rick rubin, music man, the backlash
Today’s New York Times Magazine was flung, as usual, far into the bushes of The Moose Mansion by our delivery person but after rescuing it from the shrubbery I was startled to discover that music lovers know what they want! The letters page was full of missives from folks with an opinion about Rick and corporate music in America. 2 thumbs up. Here’s a sample -
“I was both fascinated and amused by the profile of Rick Rubin. Corporate America, regardless of who is at the helm, can profoundly mess things up. Columbia sets up a “Big Red” focus group of folks in their 20s and picks their brains to find out how they make their music choices. It discovers that word of mouth is how these young adults select their music. Columbia promptly sets up a word-of-mouth department. I have no clue about how to run a huge music company, but I do know that if you produce really great music, you don’t need a word-of-mouth department.” - Richard Cook
“The suggestion that artists give record companies up to 50 percent of their touring and merchandising revenue — revenue streams in which record companies play no significant part — shows the degree to which record companies have lost the plot. The functions of production and distribution that record companies traditionally performed have been eclipsed by software and the Internet. Yet, curiously, though Rick Rubin recognizes this, he continues to play on as the ship sinks.” - Jacob Tummon
“It is sad to say that after all these years, all that great music, the triumph of Cash’s “Hurt,” Rubin still doesn’t get it. People do not want to pay $20 a month for all the music in the world — and if they stop paying, whoosh, it’s gone! They want to pay 99 cents for songs that they own and that they get to keep — and only the music they want. All that other music is not worth one thin dime. Rubin says subscription is the only way. Rubin is wrong. Giving people what they want is the only way. Thank God, Steve Jobs gets it; otherwise, Columbia truly is doomed.” - Mary E. Tyler
“Rubin wants to push Columbia Records into going “green” by eliminating the plastic jewel boxes that contain the CDs it sells — presumably because he is concerned about the environment. Yet he drives a Range Rover (a gas guzzler if ever there was one) and drinks the purest bottled water he can find (petroleum again expended to transport, package and refrigerate it). All too often, I find, celebrities and politicians can’t walk it like they talk it.” - Tim Wilson
“Strip away the beard, the faux aura of Buddhism, the vague mumblings about art and Rick Rubin resembles no one so much as that other nonmusician, salesman and promoter of popular music, Simon Cowell. The value of both men to the music industry rests primarily on their ability to keep a firm thumb on the always-fluttering prepubescent pulse. The dilemma for such impresarios is the same as it is for all sellers of nonessential, disposable goods: how to convince a mass audience to continue buying what they don’t really need.” - Brian C. Witter
“The music business needs a lot more than a guru in a white robe. It needs to stop trying to appeal exclusively to 13-year-olds. We’ve had decades of kiddie music. Now perhaps it’s time to cut our way out of the thump, thump, twang, twang, harmonically challenged, lyrically obliterated adolescent straitjacket.” - M. Hunter
Related Posts: Rick Rubin tries to save Columbia Records, Advanced Operators
September 16th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Some of these comments have merit; I am curious as to why Rubin wants to remain allied with the old guard. However the comparison to Simon Cowell is a little much. Rubin is clearly a brilliant producer and a genuine music enthusiast (a la Wexler and Hammond).
September 16th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I think the best retort is the one about Columbia realizing that word of mouth is the best way to get the word out about music - so Columbia sets up a word of mouth operation….mmmmm. And agreed, Cowell and Rubin are miles apart in one way but joined at the hip another. That’s the state of music today….
September 16th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Rubin remains allied with the old guard because he is one of them. I live in the thick of the old school music industry and, trust me, Rubin is being an innovator compared to most. The good ol’ boys are losing control and they are still unwilling to admit that they don’t know what will happen next. Rubin is putting on a strong front to lead his crew, albeit from his house in Malibu. Let’s wish them all the best of luck. Being in charge of a sinking ship has got to be a crappy job.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Wow! Those are some pretty harsh comments. I think the music industry has a much bigger problem than how to make money. Even if they figured out some distribution system that made everyone happy, they still have to overcome close to a decade now of label hatred. Listeners feel lied to and like the blinders have been pulled off. That will be a hard genie to put back in the bottle!
September 17th, 2007 at 8:38 am
well when you have a bunch of eccentrics running around doing it the old way, its going to be difficult to tell them that they need to change their ways.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Hey Justin, I could be wrong about this but I don’t think the public at large understands that major labels are in trouble. I have two younger brothers (one in high school, one in college) and discovering new music via friends or the web is the norm for them. They rarely buy retail CD’s or listen mainstream radio. I think “label hatred” comes from the minority of folks who are paying attention or who remember what the music climate was like twenty-plus years ago. For my brothers, itunes or limewire are the new “labels.”
September 17th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I think most of these comments are warranted. I honestly haven’t been impressed with Rubin’s output for over a decade (and the Johnny Cash Collaboration started before that).
I think the big problem with the music industry is that its forgetting the big picture of how popular music has always been marketed - not just by identifying market niches and coming up with new promotional schemes, but by promoting artists as representatives and interpretors of a certain Lifestyle. I think the only genre that has been doing that for the last decade has been Rap\Hip-Hop, thus its chart dominance. I suppose you could argue that country has done so as well.
