i'm writing this as a sort-of open letter to the people at emi.
i'm signed to mute records(for the last 15 years, actually), and as mute is owned
by emi that makes me an emi artist.
as some of you might know, the record business is falling apart.
revenues are down, cd sales are plummeting, people are losing their jobs, etc.
things at the record companies, especially the major labels, aren't looking so good.
one bright spot in this dismal retail firmament is the sale of music on-line through
portals like i-tunes.
the dance music equivalent of i-tunes is a site called beatport.
beatport, and other similar sites, enables you to preview dance tracks and then, if you like, buy them.
the average cost for a track on beatport is twice or three times the cost of a track on i-tunes(which
makes sense, as the tracks are a lot longer).
emi happily allow their music to be sold on i-tunes, but they don't allow their(and, by extension, my)music
to be sold on portals like beatport.
for over a year now i've been asking people at emi why they won't allow their electronic
dance music to be sold on beatport and i still haven't received a good answer.
one might think that in a time of rapidly dwindling revenues that a viable
and proven outlet like beatport might be greeted ecstatically at emi and the major labels.
but no.
very simply, i don't know why emi won't allow their(and my) dance tracks to be sold on beatport(for
an average cost of around $2.00 per track), but i do know that by not allowing their
electronic dance music to be sold on beatport that emi have denied themselves
very considerable revenue and have limited the audience for their electronic
dance artists(not to mention remixes done for their non-electronic dance artists, like
radiohead and coldplay).
many dj's live in urban areas with great indie-dance shops, and many dj's buy vinyl
and cd's on-line from great indie-dance shops, but there are thousands and thousands
of dj's who pretty much only buy their music from sites like beatport.
and with emi refusing to allow beatport(and similar sites)to sell their music it basically
means that tens of thousands of dj's around the world don't have access to any of
the dance records being released by mute and emi artists.
so this is my letter to anyone at emi who might be reading: by not allowing your music to be
sold on sites like beatport you are losing money daily and seriously compromising the careers
of your electronic artists(like, for example, the chemical brothers, me, massive attack, etc).
i can't see why you(the people at emi)wouldn't remedy this immediately and allow
people to buy your records on beatport and similar sites.
thanks
moby
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music is everywhere
actually you're right Kurt. I miss a little this time (especially this smell of vinyl :) and sometimes I think that I can't keep up with the all technology... on the other hand now is really easier to be an artist (musician or another sort of). you have all in your comupter and internet (sometimes a blessing but also a curse) and you can create beautiful things and express your self (which is a most important thing for me). of course, maybe more of this creations are a shit but nevermind! now we can't stop this.
anyway , I think that live concerts are still a very important time to check a quality of musician! if it's great that could be a very incredible experience ( like my last moby's concert:) . and what I want to say finally, two days ago I was at the really great concert of relatively young dutch group Kraak & Smaak ! I love this music but on live it made me crazy! I was dancing in a frenzy and full of absolutely happines :)
wow! the world must be a beautiful place if it's a full of such a amazing music!
so Dear Moby and everyone! you can check Kraak & Smaak on every portals ( myspace.com/kraaksmaak , iTunes, beatport...) and please, go to their concert! :)
they play in usa for all november (8 nov in new york).
so enjoy and I really wish myself meet you,moby one day on the dance floor! :)
I'm surprised
that you haven't followed the example of so many of your peers, like RADIOHEAD, and just cut the middleman record company out altogether and sold your music yourself via your website or what have you and made ALL THE MONEY. It's really sad what's happened to the music industry and music in general. I remember as a kid in the eighties when albums were still the main format, it was an entirely different experience. You'd smell the brand new vinyl as you pulled it from the wax paper, set the needle to the groove (and manually flip it over, perish the thought), then you would sit in front of your stereo speakers and actually listen while you devoured the liner notes, lyrics, pics, etc. I have a friend who managees some pretty major bands and he and I were talking about this the other day. He was despondent because when he first got into the business twenty years ago, he was genuinely interested in developing artists' careers, he said now he was essentially a ringtone salesman. Music doesn't mean as much to people as it once did. We don't give it that importance anymore. Back in the day, a Bowie record could (and did) change your life. Today, music is just a soundtrack people put on while doing something else. For example, I listen to Moby while doing cardio at the gym, I listen to Massive Attack while lovemaking, etc. I think something special has been lost. Internet killed the video star.