Sure enough, as soon as I write a blog praising Smashing Pumpkins, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin quits the band!
Here is the Link!
I have to admit I was a late bloomer when it came to the rock band Smashing Pumpkins.
My earliest memory of their actual music was probably in ‘98 when my folks took me to Seattle to buy a PA system for my first band. ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ came over the radio and I remember thinking the sound was a little ‘grungy’ for my taste. Keep in mind, when I was in high school I was listening to Herman’s Hermits, The Hollies, The Kinks - basically the stuff hipsters listen to now …
My other early experiences with the Smashing Pumpkins came from the kids wearing their tee-shirts who would also wear all black and have crazy black lipstick or white … blush? I don’t know make-up terminology. My buddy Ahren was also given an autographed napkin all five members of the band had signed.
At the time, I just didn’t care. I hadn’t jumped on board.
Yet something propelled me to purchase the album ‘Adore’ my freshman year of college. While other kids were off experimenting with sex and drugs, I was in the corner of some dark room tasting new music.
The release of Adore has the reputation among the SP elite to have immediately divided the flock. The hardcore enthusiasts were looking for something more like the earlier albums Gish or Siamese Dream whereas kids like me were discovering the band for the first time.
My Fav SP Album - but I'm not editorializing here
Adore soon became one of my favorite albums. I stopped listening to Herman’s Hermits – and I fell asleep listening to Adore almost every night for a year. The album is pure brilliance.
During the summer after my freshman year of college my roommate was leaving for Europe and needed to get some extra money for his trip. I had the fortune of taking advantage of his need for cash by purchasing his copies of the albums Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Pisces Iscariot. They too became among my favorite albums. I moved to Gish and even bought a rare B-side compilation.
I bought Machina the day it came out, and when Zeitgeist came out in 2007 I bought it as well.
I remember the day. Scotty and I were on tour with our previous band (in Minneapolis several days before the bridge collapse I might add) and had hyped the album amongst ourselves for the 10 days proceeding the release date. We listened to the song Doomsday Clock over and over and tried desperately to get into the rest of the album. However Zeitgeist was a little extreme for my taste and I personally miss the more musical arrangements.
Adore continues to be the one that draws me back … the melodies … the memories … the rhythms … the dynamics … the lyrics … the places it takes me back to.
Yesterday I subscribed to the brand new Smashing Pumpkins newsletter. It has been created to communicate with fans regarding the tremendous task of going through their archives. I can only imagine how much material accumulates in 20+ years of creating and recording music.
They are considering starting a subscription service for the most hardy of their fans. For say, $300 per year, you could be among the first to hear unreleased tracks, live recordings, etc etc etc. I think this is a very creative way to market and promote your band in your music in the new economy – and in the advent of new social media technologies.
From Frank Quinta:
“I want to expand on Billy’s idea of a subscription service that I mentioned in the blog. Going through and finding material that is suitable for release is a very in-depth process. The idea of a subscription service is where you can sign up for a yearly subscription, and in return you will receive a guaranteed number of tracks and releases. These releases will be from all eras of the band. Some items may not be up to the quality of a professional release, and may be rawer sounding. This could mean a track of the band rehearsing that might not sound good enough for the general population, but Billy might say that it would be good for the subscription service. We would put it up because that is the only version of that song. This is for the type of fan that is interested in getting unreleased live and studio tracks. This is the Holy Grail. One example is that you’ll pay $300 for the subscription, and we’ll give you 200 releases. For those of you who don’t want to sign up for a subscription, we’ll still sell some material to you, but the subscription members will get it first. If you don’t want to purchase anything, we are also looking at distributing some material for free. Basically, if you want to get everything, you want to take a look at the subscription service.”
I will be interested to see how many people can afford a subscription? Will they entice people with a smaller monthly fee? Is there enough of a demand for these materials?
Regardless, I’m just excited because I read they might release an unfinished Adore documentary. For the album that started my long and wonderful relationship with the band Smashing Pumpkins, I welcome that release and I admire the creativity with which they approach this situation and the new climate in the recording industry.
For more information: http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/
Tags: Adore, archives, Ava Adore, Billy Corgan, Frank Quinto, Smashing Pumpkins, subscriptions
I’m settling into Saturday night watching the movie, The Good German featuring George Clooney. So far, Tobey Macguire isn’t playing a very convincing adult and I don’t know what is happening because I am blogging like a dork.
You should see the place when it rains!
The neighborhood seems to be depressed. The antique store next door hasn’t been open for weeks. Neither has the coffee shop.
Both businesses have interesting stories to tell. The antique store features hand picked items from various eras and of different styles. The owner brings in puppies from her farm and tells me stories about hopping on planes to visit distant wind farms across the midwest.
The coffee shop doesn’t even have your token ‘cup of coffee.’ Each beverage is hand crafted in a style representing various regions of Europe and Asia Minor. I ordered a coffee one day and watched as he maneuvered and cranked half a dozen machines to craft the perfect beverage.
The barista spends tons of energy writing about his technique on the menu - explaining the history of both the brew and the culture from whence it came. Yet he has irregular hours. He doesn’t have a Web site to promote his hours … he doesn’t have a web presence at all, and the materials taped to the window of his shop give no notice to the thirsty neighbor. It’s as though his 11-5 schedule is more of a guess, and only he holds the answer.
