What now for the music biz

The record industry needed to find something that would save them from themselves. They needed to find the solution before the problem,and now the problem is global and has spiraled out of control…..everyone with their own crosses to bear. With the economy taking such an unprecedented pounding you wouldn’t lay money on the music business having anywhere near an OK year. Mutiny, mass exoduses of bands wanting to find their own solutions to the problem will inspire little confidence in an industry they once looked to as their mentors.

Music industry people like Chris Blackwell and Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert and a smattering of others from the past together with the Michael Lippmans and Paul McGuinesses of the present still retain their mantles and their success is deserving. In their own domain they have successfully managed every part of the process and gained the respect of their artists….but where do the others turn to for guidance. These people have their own houses to keep in order but nowadays what do they see around them, where do they turn find the like minded people of old that they rely on to work with? Where is the support, the back up they once had. Labels believed in their artists and would do everything they could to show that support, they used to inspire one another.

Where are the people who once were so enthusiastic about the music they couldn’t wait to spread the word. They needed to make money but it was the music that drove them. When I first started in the music business in 1974 my immediate boss Ray Cooper was first and foremost a fan, it was why he wanted to work in the music business….he’s still a fan today.Back then we’d spend as much time discussing music on other labels as we did on the stuff we were selling, the same at Island later on…….there didn’t seem to be anyone there who wasn’t there for the right reasons.

Once this was an industry abundant with adventurous, creative people, now it’s an industry scared of risk, frightened by mistake, confused, tried and tested……… and found guilty.

We can hope for change but this isn’t the change President Elect Obama had in mind. This is one thing he or no one else could manage to change. We will look at what happens now in the music industry and if last year was a year of radical change then this year is going to see even bigger change……..and for those that can survive it, good luck.

Filed under: Managing Creativity, record companies , Chris Blackwell, Herb Alpert, Michael Lippman, music industry, Paul McGuinness

Take that …..or leave it

I wouldn’t deprive anyone who worked hard any success but I always maintained Robbie Williams was the luckiest pop star alive. I think his management team have done a marvelous job under the circumstances as I would imagine that at times he’d be a hard act to handle…. he’s prone to doing what he wants, when he wants.

I worked with Take That around ‘Back for Good’ and was there at the press conference when they announced they were calling it a day.They had continued for about a year after Robbie left and there was a lot of love for them but they were feeling they had taken it as far as they could and retired gracefully. When Robbie left Take That I don’t think he acted the same and then went on to have some extra digs at Gary. All the while Gary retained a dignified silence and didn’t enter into any war of words choosing to concentrate on his solo career.

Mark Owen also released his own album around the same time as Gary, brave in itself and was always very supportive of Robbie. When people were looking for a quote or more likely looking to see if Mark would have a dig at his old mate he was genuinely supportive of him and would mention how much he missed him. As the two youngest in the band they shared a lot in those formative years. Not of the band ever showed any animosity towards him even when Robbie was making a fool of himself, tagging on with Oasis at Glastonbury and doing anything just to get noticed.

When he first released his own solo album it bombed and it wasn’t until ‘Angels’ that anyone gave a toss and then for some reason he was propelled in to the stratosphere…..and all from just that one song. Everyone around him worked brilliantly to convince the public of his immense talent when it was just this one very good song. England has always championed the ‘cheeky chappy’ yet here in the US they couldn’t see it, they didn’t know what all the fuss was about. I find it quite amazing to see how he has become the most successful UK male artist ever! Just think of the names he’s been compared with…George Michael, Elton John???? I can’t say I agree……not even close.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Managing Creativity , Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, Take That

Look who’s Back for Good

So Robbie Williams wants to return to Take That…..now there’s a suprise, I wonder why? Well Robbie, nothing lasts forever and I think you’ve had the best of your days….so slipping back now in to a band you walked out on is a little too convenient, especially when their success and comeback has nothing to do with you. The boys crafted their own comeback with a killer single ‘Patience’ and deserve all the praise and the awards that have come their way.

