In an interview with Antiquiet, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age goes off on his label, Interscope Records, and in particular label big-wig, Jimmy Iovine. Here’s his thoughts on his label -
“Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them.” Interesting that he’s focusing his ire only on the American arm of the label.
You probably already know that Trent Reznor was until recently anyway also on that label. And back in October he was pleased to announce that he was “free” after 18 years of being bound to record company contracts –
Trent also said this last week about the Grammy organization – “While the music industry is doing everything they possibly can to go out of business, can we all make sure to rid ourselves of the Grammys, too? Out of touch old men jacking each other off. _ENOUGH! _Have a nice day.” (posted at nin.com on 12/06/07)
Clearly rock bands are finding their ogres; although I’d prefer that rock musicians speak out more often on non-glib subjects it’s good to read these two vitriolic outbursts as they appear to come from the heart. We appear to be reaching a tipping point. The chattering classes have now decided that the major label recording companies are kaput, finished, over and the obituaries are being penned. The music fans continue to value music but they prefer to support their favorite bands’ directly via ticket sales to shows, merch buys or offering money for a download that could be had for free. It’s turning into an avalanche. Even that mad man, Bob Lefsetz, found a moment of lucidity in his daily fulminating to write the following –
“The days of scarcity are done. DRM is done. If you’re not thinking how to enable your fans, get them to spread the word on great music, you’re probably sitting in an ivory tower pissed that people aren’t paying twenty bucks a CD. You’re on your way to extinction. You need to go out, you need to spend money in order to survive. The labels have cut back so far, everybody in the business has cut back so far, that they’ve surrendered the future to newbies. If you were here, you would have learned this. But, don’t worry, just watch. As the new world emerges and you’re sidelined.”
Related Post – Terry McBride – music should be free
sounds familiar ala Trail of the Dead http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/46782-trail-of-deads-keely-tears-interscope-a-new-one
The labels have so much of an opportunity to run with the current state of this industry but unfortunately they are clueless.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:13 pmmaybe its time to stop thinking about the death of the label and start thinking about how challenging it is for the artist to promote themselves? the death is certain….the new challenges are just as certain.
distribution?
web presence?
web delivery?
creative direction?
these are all things the label handled, but in this new online world that power is at the band’s fingertips. i think the problem is that the problems can be staggering to overcome.
freedom is good but the reality is still there that the responsibility is squarely on the artist. sex, drugs, and rock and roll has turned into……real work.
joshk
December 14th, 2007 at 11:56 pm@josh, yes, good point. It is worth pointing out though that in my recent chats with Kill Rock Stars and Sub Pop their folks told me that the last couple of years have been their best years yet so there’s an argument that this sales slump is just affecting the majors not the indie labels. I suspect that’s because the business models are very dissimilar. Probably could be summed up in one word each for them – majors = waste, indies = thrift. Meanwhile in your four point list the labels only covered one of those points, distribution – the other 3 were mainly left to the artists’ to deal with. What the majors used to supply was a lot of advanced money for signing, recording and touring, they were the merchant bank basically. Well the credit lines have dried up. Your last point, creative direction, is firmly in the hands of the artists so as you say it’s time for the real work to begin….
December 15th, 2007 at 9:46 amFuck the Industry!
December 17th, 2007 at 11:23 am