My girlfriend and I secretly hope he is laundering money for some underground Russian mob or Eastern European organization - just to add a little character to the hood.
Whatever the case, both have a story to tell. Neither have a web presence. Neither have a budget for one. Both can do it for free using blogger or Wordpress. Both can compliment that presence, dipping into various social media communities, and direct them back to their blogstation. They can use SEO to attract other patrons who may be drifting aimlessly through various search engines on the world wide web. They can network with other small businesses doing the very same thing from cities across America.
Exchange information. Share secrets.
The marketplace of ideas. Networking.
I would like to see the whole neighborhood blogging about their businesses. Twittering about their specials or sales.
“$1 Irish Cream Latte on St. Paddy’s Day.”
If they band together - use the buddy system - expand their reach…
Like a community.
Online, and in real life … who knows?
Bring back a little life to the hood.
Just in time for the trees and flowers to greet them.
Tags: Antiques, Belmont, Coffee, Neighborhood, Portland
One of the reasons I decided to start this project is because I want to help small businesses succeed in this current recession. Especially those in my neighborhood. And maybe those in my hometown.
The crux is that small business people don’t have a lot of time on their hands.
So I am working hard at becoming a relative expert at two of the more popular blogging platforms - Wordpress as you see here - and Blogger, where my band has a space: www.fenbiinternational.blogspot.com
Part of my excitement with Wordpress is the idea that I can teach myself CSS and HTML and apply those skills to my resume. However, the more I dig into these two computer languages the more I realized I am moving further away from my goal here at The Neo Com. Which is to help small businesses utilize social media technologies. And if a small business in Portland, Oregon has to learn HTML and CSS on top of learning how to use Facebook, Twitter, and whatever other platform might help them - they are going to get overwhelmed quickly and give up.
In fact, if any business leader considering these technologies is still reading this entry - they might recognize my second goal must be to write shorter entries. And maybe provide some photos to break up the doldrums. So before I get too carried away, here are my goals for this blog:
1. Help people utilize social media technologies in a way that makes sense for their specific goals
2. Push them towards the simplest and most effective technologies that make sense for their need
3. Use only those technologies that are free (minus the cost of buying a domain and server account in the case of blogging platforms)
So here on out, I hope to simplify, provide more entertaining case studies, and perhaps even direct you those bloggers who have been doing this longer than myself!
I had been playing bass less than a year when this photo was taken of us performing at a sold out Crystal Ballroom. Anything is possible if you have the drive and you work hard enough ...
The Neo Com will be a website dedicated to the best practices in the field of guerrilla communications as pioneered by starving artists and broke entrepreneurs for generations.
However, we are taking a new bent.
We are going to attempt to apply everything to the new media, Web 2.0 - whatever you want to call it. If you think of the old communication as a living, breathing being - Web 2.0 is creating a hybrid monster - part machine, part beast.
I’ve got the beast - I’m just working on the machine for the time being …
The Neo Com … coming soon …
The other week I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance who plays in a soon-to-be famous rock and roll band signed to Epic Records. It was a conversation about licensing and publishing rights - a topic that was part of a reason I quit my last band - and something my friend admitted to spending several months talking over with his band and lawyers.
He was telling me that in his agreement with his bandmates and label, if they were to divide all profits equally among the band members, he would have a portion of earnings less than his equal share - with the singer/songwriter getting more than any other member.
He brought up an analogy about car accidents. He said that as a drummer, if he were killed in a car accident the other guys in the band could reluctantly replace him if they wanted. On the other hand, if the singer was killed in a car accident, the band would be over and they would have to go their own ways.
What he said had a lot of truth to it. There was no ‘Experience’ after Jimmy Hendrix died. There was no continuation of Nirvana - there are tons of examples of bands that did not continue after the singer died.
However, I think this is an unjust way to look at band agreements and I think he sold himself short. I am of the thought that if everyone contributes to the nuts and bolts of making a band work (touring, performing, starving) - they should be able to split everything equally. Here is my argument.
Often times for years, the members of a band will struggle together to reach a goal of signing a deal with a label or at least garnering some form of success. They often work as a team … each person lending a hand in making sure the songs reach an audience … everyone practices … everyone plays their part … and like any entrepreneurs each one of them puts the rest of their life on hold for a common dream. So why is it fair that one member gets more benefits when their effort finally pays off? It’s not fair. Everyone should be recouped for the years they spent laboring for free … not knowing if the sacrifices they were making would actually pay off. The singer should not be the only one with a retirement plan - ie - licensing and publishing rights.
My final thought is that the concept of giving the singer and/or songwriters any more of the publishing or licensing or any other monies is just like good ol’ fashioned slavery. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about musicians … or pirates on a ship - the people in power (record label or pirate captain) always want to give one of the slaves a little extra power so that the other slaves have someone who controls their fate (either beating them or controlling them with their financial power).
The singer/songwriter will always exist … there are billions of them … and the songs are NEVER what carries them to fame and notoriety. It’s the people forming the mosaic of support that make it happen - whether it’s girlfriends or family or friends of band members.