Take That are very smart, they listen and they learn. In the early days they were masterminded by an excellent manager in Nigel Martin Smith….. he was a mini Brian Epstein, he built the band from nothing, had the right ideas and worked very well with the record company, RCA. He worked the band hard with plenty of public appearances where they would perfect their dance routines and build a fan base and he got the record company to support all of that.

Has it really been any different…getting out there and finding out who your fans are? It worked very well, they got their break and they had earned it. All the time the band were listening to others. They were learning and showing a great deal of interest in their own careers……..yet they understood they were young, had no experience and needed guidance. Now they are able to use that knowledge and experience and are getting it right the first time of coming back !

I’m very impressed and delighted for them, they are on the verge of selling a million copies of their new album. It would seem like their career is doing better than his and that’s why he wants in. Take That could end up with the best comeback of all time and could do that quite easily without ‘The Robster.’ That would be very hard for him and his ego to handle, he really thought they’d struggle without him.

He hated Gary being singled out as the only one capable of a sustaining a solo career. When Take That split up Gary’s label BMG mounted a huge promotional campaign for him, one that was aimed at showing the world how successful they could be with the band’s main songwriter. They wanted to turn Gary Barlow in to the new George Michael and I don’t that was fair to Gary…..it’s something that’s typical of record companies, they fail to realize the public is quite happy with one George Michael. In the past did they ever try to give us the new Frank Sinatra, the next Freddie Mercury, Elton John? No, they’d be out there searching for the next big thing and not replicating the last.

Don’t get me started on that…..well not until next time at least.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Managing Creativity, record companies , BMG, Gary Barlow, George Michael, Nigel Martin Smith, Robbie Williams, Take That

Island daze

I miss Island Records but I don’t miss record companies, Island was in a class of it’s own, its a tough one to describe…..you really did have to be there. Now I’m standing from the rooftops and shouting, ‘I was there, tough luck if you weren’t!’

My friend Neil met up with Chris Blackwell, Island Record’s founder last week and it got us talking about those times yet again. There aren’t too many moments in anyone’s career that trigger off the most vivid of memories….. but the merest mention of Island life and we’re away! I was equally as pleased to hear that the two of them had done just the same!…….check out Neil’s blog for more about CB and Island at Neilstorey.blogspot.com

You meet a lot of people in the music industry and you meet a multitude of stars. For me I not only met them but I worked with U2, Bowie, The Police, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Bob Marley…..the list goes on, but when I talk about Island my only regret is that I never met Chris Blackwell. It was probably circumstance more than anything, he commuted between Jamaica, London and New York and I didn’t cover any radio stations there…… I don’t think he was avoiding me! That being said he played a huge role in my career, firstly as a fan of Island music and then professionally.

I can talk about growing up at Island and learning my trade as a promotions guy because I was left alone to do it, left to make my own mistakes. It was much the same script I gave anyone who came to work for me once I set up my own promotion company……go do it, if you fuck up there isn’t anything I can’t pull you out of. Make your own mistakes, I made plenty but they’re exclusive to me! If they made mistakes but identified them and recovered from them they proved themselves to be the right choice. Looking at the people who came and went I think my choices were good…..they went on to become radio presenters, form their own promotion companies, management companies…. and my intern went on to manage Coldplay! I think I emulated Chris Blackwell’s A and R policy, go with your gut instinct and believe in the people you work with. He was the Lion King, he lived in me!

In the early days Chris Blackwell was the A and R department. He found someone, he talked to them, told them how great he thought they were and how he thought he could help their career and boom…they’re signed. Prime example Bob Marley, it worked for both parties. Marley would never have been recognized and gain the popularity he did without Blackwell’s guidance and likewise CB would not have been able to attract new acts to his label if he hadn’t done such a remarkable job with Marley.

