Customer Reviews

Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business: Why So Much Music You Hear Sucks

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came across this book at my local library. After looking through it, I decided to check it out. This book, written by someone who works in the music biz is a must read for not only musicians but music lovers as well.

The author, a veteran of the music biz shows why music sales are down & why blame for that goes to the music biz itself. From forcing VERY bad music down our throats to briding radio stations to play this music. Also forcusing only on the youth despite the fact that they make up only a small % of those who actually buy music (fact is most music buyers are older folks & 60% of all music sales are back-log catalog or reissues). It's not surprising that people have either stopped buying music altogether or go online to look for the music they want.

Broadacst radio is also in the same boat as we see more & fewer stations
being owned by fewer and fewer owners, there's a decrease in musical diversity on-air. Thus causing an exdous of people towards satelle & internet radio.

Then there's the record companies screwing over their artists. One artist in the book went from going Gold (selling half a million copies) to flipping burgers.

I can keep going, but you're find out more in the book. Also "The label: the story of Columbia Records" by Gary Marmorstein is also worth reading.

For more than two generations the music industry behaved as if they had us all by the short and curly. They controlled the source, the prices and the demand. Then all hell broke loose - and they are still running.

It had been always easier and more profitable to promote untalented signers or groups bootstrapped together with a lot of image and little else than having to deal with really talented artists. Real artists last long enough to start making demands and if they are not met they can always take their talent elsewhere. In contrast, untalented posers are a dime a dozen. And are all willing to waste their lives for fame, maybe some drugs and some short-lived adoration (p.237).

Promoting far lesser talents was never a problem as the music industry has always been hand-in-hand with most radio producers. Payola-and-plugola scandals never seem to go out of fashion, from the 1960's in California to some years ago with SONY-BMG in New York. Ever wondered why most radio stations play the same drivel over and over and ignore both indie groups and older songs? And how exactly did you think "hits" are made? Not ..."listeners' requests" I hope! (p.105)
It was like the Cola Company controlling both our taste-buds and our thirst center - and then going on selling watered-down soft drinks for the price of a four-course meal.

So, the geniuses running the music industry kept picking stars-to-be from the lazy-yet-ambitious crowd and paid them close to nothing ("sure, you bring in millions son, but all that money goes to production and promotion expenses, see. I hardly break even myself"). When their shooting stardom faded, they simply discarded them and moved on to the next star-system victim. It was a well-oiled machine. It made billions - just not for the people we thought it did (p.259).

Then, in the early-90's a group of inventive Germans came up with the mp3 sound-compression and the sky fell in. Even with the first slow internet connections, downloading a song of quality comparable to that of a CD took about 10minutes. Sure, it was not exactly kosher but what was worse: downloading a song you could hear on the radio for free or asking half a day's wages for a CD that was not only half empty but it also contained only a single good song - the rest was known as filler? NAPSTER, GROKSTER, KAZAA and then torrents - there was simply no closing the flood-gates once they had burst open.

So what did the music industry do? First thing they came up with was the "let's make our customers pay for the same music again and again" policy. They lobbied for (and, being a wealthy industry, of course got) draconian "intellectual property rights" that make any form of sharing or reselling illegal. The long arm of RIAA in effect, is run just like a shakedown (p.277).
Now, try to imagine Chrysler getting second-hand car sales to be illegal only to enhance its own sales - would that make any (legal or moral) sense?

They also discovered TV talent Shows. Enter the clowns - and make them run faster. Talent shows not only equate "success" with slave-labor contracts but they also provide the music industry with numerous fresh pools of semi-trained singers. No more need for the Milli-Vanillis of the world to lip-sing. Their new boys and girls may still be ephemeral but they can more or less sing by themselves.
But it's a battle already lost. When an industry makes more money from suing its former customers than from selling its product (that becomes more irrelevant every day), you just know they are way past the point of no return.

Intrigued? Well, this book tells the whole story with far more details and far juicer tidbits. The writer is a music industry insider and has no qualms backing his claims with a lot of inside information. It is an easy read and it even has a chapter on Amazon.

A MUST READ FOR ANY MUSIC BUYER!
(and any PC Gamer I am afraid, as the Gaming industry is following in exactly the same footsteps)

This interesting little tome blows off the cover of all of the dirty little secrets of the music business, and boy, are there a lot of them. The recording industry is quite possibly one of the scuzziest industries out there, especially for wide-eyed young people who want to be the next big pop or rock star. This book lays out the recording industry in all its naked glory (or ugliness depending on what your point of view is) and how we have arrived where we are today with popular music. For those of you who think the last 20 years or so have been a vast cultural wasteland for the most part, this book explains how we got there and the fairly gloomy outlook there is on the horizon. Here you will see why a triple platinum artist ends up owning his own company money as they companies systematically ripped off early artists. You will also see how in the 60s-80s, companies tended to develop artists over extended periods of time to bring true masters, instead of the quick buck that has manufactured (and I mean manufactured-there is nothing original about them) such cultural travesties today as Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, LMFAO, Katy Perry and yes, even to a small extent, Lady Gaga. Originality left the music industry a long time ago, and this book explains the whole sordid story. But it also points out that there is a glimmer of hope that real talent can come back to the radio. Let's hope he's right.

Scam, scam, scam, one cut sounds good, on a CD of say ten cuts, and then things like "Junk Music" you know electronic this, and electronic that, and bogus lyrics about nonsense subjects. Then there comes the lyrics that are outrageous, where women are refered to as bit**hes and hos', the kind of thing that got Imus fired. So let us also fire the recording excutives who allow these lyrics to be in the music in the first place. No matter how one tries one cannot justify the constant use of these terms. For artistic expression, or otherwise. So no wonder people go to the internet to download their music just to get what they want, and leave the fill in garbage behind. The recording industry has indeed shot itself in both feet, and instead of looking at itself, they blame everyone else. Including the public they have so misused over the years.

Here is a book turning back the veil and giving everyone a look see at what lies beneath. All the scams, aganist the artists, and the buying public as well. Then there is something called market friendly music, somewhat cookie cutter music, instead of the true expressions of the artists. Recording excutives telling you what you want to listen to instead of music which may or may not determine how long said artist's career will be.

Let us not speak of independant recording companies, there are very, very few, if any they are all owned by Universal, Sony, or some other big company. Again designed to have absolute control.

Thinking of a recording career make this book a must read, to give you a heads up.

While DLSOTRB:WSMMYHS is an entertaining and at times fascinating read, I found little new information. Instead it offers further evidence of the endemic corruption within the record and radio industries. Still I can recomend it, particularly as an introduction to the harsh realities that face those who seek success as recording artists. Makes a good companion to Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

IN READING "DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS OF THE RECORD BUSINESS" I COULDN'T HELP MAKE THE CONNECTION TO DON BRUNS'S FICTION SERIES, FEATURING MICK SEVER, A MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST. SO MANY OF THE FICTIONAL ADVENTURES IN BRUNS'S SERIES RELATE TO HANK BORDOWITZ'S NON FICTION, EYE-OPENING INSIGHTS. THE LATEST BRUNS' MYSTERY, "ST BARTS BREAKDOWN", SEEMS LIKE IT'S RIGHT OUT OF CURRENT EVENTS. FOR ANY ONE INTERESTED IN THE UNSEEMLY OR SEEDY SIDE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, I'D RECOMMEND "DIRTY SECRETS" AND "ST BARTS BREAKDOWN".