|
03-02-2014, 02:29 PM,
|
|
|
mercfan3
Posting Freak
|
Posts: 1,303
Threads: 22
Joined: Nov 2012
|
|
RE: Next album will be blusier
So, in keeping up with Jacquie Lee, I noticed a man named Robert H. Gold was working with her. He is the "cofounder and an A&R at 300." Of course, not knowing what 300 was, I did some research.
300 is a newly formed company that is...sort of like a label. The business model seems to be similar to what Macklemore is doing independent artists with distribution deals..where basically artists are discovered through different modern means (youtube, twitter..clearly reality television shows..).
Anyway, the distribution deal is with Atlantic. Which got me thinking that maybe this would be a good place for Haley. I guess you never know what's going on. Behind the scenes.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/ne...h-atlantic
|
|
|
03-02-2014, 03:34 PM,
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2014, 04:01 PM by Miguel.)
|
|
|
Miguel
Moderator
|
Posts: 11,925
Threads: 1,054
Joined: Jul 2011
|
|
RE: Next album will be blusier
It appears they have a lot of backing. I wonder how their deals are structured.
Sounds like they are looking for people who have some buzz they can capitalize on. One man's experience with that:
7 Things a Record Deal Teaches You About the Music Industry
Excerpts: Quote:#7. Labels Hunt for Unique Voices
...I think there's an intern at Universal who goes through the regional iTunes charts every week, from Des Moines to Albuquerque, and looks for outliers.
"We know all the other guys on here. Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Ke$ha ... who the hell is Spose?"
So this intern looked at the Portland (Maine) sales and saw that I had the #1 song. I doubt I cracked the top 200 nationwide, but that was enough to get their attention. At this point, I was 24 years old and totally broke, delivering pizzas and raising a newborn. The day Universal sent me a $35,000 check for signing on with their label, my bank account was at -$800. I couldn't even buy gas for my car without overdrafting my account again -- one generally doesn't hear Jay-Z rapping about bank fees and bus passes.
Quote:#4. They Are Casting a Role
...I grew up idolizing Biggie and Jay-Z, artists with real, intricate lyrics. And that's part of what I love about music -- great descriptions and verses. But that's the opposite of what my label wanted. I got in the studio for the first time and spent like five hours writing what I thought was one of my best songs yet, only to hear:
"The lyrics don't even matter, write that shit tomorrow. We just need the hook. All Universal really cares about is a catchy chorus."
And that's what the industry runs on. The label comes up with a chorus, a pre-chorus, and a melody, and then they fill in the blanks with people like me. In pop music, artists are like those Styrofoam packing peanuts, just there to make sure nothing shifts around too much in transit. When it comes down to the music, the labels have a very narrow idea of what they want, and no new artist is going to change their minds. The producer they paired me with did a lot of dance music. You know -- "bottles in the club, bitches on my junk, Cadillacs literally infesting my house" type stuff. I don't do that, and the song that got me noticed was nothing like that. But once I was signed, that's the only thing they wanted from me.
Universal picked me out of the crowd because I had a unique style. Like a fool, I thought that meant they wanted me to keep making my style of music. But they just wanted to take my name, my sorta-notoriety from one hit, and plug "Spose" into a bunch of pop songs. Probably because it's really easy to rhyme with "hos." They're playing the long game, those keen, strategy-minded record producers.
These points made me think specifically of Haley:
Quote:#2. It's a Ridiculous Numbers Game
...For every Macklemore who has a hit song and follows it up with another, there's at least 20 more who never have a second hit. And I'm one of the latter. After 11 months, they didn't find a second single -- even though a bunch of the songs I made then still sell well today -- and a new VP came in and dropped me.
You can make great, heartfelt music with a sound all your own that thousands of fans love, but none of that is going to convince Universal that you know better than they do.
...The labels aren't looking for brilliant artists to drop fully formed beats onto the radio. They want someone who'll help them Frankenstein some hybrid pop monster from the stitched-together corpses of originality.
Quote:#1. There Is a Blessing for One-Hit Wonders in 2014
...I released the songs Universal hadn't wanted in a free album called Yard Sale and used that to advertise my Kickstarter. It brought in $28,000. And now that I have that small, loyal fan base, I'm able to make the music I want to make without spending 300 hours per song pleasing a bunch of record executives. I make all the money from my iTunes sales now, too. I pay $35 to list it and get close to $1 per sale. When I was with the label, I made 16 cents per sale. If you're Lady Gaga or Ke$ha, the recording industry is one big blank check for a life of unfathomable luxury and custom-tailored meat clothing. For the rest of us, connecting and selling to the people who like our music is a little less soul-crushing and at least sort of profitable, and at no point do you ever have to talk to a guy who describes you as "the next Fred Durst" and means it as a compliment.
Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20939_7-t...z2uqSDfe00
|
|
|
|
![[Image: BiaPApCIEAA6xsy.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiaPApCIEAA6xsy.jpg)