He needed to stand proud and look at what had been achieved and build his label from there.That’s the secret of a good record man. I won’t harp on about artist development, scroll down there is plenty of that but what I will say is how vital it is that you have a creative mind and an understanding for what you sign. It isn’t just the music it’s ‘can I work with these people, do we both have the same vision?’ Though Chris didn’t physically sign U2 and it’s been well documented by the man himself, it took just one meeting with them and manager Paul McGuinness to convince him of what his colleagues at Island were saying…..this lot are special. Rob Partridge and Neil Storey had worked long and hard in the early days until Nick ‘the captain’ Stewart stuck the piece of paper under them that said..come join this fabulous place that employs me.

Still to this day I think it was the perfect marriage. No label would have persisted in supporting U2 the way Chris Blackwell and Island did back then and certainly no label would have dared not to interfere. They owed the label so much in the first few years that most people would have stepped in and said ‘Oi, stop pissing my money away, this is how it’s going to be.’ Island knew how to grow with their artists…… through relationships based on mutual respect.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Journey Through The Past, Managing Creativity, Risk, record companies , Add new tag, Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell, Island Records, Neil Storey, Nick Stewart, Rob Partridge, U2

Let’s change the goalposts

OK let’s do normal for a minute….well maybe not then. I often used to think wouldn’t it be great if there was a transfer market in the music industry much the same as in soccer. When you get Real Madrid bidding 75 million for Ronaldo, what could the boy Bono go for? Can you imagine if Radiohead took a dip in sales and they put Thom Yorke on the transfer list and bid 30 million for Bono. It could be a straight payment, part swap where Thom goes to U2. Maybe they even part ex drummers. The popularity of a band might dip if they knew the singer had been transfer listed, it would keep everyone on their toes though.

Just think if Pink Floyd were still touring they could have two subs. If Dave Gilmour lost his voice and it went ‘Comfortably numb’ then they could bring on another singer with a number 12 shirt on. It would be a strategical managerial decision, Dave wasn’t cutting it and his manager would lift a card at the side of the stage and at the end of the number, pull him off. The audience would be cool,they’d understand……it’s tactics

You could make it even better if the band didn’t announce their squad before the gig so you’d have no idea who the sub(special guest) was. It could even change the result, there may be extra time….no penalties though, that may be a little harder.

Look at the publicity, you’d have the photo of the manager and his new artist leaning over the contract and the headline ‘Bono goes to Kiss for 30 million’ If you had someone like Robert Plant who was a great singer but getting on a bit he could maybe go to The Jonas Brothers on a free for the season. What would happen if Sheryl Crow blew it in rehearsals and she was dropped on the night, and her backing band went on and did just instrumentals. If a singer was drunk and off key he could get sent off and again the band would have to play instrumentals. You would have to be strict in the event of a sending off, naturally you wouldn’t e allowed to bring a substitute singer on. It would be the equivalent of playing out for a scoreless draw away from home.

Of course you could get a scenario like Nicolas Anelka though when he was swapping clubs every month,that would attract the greedy agents. Every time an artist went to a band they’d get their 20% so it’s in their own interests for them to move around. It could get messy though because you could have a situation where a four piece have four different managers. It makes it interesting though, don’t you think?

I’m off for a little lie down now……….

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Filed under: Managing Creativity, View from the room , Bono, pink Floyd, transfer deals, band managers

Managing an act today

I don’t think you ever find a good band without good management, certainly never in my experience. I never worked with Peter Grant, who was Led Zeppelin’s manager but he was the one who set the perimeters. He was totally devoted to his band and a brilliant manager. Since then Paul McGuinness with U2, Tony Smith with Genesis and Michael Lippman with Matchbox twenty take some beating. I worked with all of them and they were all great to work with. Apart from great visionaries and having great ideas for their artists they are all good listeners, always wanting to know what was happening with their artists and always asking what they could do from their end to help. Those types of relationships, the plugger with the manager are crucial to the success of an act. They know how to get the very best out of their artists and if you don’t have that you’re wasting your time. Management is not a job to play at, it can be a thankless task. If the group fail then they think the manager is crap and if they succeed then it’s all down to them….they were always brilliant anyway!!! A good manager totally understands that though, they’re used to it.