Two huge genres - Rock and Pop - have totally lost their way in this regard. Rock tried the ultra-depressing thing around 2000, and has more or less stuck with it, even as the bands have gotten younger. I’m not surprised its not selling well. As for pop, Britney Spears seems to exist as the living embodiment of Pop’s journey in this decade. Too much celebrity, not enough music, both of which were manufactured with too-early expiration dates.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I don’t know much about his business savvy or his plan at Columbia (I haven’t read the NYT profile), but Rick Rubin is still a brilliant producer with an intimidating body of work (Justin, you didn’t like the Billy Squire sample in his “99 Problems” cover with Jay-Z?!? Effing brilliant!).
Richard Cook’s comment about “really great music” says it all. Or, as Doug Stanhope puts it, have you ever seen illegal drugs advertised? No. You don’t have to. A good product sells regardless.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Kyra, I feel that he’ll need more than luck. The old guard are probably licking their lips this morning if they’ve been following the thread through to the letters page yesterday. My position is that I believe Rubin is wrong when he talks about subscription models - they may work for an upper demo but definitely don’t work for the younger kids who simply have access to music all of the time and don’t need to own music like past generations did. Take the iPhone and iPod Touch…wi-fi enabled which on first blush seems like a smart Apple idea to drive listeners to the Apple online store. yes for sure, but it also means you can sit and listen to all the cool streaming music sites on the web and not have to pay for the music….
September 17th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I don’t get the subscription model—if one were to possess a portable device capable of delivering on-demand services they could easily log onto one of the many decent internet sites and get music for ‘free’. Otherwise, the device would have to follow a model similar to satellite radio—yes?—and how’s biz for that concept going?
As for the man: I can think of few producers with more credibility in the bank then Rubin. Regardless of his recent work, his impressive resume as a pioneer of hip hop production makes him hall of fame worthy. I’m surprised by the lack of respect shown—when was the last time George Martin produced anything great? And yet he is viewed as one of the best producers of all time—and rightfully so! I hardly think Rubin should be penalized for continuing to work in his field. His legacy as a producer is secure regardless of what he does as an executive.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
The question of course will always be “why did Rubin think he could turn Columbia around?” Maybe he will maybe he won’t…
September 18th, 2007 at 6:05 am
To interject my pessemism again… I think the real question is “Why did Columbia embark on a press campaign to let consumers know that Rubin would be working for them and trying to “turn them around’.”
It may be that Rubin has already served his primary function for Columbia: making them look flexible, new, and anti-corporate establishment. If Rubin, buddhism aside, is a self-promoter who has always courted the musical mainstream. Thats why he’s working for Columbia.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Yes, good point. But I’ve never seen Rubin as a self-promoter really. His reknown has come from his ability to spot the talent and then spot the best songs - as the article pointed out. Turning Columbia around will be like plugging the hole on the Titanic as it was going down I’m afraid…..also in related news keep an eye on what’s happening over at the newly-privatized EMI Records.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
[Posted by Nick - music@cincan.org]
[This might drift slightly off topic]
I’m curious as to how someone like Steve Albini or the guys over at Negativland are weighing in on this . I’m sure everyone remembers Steve’s essay on “The Problem With Music”: http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
The somewhat recent re-focusing on the dying Dinosaur sounds very similar to the big conversation and controversy that went on back in 1999/2000. Back then, there was a lot of false hope about change, followed by disappointment when tech companies decided to just “work” (read: “sleep”) with the then “Big 5″. Things these days seem much more real in terms of the ‘end of the Industry’ as it exists now. The transformation of the web and a new generation of somewhat “informed” web-savvy users/music lovers has really opened up the possibility for things to change.
Nevertheless, if the entire model for the industry were to change tomorrow there would be a large catalog of music up through now that would still be tied up in copyright law and held hostage by the likes of the RIAA. Maybe aim should again be taken at the good old RIAA, all of the cronies associated with them and the current state copyright law, not to mention DRM and it’s co-conspirators….no, wait - that’s crazy talk…
…yeah…I’ll lay off the coffee for the rest of the day :)
August 29th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I have to disagree about people not wanting the subscription model. I’m a huge lover of music and have friends around the country that are the same. For them to be able to say “have you checked out Boris?” and have the ability to log onto Rhapsody and crank Smile up through my speakers is fantastic. Fuck iTunes. I don’t want to buy singles or entire albums that way, I wanna spark up a joint in my basement and turn on Rhapsody and listen to an album front to back. Then if the reccomendation says “people who like The Church like…” I might give it a try. If I’m feeling nostalgic for some old Ronnie Milsap cause mamma raised me on it, well I can spin an album from Rhapsody that way also. Steve Jobs doesn’t get shit about the music industry or what constitutes great music. He does however get that people want convienience and ease of use and he has delivered. But these times of listening to what the artist considers a piece of work front to back are dying and I understand that but I still dig it. Charging by the song is new wine in an old bottle akin to the single. Rhapsody may not be the future but the subscription model is by far the best in my book right now. When you can logon and set up your playlist in advance of taking that two hour ride down to P-town and hop in your car and turn on your satellite connected Rhapsody, I’ll be enjoying that as well.