MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES: IT’S A CULTURAL THING

Many people believe that Apple dominate the paid music market by way of the enormously popular iTunes brand. The general consensus has been that the public haven’t changed their behaviour towards music; people are willing to purchase their favourite songs in order to be able to play these songs as and when they choose to.

The concept of music subscription services or “streaming” music services is a relatively new process, however it is changing the manner in which the public are willing to pay for and listen to their favourite songs.

Recent data has revealed that about 20 million people worldwide pay a monthly fee to listen to music on the Internet. Sweden, South Korea and France lead the way in this cultural change, with music subscription services outweighing paid download services three-fold. Interestingly, the largest music markets [USA, UK, Germany and Japan] still favour the paid download service.

QUESTION: Why is this happening?

ANSWER: Smart-phones.

Music lovers appear to be happy to pay about USD$10.00 per month in order to hear their favourite tunes via their smart-phones 24/7. This change in mindset has forced Apple to strategise a music streaming service, in order to stay competitive with the likes of Spotify and Google.

But what about the recently revamped MySpace music streaming service? The public can join MySpace for free, and choose from an impressive catalogue of songs for free.

Music copyright owners probably aren’t making as much money today compared to previous generations, however the general public have never had a better opportunity to listen to music for next to nothing [or nothing at all!!].

THE CONTINUING DECLINE IN MECHANICAL ROYALITIES

A composer’s ability to sustain a livelihood from the collection of mechanical royalties remains in serious doubt.

Recent studies released in Australia indicate that 1 in 5 people are most likely to illegally download music from the Internet or share files from other illegal sources.

If we delve deeper into this study, it has been revealed that 30% of these people earn in excess of $100,000.00 per annum and almost half of the study group are less than 30 years old.

This shift in consumer sentiment towards not paying for music suggests that the 18-35 age group continue to love music and they certainly have the financial resources to acquire music, however they are merely reacting to a changing culture in the marketplace. It’s very easy to forget that the first instances of “pirated” on-line music occurred more than 15 years ago, thus the youth market know no other way than to acquire music on a free basis.

In Australia, the physical music retailer almost ceases to exist, other than corporate models which aggregate DVDs, computers, televisions and phone technology for retail sale. As it stands, the range of recorded music for physical sale is limited to known artists, thus emerging artists have an extremely low success rate of gaining an audience in this manner.

Whether we like it or not, music composers are compelled to “give away” their work with respect to the traditional retail sense, on the hope that an audience is gained via touring, cyberspace or television/ movie licensing.

It’s a lot of money to forgo, however you can’t fight progress…

VALE GREG QUILL

Australian and Canadian music fans alike are mourning the passing of respected singer-songwriter and journalist Greg Quill.

Quill enjoyed minor success in 1972 as the lead singer for Australian roots band Country Radio; their single “Gypsy Queen” [written by Quill and the equally-respected Kerryn Tolhurst] continues to identify with the greater music audience by way of radio airplay and movie soundtracks. Country Radio disbanded soon after, and Quill’s 1974 debut solo album earned him a travel grant from the Australian Arts Council and a destination of Toronto, Canada.

Whilst critical acclaim for his music was always at hand, commercial solo success eluded Quill thus he returned to Australia in the late 1970’s to form the country-rock band Southern Flyer. Quill bounced between Australia and Canada as he sought an accepting audience for his music however Toronto became his permanent home for the most unexpected reason.

Quill’s musical talent extended to journalistic writing. During his early days as a musician in Australia, Quill also wrote for the popular local music magazine “Go-Set”. The desire to write never disappeared, and Quill’s ad hoc contributions to Canadian music publications saw him land the coveted role as Entertainment Reporter for the Toronto Star, of which he held until his passing.

A “musician’s musician” rather than a bone fide star, Quill leaves behind a unique legacy with his dual artist talents. His colleagues remember him as a man of humility who rarely spoke about his “time in the sun”; not because he held any resentment about his music career, rather he was comfortable with his place in the industry.

QUIET PLEASE! THE LIBRARY IS FOR PERFORMING ARTISTS

The global music industry has markedly changed over the past 5 years; not only has the manner in which we listen to and purchase music changed forever, we must also confront the changes in play in which we “view” live performing artists.

Australia’s music industry was built around the live music scene; in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s you could enjoy a live music performance 7 nights a week and 365 days a year. These music venues were also licensed to serve alcohol and to allow patrons to gamble, thus the owners of such businesses enjoyed healthy profits for many years. Over the past decade, the Australian government has passed legislation to control the level of gambling and smoking in public places, resulting in many music venues closing their doors.

Australia’s ability to foster new music talent by way of live music performances has been stymied by the progressive closure of these venues; as such local Council representatives have unveiled an unorthodox plan to reinvigorate our live music scene.

Public libraries…

So long the embodiment of a venue of “silence” to enable the public to read and research, many libraries in the major Australian cities are hosting evening live music performances in order to entertain a public who is hungry to hear new artists.

Whilst this contravenes the historical mindset of listening to a live music performance at ear-splitting volume and being showered with sweat and alcohol, the library performances are predominantly in acoustic mode and they enable the audience to “sit down and listen” to the music at close range.

In an era when people are purchasing “virtual” books and book retailers are also closing their doors, maybe [just maybe] the arts of music and reading can join hands and save themselves concurrently…

WHAT CAN LUCIAN GRANGE DO THAT GUY HANDS COULDN’T?

