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John Mellencamp - On My Mind: The State of the Music Business "The first time I saw the cover of Dirty Mind in the early 80s I thought, 'Is this some drag queen ripping on Freddie Prinze?'" - Some guy on The Gear Page | |
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I have loved John and this article further backs that opinion up. "Lack of home training crosses all boundaries." | |
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Good read.  | |
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Pretty good, but John got enamored with big words and long phrases at the expense of offering any real answers.
What I got most out of it was that Prince is far and away the most independent artist in the world. He does what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. He got there by taking some pretty damn big chances, and not all of them worked. What Prince had was a catalogue of hits to fall back on. So it seems to me that if an artist wants to get to where Prince is (not in size but in ability to put out what they want), they've got to have some foundation to work from. This is what makes the initial contract so important. If a new act can generate some good music AND get paid for it, they have a foundation on which to build a Prince-like model. As you may recall, this is EXACTLY what Prince was saying as far back as 1991, when Tony M. smacked down Mr. Money Minder in "Money Don't Matter Tonight". | |
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John Mellencamp said:
These days, some people suggest that it is up to the artist to create avenues to sell the music of his own creation. In today's environment, is it realistic to expect someone to be a songwriter, recording artist, record company and the P.T. Barnum, so to speak, of his own career? Of course not. I've always found it amusing that a few people who have never made a record or written a song seem to know so much more about what an artist should be doing than the artist himself. If these pundits know so much, I'd suggest that make their own records and just leave us out of it.
Whenever I hear or read statement(s) as the one I've underline above, it's a red flag that either someone is trying to stop and/or end all debates and discussions. It's a ploy, a conversation killer... I know best there for.. Really? The status quo has always been undermined by the outsider who challenges and questions the pre-existing order. Haven said that. I agree with Mr. Mellencamp that the music conglomerate's formula for developing, making, and marketing music has backfired. They've ( I don't think they've realized it still) sliced and diced music into such a tight corner their product in many instances contracted instead of expanding. While the music business's was contracting, innovators of computer/digital Internet technology offered many displaced music listener's freedom/options to decided who, what, and how they wanted to listen, buy, watch, share and in some instances steal music. Like most industries, record companies have never been interested in innovation; they have only wanted to maintain and protect the status quo for which they've wielded enormous control/power over and profited handsomely at the expense of ALL artist's/musician's, the quality of the music, and their customers . Who or whom does Mr. Mellencamp think these pundits are? This debated has gone way beyond media, music, and industry rags, the buying public is apart of the debate and are asking: What side are artists on? Or, should I ask, What side are established/record owned artists are on? Mr. Mellencamp stated part of the problem is, music isn't being created from the ground up, I would disagree. Independent artist have always been around the low cost of recording and production and the Internet has allowed those artist/musicians to flourish as no time seen before. Have Independent musicians ever had to accesses to public music channels or TV? No. Haven't the record companies fought hard against Internet Radio Stations, file sharing, and with the help or our legislator's crafted copyright, patent and trademark IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) too suite their commercial interests? Yes. Who would loses out if independent home recording and distribution were allowed to flourish? Here in-lies the problem and the issue Mr. Mellencampe doesn't address these issues he just laments, "Cant we all get along"? Please. The cautionary tale of Stax Record Label pales in comparisons to artist who didn't know they had signed their rights away to their music/publication rights. In some instances they live and/or died in poverty while record company "bean counters" continue to make millions of dollars in royalties ever year off their music/intellectual property. Haven't current musicians such a Prince, The Dickie Chicks, George Micheal, Eminem and others been - in some cases long protracted - legal disputes over royalties, album/CD commitments, cheating or overcharging album cost/production? The band still plays on.  Mr. Mellencamp appears neither to have the energy, the imagination, nor the intellectual capacity to think outside of the box. I hope it's artist/musicians who figure it out. It's time for musicians to step-up -become more business minded in order to control and secure their intellectual property and profits. If they don't, another master will come along to screw them and like the others and they won't bother to ask them to bend over.[Edited 3/24/09 13:20pm] | |
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