I never know what I read to be real or not, as during the 80's and 90's
I wasn't paying attention to anybody but whether I liked the music or not.

Now, I'm hearing things about the industry being sick, about musicians having
to rethink their business model. About alternative methods of advertising
and distribution (Sting's music in car commercials, etc.) being employed
by major acts.

Many musicians are swapping from the old model of releasing a record, having
the record company promote it tirelessly, and then touring to support the
record, over the the new model where the record is sold merely as a
promotional tool for an actual tour, since tours often make the musicians so much
more money. Nine Inch Nails funded their entire lawsuit with their old
record company after the release of Pretty Hate Machine, their debut album,
by relentlessly touring.

However, the new model requires that the musician really work hard
for their money. No longer can you just go into the studio, make a few
videos, and disappear into obscurity until the next record. You have
to tour. You have to advertise. You have to give interviews. One wonders
if Prince could ever be the phenomenon he is now if his career had kick
started presently using the same tactics he used in the 80's.


On the flip side though, musicians have multiple ways of releasing their material. It has never been easier and cheaper to cut a quality, professional
sounding demo, and the to actually release it through myspace or any number
of websites. It cost a fraction of the original price.
A dedicated musician could record, polish, and distribute his music easily
in a days time if he wanted to---this is unprecedented. And of course, equally
perplexing Prince has not taken true advantage of this.


What is your take on the music industry and it's affect on musicians today?
Did they have it good in 80's and 90's and are now waking from the dream?

Or was it always tough?

No the '80s produced event albums and the artists had to be big and have mystery. Nowadays if ur mysterious, you're not signed to a mainstream label, you're either indie or internet artists if you're a mysterious figure lol There's no such thing as event albums anymore either (like Thriller and Purple Rain). Also this generation now includes commercials and movies. It takes the music out of people who claim to be "musicians" lol

Touring to make money isn't a new idea. Artists have always made the bulk of their money from touring. Album sales are down these days, so touring is almost a necessity. Interviews don't pay the bills, and don't generate TOO much income in people seeing an artist and getting excited about a record.

I think those years are viewed as "easy" because there was no illegal downloading of files, thereby bypassing the artist's bank account and reconcilement of monies spent on making the album. It's why sponsorship for tours, and endorsement deals these days, are in full force. Sure Pepsi was big in the 80's for folks like the Jacksons, Lionel Richie, etc, but these days people are cross promoting w/ their sponsors by not only being in commercials, but offering up ring tones, and whatever other little tidbit will bring in money.

It's true that albums are not "events" or epic in nature anymore. The internet has created an ADHD society, and people want their music with a quickness. Gone are the days of the majority of people putting on an album, and laying in bed w/ headphones on and taking the journey the artist put out there. Now it's about a 3:30 minute trip to vagina land, and the trip ends there.

I don't think artists ever really disappeared between albums. Remember, Thriller only had 3 videos, yet 7 songs were released as singles (there were only 9 songs on the album), and most all of them hit #1. The tour was almost 2 years after its release. Why was it a success? The same reason most albums these days aren't that big of sellers - THE MUSIC WAS GREAT! Mustic today just sucks, and everyone knows it. Hell, I'm glad for folks like Confection, Ghostland Observatory, Cut//Copy, Calvin Harris, and Chromeo that unashamedly hearken back to an older sound, and reinvents it for today. Because whatever Rihanna's dry ass voice, Ashanti's weak ass production, and Kanye's belly aching while he counts his money, ain't workin'. Artists made an album, made a video or two, and hit the road for 5 months at a time, sometimes longer, to push an album. Sure album sales will benefit from that, but the money has always been in touring.

TonyVanDam said:

Don't you think I know that?

Timmy84 said:

Exactly, I mean what in the last 20 years do people talk about like these records.

Fatih-George Michael
Thriller-MJ
Purple Rain-Prince
Born in the USA-Bruce
Slipperey When Wet- Bon Jovi
Appetite for Destrcution- GNR
Cant Slow Down- Lionel Richie
Private Dancer- Tina Turner
An Innocent Man- Billy Joel
Control - JJ
Like A virgin- Madonna

Almost all these albums were out within the same 18 months of each other....think that shit can happen today??? No some fool would "twitter" that there was too much competition.

lastdecember said:

Exactly artists would keep it to themselves rather than "twitter" about what it is they're doing in the studio. I don't mind Twitter because I use it a lot and see what artists are tweeting, I just hate how they leak info about what they're doing in the studio. Like let people figure out what you're gonna do before saying what's going to be on it.

Some insight from someone that actually did/does it for a living big time with numerous well known recording acts.

Matt: Did you decide that touring would be better than session work?
Steve Lukather: The session scene is dead, over. It’s all just reading. There’s a handful of sessions here and there. But, most of the guys that I know that were considered “A” session players use it to stay home. Otherwise they take a road gig because there’s no work. People make records in their own house now, unless they want a specific player. It’s certainly not like the old days where you’re doing 25 sessions a week. Maybe you had too much work, you know?

It’s a different world now. They’ll want to pay less than what they used to pay. They want to pocket some cash for themselves. They’re not really hiring the session guy. A lot of computer stuff, a lot of machine stuff. There are people who have budgets, but not very many. A lot of them are self-maintained bands. It’s a different world out there. There are a lot of ways guys like me who make our money and our bread and butter. But, I love being in front of an audience.



Matt: I read your chapter in Robert Wolff’s book How to Make It In The New Music Business and it’s loaded with great advice and information. Do you think success is purely based on talent?

Steve: [Laughs] No. Today we have a whole different level of musicianship running the industry. The problem with the music business is that it’s not run by musicians. Its run by accountants and lawyers and people that think they know about music. But, they couldn’t play it.

