people would die, but music is their job, what if after a long week at our jobs the boss came by and said "sorry no checks, you are working for free" what would we think? Just because the digital system is setup so things can be stolen doesnt mean its right.

so why doesn't she hook up with an independent label or start her own label? she'd have no problem working out distribution. considering it takes her six years to even finish recording an album, i'm sure she and an assistant or two could work out the technicalities. she certainly has the money, resources and credibility to work it out her way and make a good profit from it.

i love annie to pieces, but boo goddamn hoo.

Anxiety said:

I think she is more or less talking about offering her music in download form, whether as indie artist or on a label, since regardless of what people think this is what everything is going to turn into. I agree she could just go into a studio and record based on who she is since others are doing it, distribution is another story, if she doesnt want to sign with a label shes gonna hit red tape with Best Buy and Walmart which by the time she records again will be the only retailers left standing and probably wont even have cds anymore. So funny she mentions starbucks because she is probably going to end up there since its mainly what she is talking about and they offer the best for the older artists.

lastdecember said:

i'm afraid she's a dinosaur showing her scales with these comments. it's fine to want to release music in an mp3-free environment if that's her style, but she can't expect that kind of consideration and at the same time expect to thrive in a modern mainstream marketplace. which is FINE if she doesn't mind limiting her audience to diehard fans and a dwindling older audience who will only buy CD or vinyl, but she can't complain about the sales she's missing by shutting out mp3 sales.

not to mention people will just rip her albums to mp3 and trade them online anyway.

She wants to go "independent" just after her last record flopped....hmmm

Sounds like our Princey in 92.

"My record didn't sell like the last one, so the problem must be the label, not me!"

Anxiety said:

Well she isnt going to thrive in a mainstream marketplace anyway, almost no one is in reality, even the BIG artists at labels that sell, are making their money off their clothes and perfume deals, their music nets nothing. At her age she isnt "picking" up any new fans, lets be real, so she isnt limiting her audience at all, at her concerts im not seeing 18 year olds, im seeing 30-50 year olds. I think the best bet is to force people into the cd or the vinyl, if thats how she wants to go, theres always ways to beat the downloading right off the bat. I dont hear her complaining about missing sales though, i mean her selling 250,000 of her last cd to me, was impressive considering she got almost no coverage, shes not going to do better than that.

SquirrelMeat said:

Are you suggesting IT WAS her fault? How?
Didn't she deliver a top notch album?

PANDURITO said:

hmmmm, was it the fault of

a) the label
b) annie lennox
c) neither of the above
d) both of the above

?

annie's album may have been "top notch", but the top 40 isn't about artists like her right now - not unless she has some trick up her sleeve like some kind of movie tie-in, or a concert ticket scheme like princey's musicology racket.

personally, i thought she got a LOT of advertising and promotion for her last album. i saw lots of magazine ads and lots of big store displays for it, and i've read a fair amount of print interviews with annie promoting this album. i think she got a lot more promotion from her label than most of her peers get.

lastdecember said:

good for her. i can respect that she stands up for what she believes in.
bad for her fans that would love to get another album from her.

i like "Songs Of Mass Destrction"

maybe she should do a tour and sell the cds only at her concert. but even then it would eventually end up online. so.....

CHIC0 said:

Yeah i know you arent going to stop bootlegging and things like that, but you can really limit it by having the control that you want, be it selling it through your own site, not going digital and at least forcing people to have put their cds on the iPod or whatever player they have, the iternet is a very wide open space and you cant blame someone for wanting to at least control the way their stuff goes out there.

lastdecember said:

i'm sorry, i think that the attitudes annie and prince have about the internet are like an ostrich putting its head in the sand to make the world go away. the internet is a reality now, and it's an integral part of our media reality. it's passed the novelty phase, it's not a trend like cb radio, and it's one of the most direct marketing tools imaginable. they can pretend it away if they like, but they can't complain about a lack of success as a result.

Anxiety said:

When did Annie complain? i think she just said that she doesnt want to have things taken for free, whats wrong with that? As Metallica said would you want somebody coming over and start taking stuff out of your house? I know we all look at "recording artists" as rich cry babys, but how many of them are really that rich, probably about a dozen, honestly if i was in music and i found someone stealing my shit i would be going to their house and kicking some ass, i can care less how the internet is set up, theft is theft, i mean Guns are legal in most places that doesnt mean shooting someone is ok because the gun is legal.