With Universal finally completing the protracted takeover of EMI, the music world watches on with bated breath to determine the business acumen of Universal’s chief Lucian Grange. As a heads up, Grange has bold plans for the mega music label.

In a move best described as entrepreneurial, Grange will launch a new imprint [Virgin EMI] for new and unsigned British acts, as well as launching a UK-version of the iconic North American label Capitol Records.

Some may scratch their heads at the rationale behind the huge investment, however we need to dig deeper to discover as to how Grange can budget for such a risk. It’s all about timing…

In late 2011, Grange commenced his full acquisition of EMI on the condition that Universal would pay Citibank [the appointed Receiver of EMI] their asking price regardless of the European Commission’s anti-trust investigation of the transaction. History tells us that Universal was forced to offload the Parlophone label to Warner Music, albeit the global equity markets began to rally to the benefit of media stocks. The end result is that Grange has acquired two-thirds of EMI for fifty percent of the 2011 asking price.

Grange is both a traditionalist and a visionary when it comes to the music business. Universal controls the sound recordings of artists ranging from the Beatles to Motown acts to Eminem; this is a guaranteed cash flow for generations to come. At the same time, the 2012 “Gangnam Style” frenzy has inspired Grange to realise how huge profits can be made in music by employing new and different media to promote popular artists.

Guy Hands [former EMI boss] was a private equity specialist, whereas Lucian Grange has spent his entire career working for record labels. Hands paid far too much for EMI in the middle of global financial unrest, whereas Grange appears to have timed the closure of this acquisition for a good price and at a time when recorded music sales have displayed a positive turnaround. The music industry has changed forever, however the industry still requires well-credentialed music people to run a corporate music label.

EMI & UNIVERSAL – THE MUSICAL FALLOUT CONTINUES.

Commonsense and history suggests that the merger and acquisition of 2 music corporate giants would result in some unprecedented activity. The story of EMI, Universal and Ultravox confirms this theory.

Music lovers of the early-to-mid 1980’s will remember Ultravox as British electronic pop music stars; their 1981 smash “Vienna” was recently voted “the Greatest Song Not To Reach Number One” in a BBC survey. Joe Dolce’s “Shaddup Your Face” [the ultimate One Hit Wonder] kept Ultravox at Number Two on the UK Charts for 4 weeks.

Ultravox faded away from the mainstream in the second half of the 1980’s, however their lead singer Midge Ure has never moved far from the public eye, primarily due to his involvement in co-writing Band Aid’s 1984 charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and instigating the Live Aid concerts in 1985 with Bob Geldof. Ure remains a Band Aid trustee, as the aforementioned song continues to generate royalties for Ethiopian famine relief.

In the true tradition of “everything old is new again”, Ultravox regrouped in 2011 and began working up songs for their label, Universal. The initial signs of modern corporate music craziness occurred during the recording process, when Universal demanded an Ultravox album of songs from “outside” writers. Ure would have nothing of this, thus the recording of the album continued without Universal’s financial support. EMI picked up the Ultravox-penned album, “Brilliant” in 2012 however the corporate chaos surrounding their new label saw the release sink quickly due to zero promotional support.

Ultravox retains a global presence via its fans however their ongoing future is in doubt without the financial support of a major record label. Ure has been touring solo in selected territories in a very economical manner [500 seat clubs; support act doubling as his backing band] in order to gauge a “feel” for a fully-fledged Ultravox tour. It’s best described as a “DIY” process for some of the great music acts from past decades, and represents a trend for the ages…

REDFOO – MUSIC AND TENNIS DO GO TOGETHER!

As they say, any form of publicity is good publicity in the entertainment world – but music and tennis being good publicity?

Stefan “Redfoo” Gordy is a singer/ dancer/ DJ/ rapper who has made a decent sized name for himself in the music industry by way of his involvement in the dance group LMFAO and their biggest hit “Party Rock Anthem”. The 37 year old Redfoo has impeccable music pedigree; he is the son of legendary music mogul and founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy. However, there is much more to Redfoo than meets the eye…

A young Stefan Gordy was a very talented tennis player when attending college. In fact, he was so good at tennis that he would regularly do battle against Mike and Bob Bryan. The Bryan twins are currently the best tennis doubles team in the world.

Music is in Redfoo’s DNA, however his love for tennis hasn’t diminished in the passing years. During the 2011 US Open Tennis Championships in New York City, Redfoo was regularly seen in the courtside supporter box of the defending champion, Samantha Stosur.

Twelve months’ on, and Redfoo was now supporting the Number One female tennis player [and rumoured girlfriend] Victoria Azarenka in the 2012 US Open Tennis Championships.

So what does this all mean?

Romantic connections aside, Redfoo knows that any form of publicity is of benefit to his career. The world media pay plenty of attention to the four Grand Slam Tennis Championships every year; Redfoo has a legitimate reason for scheduling his music commitments around his other passion [i.e. tennis] in order to leverage maximum exposure for himself.

Redfoo has been performing in South East Asia for the last couple of weeks, whilst semi-basing himself in Melbourne, Australia to support Azarenka in her defence of the Australian Open Tennis Championships.

I can still recall when Sir Cliff Richard was supporting the talented British tennis player Sue Barker at Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Time as shown that there was no romance between Richard and Barker, however their connection was an early prototype of the current connection between Redfoo and Azarenka. It’s good publicity for everybody, and it’s good clean fun!!