Lengthy piece in the NY Times Magazine on Rick Rubin and his efforts to not only save Columbia Records as co-chair but to save the major labels as art/business guru. Over the course of the article the main ideas Rubin seems to have to pull off that feat are:
1) Emphasize that they're in the business of art rather than other stuff.
2) Make great records.
3) Use word of mouth marketing.
4) Offer music subscriptions that would get you everything from everybody.
I say he's out to save the all the major labels because his ideas for a subscription service would require them to come together and share power and money. Check page 5 for the details, cause it is a more interesting idea for a subscription service than I've heard before, and then decide for yourself if it sounds at all likely that the major labels will work together on such a thing.
To be honest, I'm almost finished reading The Innovator's Dilemma and it's leading me to a variation on Rubin's alternate vision if the labels don't work together:
"Either all the record companies will get together or the industry will fall apart and someone like Microsoft will come in and buy one of the companies at wholesale and do what needs to be done," he said. "The future technology companies will either wait for the record companies to smarten up, or they'll let them sink until they can buy them for 10 cents on the dollar and own the whole thing."
I'm not saying it will go down exactly like that but I find it unlikely that the major labels have the capacity to transform to the extent necessary to survive the combined disruptive technologies of the Internet, the Web and digital music. However, a project Columbia Records calls Big Red shows a little promise:
The company invited 20 college students from Harvard, Penn State and the University of Miami to work on various music projects. The interns concentrated mostly on the digital marketing and promotions departments in Columbia's offices in Midtown Manhattan...
At the end of their paid internships, the students took part in focus groups that were closely observed by Steve Barnett, Rubin's co-head at the label, and Mark DiDia, whom Rubin brought in as head of operations, as well as by other Columbia executives..."The Big Red focus groups were both depressing and informative, and they confirmed what I — and Rick — already knew," DiDia told me afterward. "The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don't consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."
This project led to Rubin planning a word of mouth department:
The "word of mouth" department will function as a publicity-promotional arm of the company, spreading commissioned buzz through chat rooms across the planet and through old-fashioned human interaction. "They tell all their friends about a band," Barnett explained. "Their job is to create interest."
Of course, such a department is a good idea in the most obvious way and one that all major corporations should be doing, though they may be hiding the fact by outsourcing such activities. One wonders about the effectiveness of doing word of mouth when not just record labels but all the major corporations come in and start flooding those channels.
For those of you hoping for a return to great music with artist/businessmen like Rick Rubin in charge, keep your hopes up and don't let the disappointment of Executive Jay-Z throw you. Art will win! Hasn't it always?
On a personal note, if I didn't make minor amounts of money writing about hip hop business, I wouldn't even have to pay much attention to bad art. I had a nice run before hip hop blogging forced me to follow the art of fools, as do all mass media watchers, and I will return to that state before all is said and done.
There's always good art out there and you can find it through friends and niche networks, especially if you turn off the tv and radio and start paying attention to the art you care about rather than the art that's making money by being forced on you through marketing and distribution channels. One of the fun parts is that every now and then something you really care about will sweep the masses and, for a brief period, you'll get to enjoy the presence of good art in mass media contexts.
Via hiphopmusic.com.
Update:
Late last month The Times ran an interesting piece on Simone Dinnerstein, a classical pianist who bypassed all the advice she got and made it much bigger than many of those who suggested she simply not try.
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