So, therefore, it’s hard to take somebody’s opinion when they don’t know what they’re talking about. You know, the president of a hospital is usually the most experienced, best doctor, right? In the music industry it’s like, run by hacks that don’t know what they’re doing for the most part. That’s why it kind of fell apart. If the music industry was based on real talent, what you hear on the radio and what would be popular would be incredibly different. It’s based on image, man. They’d rather sell a face than a talent and that’s really bad. Back in the '60s and '70s, it wasn’t like that, although, obviously, there’s always been pop stars and teen idols.

32 years I’ve been doing this. It’s a younger generation of people getting into the music industry. My son is a really great guitar player and he’s in the middle of making a record. It’s hard, because they offer really shitty record deals. They want to own everything and they don’t want to pay any money. They want you do to everything for them and hand it to them.

Better to promote yourself on the Internet and keep everything and try to get some live shows and sell your shit there. You can actually make more money and build a stronger real fan base than sell your soul to the devil and be a pop star. Like I said, I’m baffled by pop culture. If I had to start all over right now, I’d be shitting myself. We’re in a different world.



Matt: What kind of skill set does a guitarist have to have to be successful?

Steve: Well, it depends on what you want to do, you know? If you want to be a session guy, prepare yourself because there’s not much work. If you want to be a reading guy you better have your reading chops together, you got to be able to play all styles and on the spot. And if you want to be a rock guy, either be a solo artist or put a really good little band together and start playing around. Try to get signed or evolve.

Obviously, there's MySpace. My son has 1,700,000 plays and he’s not signed yet! He’s gotten some shitty offers and the music is great. It’s a commercial hook and he looks like a fuckin’ rock star. When Miss November comes over to the house, it’s really Miss November. He’s a lucky bastard, there’s nothing wrong that. I went through that phase when I was young. Now it’s his turn. A lot of sons of my friends, my peers, have kids who all grew up together. I mean look at Wolfgang Van Halen. He just stepped right into the game.

My son works with me. But, he wants to do his own thing. He doesn’t want to be my sidekick. I see us working together a lot more in the future. But, he has to walk his own path. I want to help him. But, at the same time, he’s got to make his own way.He doesn’t walk around going, “Hey, you know who my dad is?”

You got to be humble. You can’t take "No" for an answer, and you got to work your ass off. It really is 90% luck, 10% talent. But, that 10% of talent better be good. I think people, geographically, are in difficult places and may never get the shot, in Alaska, or something, you know?

But, with the MySpace and Youtube and the Internet you’re discovering all these people. Word of mouth, viral marketing, that’s what it’s all about. Man, I’m learning about all this myself. I’m old school. You know, tour, go on promo tour, make a record, do a promo tour, go on tour for a year, go back and make a record, and do the whole thing. Now, there is a whole new way to go about doing things.

I’ll tell you, there’s no fuckin’ record stores! I live in fuckin’ Hollywood, man, and there’s like two record stores! Everything is online.

It’s scary. But, at the same time, it’s better if you’re a conservationist and you’re not cutting down so many trees and not cutting plastic and wasting. But there is something about holding a product in your hands. I miss old vinyl albums.



Matt: A lot of people today don’t seem to really be sitting down and soley listening to music. It seems we are in the age of multitasking in which everyone is either driving their car or working while listening.

Steve: Yeah, or they just put their iPod on shuffle and whatever happens to come up, comes up. Back in the day, man, your entire album had to be good! It was not just one song. But, then I don’t blame them. These days, you can cut ten new tracks and go on the road again.



Matt: When you were doing your session work, you seemed to be on every genre and style coming out of L.A., you weren’t afraid to do bubblegum pop and disco records?

Steve: No, I mean, what the fuck, man? Back in the day you didn’t even know who the artist was. Contracts were contracts, show up 12-6, Monday through Friday. When you get there, oh, wow, really cool artist and the music is really great! Sometimes you show up and the music is pure cheese. But at the same time I’ve been with the finest musicians in the world, great producers, great engineers, so I was always learning something. I played the solo on “Lets Get Physical,” [Laughs] silly song. But, hey, you know what I mean? I showed up and did the best I could. When I started that job there were great producers and that song was a double-platinum single.

Some of the stuff that I thought was really cool would be hidden, never see the light of day. Some of the shit I worked on, or some of the stuff I thought was kind of lame, was a number 1 record without any work.


http://www.modernguitars....04523.html
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Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

Well Steve has been echoing these words many years, and Prince, im sure we can find things in there that Prince said COUNTLESS times, but no one had anyones back, no one was a gatekeeper as Prince would say, people joked, called Prince greedy and other musicians for wanting their just due, and now, well everyone, you have the industry that you let happen

TheVoid said:

Prince toured a lot though, and was amessing to hear/see live: what do you mean?

Cinnie said:

U cant apply 80's musical importance to todays world, its just not relevant. The machine isnt built to move that way anymore, nor are the artists coming up.

I also think what happened in the '80s was a once in a lifetime thing. I think some folks are trying to sell multiple copies by going with a mindset that was used in the '80s that don't work anymore.

lastdecember said:

I'm saying though, if touring or live performance is the dealbreaker in the new "machine", 80's Prince would slay it now too

Cinnie said:

THAT'S ALL I'M SAYIN'! Dan needs to reply too

lastdecember said:

Lukather's got an interesting perspective on this issue as he worked both sides of the fence as an in-demand session musician and as an artist with Toto.

Very beneficial, for those paying attention, that he's been as vocal as he's been over the years.
His book should really be something to read.



Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records