People, get over yourselves. Be a team. Call me a neo-com if you must…
When Shawn Fanning created Napster in 1999 it set off an explosion of file sharing across college campuses nationwide.
While the act of file sharing created careers for previously unheard of independent bands like Dispatch, more established acts like Metallica and Dr. Dre, along with the Recording Industry Association of America, insisted people were stealing music and actually sued individual file sharers.
Undeterred, millions of Americans continued trading mp3’s and burning CD’s for their family, friends, and co-workers. For ten years the music industry has been left dumbfounded by this brutal attack on their business model and album sales continue to plummet.
When news came last August that a private equity financier named Guy Hands paid $6.3 billion for EMI Records eyebrows were raised. Some of his previous investments included gas stations throughout Germany and hotels and pubs in Britain. By no means a lightweight, Hands Private Equity Firm Terra Firma had earned his bosses over £1.5 billion profit since 2002.
At EMI Hands immediately set to work trimming costs and in the process stepped on many toes. He discovered some employees were disguising write off’s for “drugs and prostitutes” as “fruit and flowers” so he started making employees provide receipts for every expense.
In January of this year Hands announced EMI would be trimming 2,000 jobs and critics responded saying Hands’ restructuring of the company appears out of touch and ruthless at best.
Despite his lack of empathy for artists’ sensitive egos, and his blatant disregard for industry veteran’s extra-curricular activities, Hands displays a keen awareness in his embrace of online digital strategy.
In addition to slicing the EMI workforce by one-third, Hands’ response to the erratic climate of the music industry and the rising tide of digital sales has been to cut costs by reducing artist advances and to pay less for marketing music.
Popular acts like Paul McCartney have left the label over disputes related to copyrights and this past week rumors have been swirling over the departure of the Rolling Stones. However, since EMI owns the publishing and licensing rights to the Rolling Stones catalogue (a major source of their income) it would be pointless for the group to leave.
A dispute last fall over an advance worth £10 million caused British rock band Radiohead to leave EMI and the band followed suit with a strategy unheard of in the music world. Radiohead released their new album In Rainbows online allowing fans to pay “whatever they wanted.”
While Radiohead kept the official tally a secret, industry analysts suspect they sold close to 1.2 million digital downloads of the album before physical copies were later released. Radiohead front man Thom Yorke said the band made more in digital sales for In Rainbows than in all previous digital album sales combined. After In Rainbows was released in physical form it shot to number one on the music charts in both the US and the UK, debunking popular criticism over their strategy that undoubtedly led to file sharing or so called ‘piracy’ of their album.
It is clear that Hands isn’t relying on his personal popularity at EMI to sell music, and he certainly isn’t relying on the traditional music industry model of selling physical copies of albums either.
At a gathering of band managers last autumn Hands said Rupert Murdoch had scoffed at his acquisition of EMI by saying, “Myspace is going to be the future of music, not record labels.”
As if adhering to Murdoch’s assessment, a confidential business plan from Mr. Hands’ investment firm reports an additional way to reduce costs is to use social networking sites to ”source new acts and as a means to test public reaction to individual acts.”
Despite their differences, both Radiohead and Hands are examples of how industry leaders are adapting to the digital revolution affecting the music industry.
Other artists have adjusted to file sharing by simply giving their albums away for free, effectively using their music as a promotional tool towards other means of generating income. Prince placed three million copies of his new album in London’s Sunday Times last year then proceeded to sell-out 21 straight concerts. Through his actions Prince discredited album sales as a source of income, and instead put his faith in concert ticket sales and other monies he earned from publishing and licensing royalties associated with merchandise.
Another example comes from EMI artist Coldplay. In April they released their new single Violet Hill for free as a digital download. When they released their new album last week they went to number one on the charts and reported over 302,000 sales (more than the next five albums on the charts combined). However, the number is still down from the 464,000 album sales for their last release over the same period.
How does this information relate to less established artists?
In May of this year the PEW Internet and American Life Project released a study showing 64% of music buyers discover music from family, friends, or co-workers. Social networking Web sites have made family, friends, and co-workers more connected and the advent of newer technologies like the mp3 has made it much easier to share music.
Digital sales are improving and according to the latest figures by the Recording Industry Association of America online digital sales have increased from 0% to 23% of the market share over the past five years. Keep in mind a Nielson study from December 2007 shows only 71.7% of American’s regularly use the Internet and only 21% of the world regularly logs on. Those numbers will continue to increase at a dramatic rate.
These examples from Radiohead, Prince, and EMI illustrate it is very important for artists to maintain their publishing and licensing rights because in the new digital age artists can’t expect to generate as much of an income through album sales. It may be time for artists to consider their album as more of a promotional tool and to focus their efforts on securing licensing deals through movies, advertisements, TV shows, video games, and related means. While these options were once called “selling out” they may be your only shot at a comfortable music career.
Social networking Web sites, an effective communication strategy, and word-of-mouth marketing are just several specialties a PR Firm like CFM could offer in promoting an artist’s musical reach to greater audiences while simultaneously trimming a bloated advertising budget.