Nowadays, where you need the artist to do so much for themselves ,it’s the role of manager that has changed. At the top end you need a powerful, influential manager who can act as the buffer between the artist and the record company. Where the record company might want to exert their influence because they have money invested, the manager can ensure protecting their act. Record companies will want to pressurize them to deliver records to suit their projected quarterly targets as a successful act is their lifeline there. No good manager would ever allow that and where they have good management, the record company would be less inclined to ask.

At the other end where the act is unknown it is difficult to secure good management. Some of the more reputable ones are ‘full up’ with no room to take on new acts. Sad but true, it’s the smaller acts that often require the greater work. An unknown manager without a reputation is going to find it hard to get to record companies…apart from them signing fewer and fewer acts, they rarely listen to unsolicited material. What that effectively means is if they don’t know you they won’t listen to what you have. In defense of the record companies, they simply don’t have the resource any longer to wade through endless CD’s of mostly crap artists. With regard to the better managers, it is very hard to spend all the time you need to on an act that is earning you nothing, and at the expense of the one that is…they could get very pissed off and that could jeopardize their managerial position with them. Whichever way you turn you can’t win, but at least the good are wise to that.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Managing Creativity, record companies , Genesis, Matchbox twenty, Michael Lippman, Paul McGuinness, Tony Smith, U2

New order….they did it their way

 Preparation and the different ways people prepare themselves is a vital ingredient to making sure something is successful. It’s important that the way individuals prepare themselves, as well as being professional is something that they are comfortable with. Compromise rarely works, certainly in my experience. If a band was invited on to a TV show and asked to mime then, if this wasn’t to their liking I would rather decline the offer than have them appear. It would have been a disaster for all………if a band was doing something under duress they would do it badly anyway.

 

Sometimes bands are adamant and New Order was always the casing example. When asked to do Top of the Pops back in the UK in the early eighties the BBC told them they had to mime…they told them they didn’t have to do anything.

 

Top of the Pops had been the flagship pop program in the UK for many years and were very aware of their importance to the record companies…and in return they were used to doing it their way. The band weren’t being awkward, they just said if they couldn’t do it live they didn’t want to do it at all. No one had ever said this to the BBC, as TOTP was seen as an important component to the continuing success of a record, a vital cog in the promotional wheel. You appeared and the record went up the charts. New Order appeared, played live and the record dropped the following week! Another first for New Order and for Factory….…and another first for Top of the Pops though I’m not so sure they’d be as keen to mention it…. that had never before happened in the history of the show.

 

You have to admire them for it though, Barney the singer said he’d feel stupid miming and I’m with them on that. They have always been a very popular band and sold millions of records but everything they ever did was of their own doing, rarely from any threat from the label. Factory weren’t like that, they tended to sign artists for their integrity, mostly! and in the belief that they would go away and make the record that the public would want. They might suggest things like a producer or someone they might want to meet and possibly work with but if the band didn’t want to do it, then it was fine.

 

I worked for Factory doing their regional promotion from day one and a continuing relationship that lasted ten years. I have very fond memories of Tony Wilson and the first time I met him and then many years later when I told him about promotion and what to do with Blue Monday…. and I’ll talk plenty more on here about that. Factory comprised of some great people both at the label and in the bands, many of whom I am still in touch with. We all went through some very testing times and it was an emotional rollercoaster. They nearly cost me my business when they went bust owing me a considerable amount of money, too much of a hit to take back then and at any time for that matter but I managed, things changed and I survived. More than the money and more than anything I’ll always remember the day they closed the doors at Factory…for ever.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Journey Through The Past, Managing Creativity, Opportunity , BBC, blue monday, Factory Records, New Order, tony wilson, Top of the Pops

Innovation, education…to plug or not to plug, that is the question

 

Fancy getting paid to go and blabber to someone about music, finish, and then go down the road and do it all over again. It seemed an easy enough way to make a living, and maybe the right time for me to move from sales to promotion anyway. Once I made the decision there was a whole new opportunity in front of me. All the relationships I had built up in the retail sector meant nothing, I now had to go and do it all over again. What I had learned from working in sales however, was vital to my communication skills. I had met a bunch of great people, now I was hoping I would meet a bunch more….but I wanted to write the script.

