Watch out — this month's column sees Big George in fighting mood...
The other day I was talking to the SOS team about the content of this month's column. I was going to provide an overview of the various societies with which makers of music (that's you) can align themselves. However, I was pointed in the direction of a web page written, with venom, by Nirvana producer Steve Albini (www.negativland.com/albini.html). The site hosts a babbling rant about how the American record industry is literally destroying talent before it starts, on signing a contract and about having a hit. Whether we actually care what happens to artists in the USA or not, the fact is that what's true for them usually becomes true for us.
Hobson's Choice
The British record industry at the moment is split in two. On one side is a handful of majors (who own and control the significant small labels — if not this week, then definitely by the end of the year), all of whom seem hell‑bent on imploding. Every month there seems to be another multinational corporate takeover involving a once‑honourable name in the record industry. Labels are dropping up to 75 percent of their rosters, including many established and/or financially successful acts, in favour of a few hyped‑up big names. You'll know who I'm talking about, as they're the ones that have six‑foot cardboard cut‑outs in every record outlet in the world, promoting their latest bland offering. (Yes, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Boyzone, Britney Spears — I'm talking about you!)
The polarisation of the traditional major labels has given rise to the other side of the music business: the goldrush of dot.com enterprises. For no money down, you too can join a catalogue numbering tens of thousands of new artists, including all manner of unlistenable tosh. There's little or no quality control, coupled with no professional guidance and zero radio and TV exposure. But there's always the chance that you might, just might, sell one copy.
And there are yet more problems in the disaster zone we know as the music industry. Aiding it in the quest to eradicate all natural talent are the shops that sell records and the media (TV and, in particular, radio), who seem to want to encourage the lowest common denominator in entertainment.
Almost everyone who creates music in this country reads SOS (and that includes the most successful producers, programmers and artists), so let's get together and do something about this state of affairs. We need to reclaim our industry back from the promotion departments and the accountants. Earlier this year I begged you to send some of your work to your local FM radio station for them to play, but have you? (Why do I bother?) Now I'm offering you a second chance to remove your apathetic thumb from your arse and do something. Here's the idea...
The Plan Of Action
1. Send one track (that's ONE track, not your entire lifetime's output), in your preferred format, to your local FM station, as well as your local BBC station, Virgin Radio, XFM in London and the Radio 1FM show/s of your choice.
2. Four days after you've sent it, I want you to ring everyone you've sent material to and ask if they've received your work. If they say they haven't, offer to bring another copy in personally. They will tell you that's not a good idea. Ask them why not, and then get the name of a producer or someone in programme control and send the material again, directly to them. And follow it up four days later.
3. When they tell you they won't be able to play your track, ask them: (i) why not? (ii) what you would need to do for them to play your track on air, and (iii) what criteria they use to select the music they do play.
4. If you're not satisfied with the response you receive, contact the Radio Authority and tell them you're totally unsatisfied with the way the radio station in question serves you.
5. If you have a CD to sell, go into all the major chain stores that sell CDs in your area and ask if they will stock your product. They will say no! Demand to see the manager and ask why they won't stock your music, which will generate HUGE local demand? After they have given you a totally unsatisfactory answer (they may well not even know why they can't stock it), ask for the address of their head office and the name of the chief record buyer.
6. Write to the head offices of all the stores you've tried, asking them to stock your product locally. If they refuse, write to them again asking them to state their reasons.
7. Send your music to whatever TV music show you think it would be best exhibited on. After four days, call the production company who make the show (their name is always the last thing in the credits) and ask what the possibility is of you or your music appearing on their next production.
Fight The Good Fight
This is all I want you to do at this point in the war — and make no mistake, we (as the creative element of the music industry) are at war with the suits who have stolen our industry from us. If everyone reading this column acts on the above 7‑point plan, we'll start to change the way the industry conducts its business. If you can't be bothered, you deserve the treatment you get.
And don't think that not knowing an address or telephone number is a valid reason to do nothing. Every library in the country has a reference section, and the extremely nice librarian will provide you with every assistance as you locate the relevant contact details. If you can't make it to your local library, pick up the phone, dial 192 and ask directory enquiries to sort it out for you (this service is free if you access it from a payphone!). The important thing is that you do something, and do it now. Otherwise there will be no industry left for you to work in.
Let Big George Tell You A Story...
Not so long ago I was in the West Coast USA office of arguably the biggest record and entertainment company ever to exist. It's a multinational which spent the last two decades of the 20th century devouring dozens of major record, film, publishing and hardware companies. I was the guest of a senior producer, who had formerly been a chief executive of one of the companies which was taken over.
I sat in his office while he played me track after track after track of great new artists that had come his way, all of whom either hadn't had a deal, or would be destroyed by one before their first album was mixed. We drank a lot of coffee and he reminisced about the good old days, when the company he was emotionally part of, as well as merely employed by, was alive with music. The picture he painted was of every office in the building playing music all day long; of the daily cries of "come and listen to this", at which everyone would crowd into one office listening to a gem that someone had found, been sent or cut the previous night. He told me that every employee, regardless of their position, would be listening to music all day long, talking about music to whoever they saw, and taking music home with them at the end of their working day.
He then went on to explain how different things had become. To highlight the point, he took me round the 10 floors of the building, where not a single office was playing music. The entire place was silent; no‑one was talking about music — no‑one seemed to be interested in music! In fact, the only thing I noticed going on was the TV showing the stock‑market prices.
This Is Not A Drill
Whoever you are, and no matter how sure you are that you'll make it (ha ha ha — the phrase always makes me laugh, and so many people still use it), I want you to do everything I've mentioned, and more. Let's shake up the self‑important marketing pillocks with Business Studies degrees and the tone‑deaf accountants who make all the creative decisions in the entertainment industry.
Let me know what happens, who said what and when they said it, and generally how you were dealt with. And that means all of you! I want Postman Pat to get a hernia delivering the mailbags to me here at SOS.
Alternatively, you can email me at big.george@soundonsound.com. Should you so desire, you can access most of my previous scribblings for SOS through my web site (www.biggeorge.co.uk).