The panels I attended included:
-Roundtable: "Getting the Brand Back Together: Branding, Music & Money in the Digital Age"
This panel described the newfound relationships between artists and corporations. Corporations can provide the funding that artists are seriously in need of while artists can provide the "cool appeal" or access to a target market which a corporation may desire. Mountain Dew and Red Bull have created record labels to appeal to artists. Scion has become known for free parties/concert series as a marketing tool. There were a variety of people on this panel including an exec. for K-Swiss (formerly of Puma) and an artist. The exec made the point that they don't force the relationship. In his most recent video, Dr. Dre is wearing Pumas and wanted to set up a sponsorship...but Puma refused to do the deal if he didn't actually wear the clothing on a regular basis. The artist recently had been on a DJ show where the winner won $100,000, but the show was sponsored by Smirnoff and trying to reach black males ages 22-30. He in several meetings with the corporate heads indicated being uncomfortable in his image being used this way. These relationships are increasing as the industry is decreasing.
-Lunch roundtable: Burn on Cuyahoga
During this discussion, three punk musicians (Cheetah Chrome, Bob Pfeifer, and Mike Hudson) described growing up in the Cleveland punk scene, and their experience with publishing, both in the music and literary worlds. They described how book publishers are going the way of the music industry (where there are only a few select giants left).
-"Paid in Full: How Artists Make Money Making Music (Past, Present & Future)"
There were several presentations during this panel. The first was an artist/lawyer presenting "Label Deals: How They Suck and How to Make Them Better." John Strohm was a young musician who got a bad deal which he eventually got out of. As a 19-year-old, he didn't read the deal and simply signed it. Now he provides legal counsel to many musicians so they don't end up in the same conundrum. The next presenter was in a band who got hired to record a jingle for Budweiser. Especially being a punk band, he felt that they were selling out, but the other three band members had their eyes on the dollar sign so by default they did the ad. He made the point that although he's still embarassed about the ad, the money he received allowed him and his girlfriend (now wife) to afford health insurance and have their daughter...so that he can't hold too much of a grudge anymore. The third panelist described the merchandise table. This is still a very profitable way for artists to make money by selling CDs, t-shirts, and posters. In some cases, certain artists are finding ways to get more money thru this route. Artists such as the Melvins are selling very rare art-pieces or even items out of their own collections for several hundred dollars which die-hard fans will buy. A member of a band named Gang of Four has a philosophy on the merch table: don't pre-price the items. In his experience, if a fan only has $5, but you let them pay that for the $20 CD or t-shirt, you'll score points and have a fan for life. If you let a fan pay what they think an item is worth, they often paid more than what the band would have priced it for. (Although it depends on the band/fans....Metallica on a recent tour sold their tshirts for $40...but this negatively affected them and upset a lot of fans!!) I found this to be a really interesting experiment. Some bands recently have used the same tactics with their music. They have made it available for download on their website and told fans to pay what they think it's worth. Many people take it for free; however, many fans will pay at least something for it. When Radiohead did this, they still made several million dollars. The final panelist was noted singer-songwriter Ben Lee. He is Australian by birth, but now lives in the states. He was showing how he's increased the amount of sync and mechanical licenses he has and how he's streamlined costs to make more of a profit.
-"Facing New Deals"
This panel discussed the 360 deal which gives the record label a cut of an artist's profits across the board (touring income, advertising, merchandise, etc) It was described as the labels trying to "have their finger in each of an artist's pies" as a way to cover their backs since it's a gamble which way the industry is going. They have given artists outrageous advances to do this, but there's some concern whether they will even get their initial investment back.
-Keynote Discussion: "Career Possibilities: How Musicians Make Do and Keep Their Souls Alive in a Changing Pop World" (to be continued...)
-"Sentimental Productions"
-Lunch Interview: "Seymour Stein: A Conversation"
Seymour Stein fouded Sire Records and is now a VP of Warner Brothers Records. He signed many famous artists such as the Talking Heads, the Ramones, and Madonna. He was very humble and entertaining and was full of great stories!
-Roundtable: "Let's Get Physical: Box Sets & Specialty Reissues in the Digital Era"
This panel discussed companies (like Rhino) who do specialty releases and box sets and why people continue to buy these when they won't buy CDs. In every specialty, there are always diehard fans and collectors. Many people will buy an item just for the sake of having a rare item. To enhance the value of these box sets, there are also particularly detailed sets of liner notes as well as some memorabilia (a poster, a vintage backstage pass, an interesting case, etc) Even though sales for these items have generally decreased, they are still higher than a typical CD release. (and since the price for a box set is generally higher, they can come out okay selling fewer) Proof of this is in a Grateful Dead box set I worked on. It's not coming out until September, but they've already sold out of 1,500 copies at $500 per box. It will be 66 discs in a road case (a bootleg of every show from the European tour of 1972)
-Dynasty: The KISS Panel
This panel contained one of my favorite authors, Chuck Klosterman. They discussed the incredible (and ridiculous) amount of Kiss merchandise, but how people will continue to throw dollars out for whatever Gene Simmons creates next.
A general trend I definitely picked up on through the conference was the frustration of artists with major labels. They indicated that they are beneficial as far as getting a check and easy access to a team of professionals (marketing, distribution, etc) but many feared that label execs honestly don't care for the artists and are only looking out for themselves. Many bands are looking for alternative routes for distribution, such as going to independent labels or even doing it themselves. There also is quite a lack of uncertainty as far as the direction of the industry which makes it a scary/exciting time to be involved.
Saturday night I was exhausted after listening to various (albeit) interesting panels for 12 hours. Driving home, I passed a variety of parties for the Oscars. It was quite cold (and even snowed in Burbank) so I decided to get some carryout sushi and stay in for the night.
Driving home Sunday (two hours before the Oscars) I was in a sea of black Tahoes and limos, presumably heading to the Kodak Theatre. I also passed set up for more parties, including the famed Vanity Fair party which had two lanes of traffic closed. In oncoming traffic I noticed a white van being driven by a man with a familiar profile and a person in the passenger seat with a video camera. He looked like Mike Dirnt, drummer of Green Day (but I figured it couldn't be). Later, while checking Twitter on my phone I noticed a post that Dirnt was playing a secret show that night at the Troubador with an afterparty at the Viper Room (so it was him after all!)
For a late lunch, I went to the Counter, a well-known build-your-own-burger bar. You are handed a checklist where you can select your ingredients (apparently there are over 300,000 possible combination). I chose a turkey burger on multigrain bun w/ jalapeno jack cheese, roasted green chilis, roasted corn & bean salsa, and mixed greens...and it was quite possibly the best burger of my life! Very tasty. I'll definitely be back!
Coming soon...
-Internship update
-Girls Day Out
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