PANDURITO said:

lastdecember said:

why is it that the only recording artists who are ever outspoken against the internet are the rich, famous ones who got rich and famous through a major label?

meanwhile, most indie/DIY recording artists know how to use the internet as a marketing and distribution tool and they seem to do just fine. they may not have hookers, blow and limos on hand 24/7, but you don't hear them crying about people breaking into your house and whatnot.

Anxiety said:

I think mainly because they still have power of print, the same way if Bill Clinton says something today its taken as law even though he is not in a position to do anything. I have heard many talk about the labels and business, but you wont see it in print mostly, Van Hunt and Rashaan Patterson spoke this year on it, i would doubt these guys are "rich" considering they said they had to book shows out of their pocket and they were signed. Indie artists dont speak on it mostly because they are getting all the money, which is the bottom line, i can guarantee if you tried to sneak into an "indie" artists show they would kick you out.

Anxiety said:

Indie artists must love the internet. When ur on a indie label, ur struggling to be heard, or desire to want to be heard, so the internet must be awesome, as anyone can hear you now, even if it is for free. They dont have multi million contracts either, so theres alot at stake for major recording artists I guess?

lastdecember said:

i think less people would opt to sneak into an indie artist's small club gig than a big major label act's arena show.

thesexofit said:

Well there are ways to do things and i think thats what Annie is saying, she isnt saying she is getting ripped off she is just saying she isnt giving it away for nothing, without knowing anyones bank account i can determine who is rich or not in the industry, but i can gurantee the guy behind the desk at the label has 10 times than Annie has, and 100 times more than most the artists on the label, but than again they didnt have to sign, true, but they can still complain if they want, its their place too. Considering most artists at labels have money taken out of there contract for touring and videos and promotion and the actual recording of the album, wanting the label to make sure it wasnt leaking your record seems like a fair kind of demand, since it is labels that always resposible for the leaks.

lastdecember said:

Thats a good point, but, when your in a recording studio, you the artist, should take some responability to make sure that nobody like the engineers, session musicians, friends, whatever, is stealing ur work. It must be bloody hard to do though. I dont know how you could do it, unless you have your own studio.

Notice any Prince boots lately LOL. Since the mid 90's, the amount of boots flying about is almost 0, and we known how prolific his boots were before hand. I have no idea, but do you reckon the complete lack of studio boots is because Prince isn't at a major like WB anymore? If thats the case, then ur dead on about it being the labels fault that leeks happen.

I don't understand how these acts are being convinced that DLs are robbing them of millions.

There must be something I'm missing here because artists don't get a damn thing off sales. You nearly have to do Thriller numbers or sell stuff out of your trunk to actually make money. Companies don't get anything off sales considering what they have to invest.

It's all about gigs and/or a brand.

Companies complain because DLing cuts into their packaging of an artist, but WTF are established artists complaining about?

At the very least if they stay on their grind they can pack small venues and continue to eat better than most of us. This is like Metallica all over again. They bitched about Napster while they could still pack arenas everywhere. Those punks dropped like four shitty records since, and can STILL pack it in.

thesexofit said:

that is 100% correct and someone was asking me about that yesterday as to why you dont see anything circulating from Prince anymore like that, and i know people might think its because the guy just doesnt record, i doubt that, im sure as we all read these posts he is jamming in the studio, the thing is that he really did clean house so to speak, granted im sure he might have been behind some leaks himself or at least wanting something outthere like in the Gold Experience case, but all that 80's stuff, he wasnt letting all that stuff go himself, someone had to be letting it out, mass producing it worldwide.

.
[Edited 1/9/08 21:55pm]

Yeah she's being a bit of a sourpuss. I mean look at Radiohead, they released In Rainbows in October online and it was heavily downloaded, most people didn't pay. They released it last week 'hard copy' and it's sitting at number one. If you adapt you can survive and even thrive. I mean she hardly promoted the last album and she very seldom tours. What is she expecting?!

WildheartXXX said:

i think viral marketing would have HELPED her last album. i think the idea of cheep/free crappy sounding mp3s before a proper album release is a BRILLIANT idea. it provides a thorough preview, and if you dig the music, then you're going to want a proper copy of the album in all its sonically correct glory. it happens anyway with leaked advance downloads - radiohead just turned the tables and capitalized on it, and it turned out to be the publicity coup of the year.

if annie wants to rock it old skool, that's totally fine and quaint and charming, but hopefully she won't mind a fine, quaint, charming future as a recording artist.

Anxiety said:

Surely a better (and very similar) idea would be to let only a few full tracks be availiable to download (not a whole album ala Radiohead) and make sure they are the best ones LOL. Infact, I imagine people have been doing this for years?