 

We really did make it up as we went along. I don’t remember any formal training at Island Records, I didn’t take an exam, I don’t have a ‘BA Plug’. I and others like me were employed because it was deemed we were the type of people who could get the job done. Most of what else happens is what you make happen. It’s not really like being a mechanic…….if someone doesn’t teach you how to fix a set of brakes then someone might drive off a cliff, or if your bath malfunctions you may drown. There are basic principles in trades, and you need know the basics to fix the job. Working in the music industry is about who you know as much as what you know, nothing happens until you build relationships………and building relationships takes time.

 

None of us went to any music school, nobody taught us. What for when we had the opportunity to learn from real record people, people like Chris Blackwell, Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. What you learn from music industry courses depends on how innovative that school is. While a teacher may think they know how to teach music business…….  I think you need to have real world education and be taught be people who’ve been there and done it. An academic in the music industry is a recipe for disaster.  Teaching and working with artists are a million miles apart.

 

You can’t teach an artist anything, they are creative people. You need to understand that person and what you need to do to help them be creative. Tell them what to do and you may as well go and look for another job. No teacher could ever have taught me what I learned from my education in the music business. If I was around someone who’d been there and done it, someone who played a part in my initiation to music as a record buyer I was attentive and receptive to their ever word. I wanted to learn from their experiences. You don’t want to be them but you are inspired by what they have done and strive for that level of accomplishment. My mentors were my vision of where I wanted to go.

 

That pedigree of music industry person no longer exists and has a lot to do with why the industry has declined.  These people and others like them, made the music industry a better place to be.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Business Lessons, Innovation, Journey Through The Past, Managing Creativity, Opportunity , Add new tag, Ahmet Ertegun, building relationships, Chris Blackwell, Herb Alpert, Innovation, Island Records, Jerry Moss, music education, plugging records

Get up, stand up..Creative Failure

 You would never think two words like creativity and failure would go together at all, but they do. ‘Fail’ always sounds such an extreme word, so final……….when most of the time failure is just the beginning to success. It might not be success with the first thing you ever attempt but it’s the experience you gain from failure that will help you to succeed

 

I have valued most everything I ever went in to as an adventure, an exercise in knowledge and experience. Of course some bring you heartache at the time, but if I didn’t think I had learned from that experience I would never try anything again, would I?  I never questioned my decision in trying something. Once I made the decision to go for it then I just set out to make it a success. Some of the things that might happen along the way may be out of your control but still, that’s a lesson too. Sometimes it can be as simple as ‘wrong time’ That’s Ok. Next time just make sure it’s the right time. Failure comes from risk, just as opportunity and success do. It’s always the right decision…provided you move forward from the experience.

 

Most successful people have failed, and many of them several times. You don’t think successful people fail…..but they do…. the difference is they don’t see it as failure, more something of value. With some there is a stigma attached to failure, they see it as embarrassment. That should never be the case. Where is the shame in taking a risk, in showing that you are prepared to take that chance? I personally think it is the opposite and that people who take risks are admired, certainly in business. The greatest the risk can mean the greater the reward.

 

When I first met Simon Cowell in the early 90’s he was 30, he’d been bankrupt twice and was living with his parents. That stopped you in your tracks didn’t it! You would never equate Simon Cowell with failure but he has seen failure as much as anyone. What makes him special is his ability to get up, dust himself down and make sure whatever went wrong doesn’t happen again. He has had failures but still doesn’t accept the meaning of the word, they’re more setbacks, a bit of a nuisance! He shows great character and resilience and has that determination to make things work. Obviously it’s a lot easier now for him with money in the bank, but he still does it at the risk of failure. He still sees opportunities there and he wants to take them. He hardly needs the money, but he relishes the challenge.

