[FMC] David Byrne – Record Companies: Who Needs Them? (Oct 5th at POP)

We promised more coverage…careful what you wish for people. “Field Notes” from the Team, a.k.a Tessa and her crew.

On Thursday, David Byrne spoke at the Future of Music Summit with his touring manager (who answered some questions at the end). Byrnes had prepared a Powerpoint presentation with piecharts and graphs that were mostly useful visual aids, but the majority of slides were hilariously irrelevant images and phrases.

He came on stage and nervously launched into a rundown of how record labels operate (for the large portion of us who are somewhat unclear) and how their role is changing with developments in technology, most importantly internet downloading. Here are some notes on what he had to say:

-record companies pay small loans to bands on tour, expecting to gain back on cd sales (tours are a promotion of an album, not to make money)
-they have experience in business

The evolution of music sales:
-large record stores like sam goody, etc. will be gone in 5 years, tower records is now bankrupt
-walmart and target will still be selling music which makes record labels gear toward sales in target, amazon, etc.
-the public have a loyalty to brick and mortar stores and a guilt over selling, buying online
-negative opinion of online copy restrictions
-the digital copying management act is like the prohibition (in that if something is important to a part of the population they’ll find ways to get it, forces development of underground markets)

New direction:
-potential for selling music on personal pages like myspace, could create payment system
-the need for a “meta music site”, something to amalgamate music downloads with a search option that searches through all websites

Effects of technology and changes in music:
-previous music developments like shift from vinyl to cassettes to cds, created the need for new expensive equipment, whereas with downloads most people already have computers
-esoteric and obscure music is becoming more easily investible because it is equally easy to distribute online as in the real world
-mtv doesn’t play videos anymore, so why make them?
-homemade videos on youtube, but million dollar videos unnecessary
-Recording costs have been drastically reduced
-on home computers the sound quality can be comparable to in the studio, one doesn’t need a record company to do recording for you, don’t need to go into debt
-end of c.d. pressing plants, designing covers, etc.
-right now: record companies own the printing plants and other production areas
-instead of record companies outsourcing, he suggests artists getting together as a node, getting various resources together, have a business person to organize
-Byrnes working to develop that idea in the next few years
-other modes of promotion: reality shows, live shows, t-shirts
-Byrnes makes more money from movie music (selling to films) than record sales

Pie charts showing the difference between revenue from a label release vs. itunes album revenue
Label gets larger percent in itunes model, why? What is the label actively doing in that process?
And why does an artist get the same percentage in both models, even with drastic changes to the jobs being done by each person

Record Deals:
Equity Deal: 50/50 deal with investor/artist, a large cash advance (arbitrary advance)

Pressing and Distribution Deal (artist takes care of many record company jobs,
licensing deal)

-records companies have the desire to adapt to new needs
-Byrnes makes a point of saying that its not only fringe music that is good, music that wants to be marketed to a huge audience is not a reflection of the artist, its just how it is marketed, but he wants the possibility for other types of music to be accessible
-Byrnes recently downloaded the new Justin Timberlake and the new Christina Aguilera songs

“Thanks a lot, this is a lot harder than singing.”

Changes to live shows: the use of blogs for news about shows and reviews of concerts
“I don’t want to listen to live music online”, rather in the digital age it makes one want to see live shows more than before
-with blogs, a manager can view and explore the experiences of fans, adapt marketing accordingly
-record labels using the internet to exploit live material, creating more content from it

Creative Commons Licenses: some are even more restrictive than regular copyright deals, most are more so, but in varying specific ways
-Byrnes described his involvement with creative commons licenses on his project with Brian Eno

Finally, giving people access to materials, tools, art promotes creativity, restricting information causes society to crumble