 

Simon was always an entertaining character. When I used to promote his records when he was at BMG he would drive me mad at times. I’d have these conversations with him and try to explain why people didn’t play records by glove puppets like Zig and Zag or ‘The Power Rangers’ but he still would insist they were hits. ‘Yes’ I’d say ‘but it won’t be down to me getting them played!’ You just gave up in the end and agreed to disagree. Simon’s big break came from a couple of actors in the UK and a cover version of the Righteous Brothers’ ‘Unchained melody’ It became the biggest selling record of the year but to most people they were just a couple of good looking guys with a popular TV show, certainly not singers. Simon Cowell spent months and months persuading them to make a record, offering them ludicrous sums of money until eventually they relented, like we all did but without the cash!

Filed under: Business Lessons, Managing Creativity, Opportunity, Risk , Add new tag, BMG, creative failure, creativity, failure, Risk, smon cowell, tony michaelides

Come out come out wherever you are….

Sometimes though, managing creativity can be a whoooole new ball game, more a farce than a creative force! Artists can be wonderful human beings…..they can be pleasant, creative, interesting and fun to be with. There are the times however, when you are their mother…….their brother, their sister and their dad. Oh the times I’ve wanted to send an artist to their room with no tea…. ground them, better still flog them.

 

Adjectives you might use to describe artists can have double meaning……..driven can mean driving you mad, creative…..creating mayhem, imaginative, on another planet. Prolific….total pain in the ass. Confident… swagger, arrogance and I want to thump you, you twat. Far out…..further the better!

 

Adventurous………meandering, a wanderer……. Read on

 

There was the time I found the singer of a band, who shall remain nameless in a broom cupboard at the back of the make up room with…………you guessed it, the make up artist who he’d been flirting with all day. We were at a TV station, again which shall remain nameless and to protect the innocent who may now be a Sunday school teacher for all I know. I never came to Blogsville to dish the dirt and I don’t intend to now. I’m content  in the ability of the stories to paint a picture without attaching names for the sake of scandal….I think we all see plenty of that everywhere. On the contrary if they inspired, motivated, were peers, icons or whatever then that’s fine, you’ll find out who they were. If they shagged, got busted or overdosed then it’s nobody’s business.

 

Anyway, I digress…… I had been repeatedly been telling him you’ll be needed at this time so don’t go far and I suppose for him the broom cupboard at the back of make up wasn’t far. This, after all the hard work I’d done to secure a prime time TV for this lot and the last thing I needed was the run around from Mr. Shag.  It becomes tiresome but being on the look out came with the territory. You had to have eyes and ears everywhere. A plugger on call is someone who is constantly watching, constantly looking……to see where their damn artist has gone. Plugger’s code was ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are’……. The artist’s doctrine, ‘I am therefore I will……’

 

There’s no point getting pissed off with them because next time he’ll think taking her back to his hotel is doing the sensible thing, and he’ll miss the show altogether. And later on when I did have a quiet word with him he said he was nervous. Nervous sex, there’s a new one! I had to deal with managing a kind of nervous sexual creativity….. And then diplomatically you can’t really tell anyone.  I couldn’t tell the band’s manager, he’d have killed the lot of us, I couldn’t tell the floor manager, the girl would have been sacked, and I couldn’t tell the record company because I’d have got my ass kicked…… And I could hardly tell the girl he was so nervous he needed to have sex with her in a broom cupboard, she’d be mortified…oh, and thank you for doing it somewhere I could find you both, most considerate. Suprising too that  on set his make up appeared a little rushed that day….

 

You see confident as they can appear on the exterior, artists can be incredibly nervous, terrified of failure. It explains, though never condones them getting off their faces. Then sex as a tension reliever….it happens. Well maybe for the artist, I couldn’t quite see any of us backroom boys/girls getting away with it. Maybe if you were nervous about getting a record on the playlist  you sneak the Head of Music in to the record library for a little ‘convincing’ ……depending on your gender and/or persuasion. Maybe a brief soiree with the TV researcher?. I don’t think so…..

 

 

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Business Lessons, Managing Creativity , Add new tag, lead singers, Management, Managing Creativity, musicians, record pluggers, tony michaelides