music industry in dire straights looks for help from groupon

interscope (a u.s. based division of universal music group) released lady gaga’s latest album through amazon for 99 cents. yes 99 cents. and now uk-based artist david gray has one upped miss gaga. his new album is being exclusively released through groupon for 6 dollars (about 4 euros) for a limited period of time. since we are convinced the music industry doesn’t really matter anymore, we file these type of stories under music and not individual artist names. unless the artist is the artist who is presently called prince who was formerly called a symbol.

einstürzende neubauten cancel u.s. tour

blixa, alexander hacke and gang (aka einstürzende neubauten –or einstuerzende neubauten to those lacking umlauts on their computer keyboards) have canceled their north american tour. which presumably includes the u.s. and canada. but i don’t recall their tour dates including a show in mexico. the press release is below. screaming caps and all:

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN HAVE TO CANCEL NORTH AMERICAN THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

It is with great regret that Einstürzende Neubauten announce the
cancellation of their planned thirtieth anniversary appearances in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto and New York. While the US
Department of Homeland Security did issue approvals for the band’s
visas, it was not done in time to secure the appointments at the
overseas embassies and consulates that represent the necessary final
step in the process.

The band members are tremendously disappointed by this turn of events and wish to thank all those fans who purchased tickets for these
performances for their support. The band would have loved to do the
tour and meet their overseas fans. Because this tour was a
time-sensitive production, it will not be rescheduled. Ticketholders
can obtain refunds from their point of purchase.

more photos from einstürzende neubauten berlin concert

einstürzende neubauten play gig in their home city/state berlin

einstürzende neubauten day 1 of 2 night celebration

einstüzende neubauten played the first of two sold out concerts in berlin october 23, 2010. more info later.

alexander hacke (r) and blixa bargeld 30th anniversary concert in berlin

einstürzende neubauten berlin october 23, 2010

is the video store going the way of the record store?

last week, blockbuster video in the u.s. filed for bankruptcy. according to the wall street journal, hollywood video was liquidated earlier this year.

there was a time when you could walk into a mom n’ pop record store and feel like you were amongst your people. i never really got that impression from video stores. i always felt like i was among a bunch of geeks who couldn’t get a job working in the mail room at a film studio.

walking around london, one would be hardpressed to locate a record –i mean, music store. they just barely exist. it’s okay if everything goes digital. it’s nice to not have so much crap in one’s home. but the interaction between people –face-to-face has been lost. and for those who live in big cities, in which ironically, people, surrounded by tons of people, feel more isolated than those living in small villages, this feeling of isolation will continue on its upward trajectory -or should i say downward?

the music industry and internet marketing

there was a time back in the noughties when loads of people had gigs in the music industry in traditional areas like product management, sales, and publicity. these days, due to a combination of the recession (which we’ve been told is over despite unemployment still being sky high in places like the u.s. and spain) and the evaporation of the cd market and the disappearance of the music store, most of the people from these departments have been left for dead. but they’ve mostly been pretty adept at reinventing themselves as internet gurus.

can you break an artist on the internet? can you break a film, musician, author on the internet? the answer is still out on this front. in terms of music, the answer is probably ‘no.’

bands and singers need fans. and in order to get the kind of fans who will follow you around the country and pay 50 euros for a frickin t-shirt, you need to find time to get out there and play gigs.

for authors. it’s possible. the answer is ‘maybe.’ stephenie (twilight) meyer initially connected directly with fans through her now defunct myspace page. at its inception, she was great about speaking directly with fans and built strong relationships with her early readers. but she also did readings and book tours. and since music is such an intrical part of her writing her publisher would set up readings in which bands would open. i’m sure these concepts were more about making money for meyers and the publishers rather than placating the fans. but the fans were placated. and meyers presumably got her cut of the door and sold more books.

for a film i think the answer is ‘yes, sometimes.’ films can be discovered online. but marketers (as opposed to marketeers, which would imply that this info is merely for disney schmos) should be cognizant of the phase ‘quality is better than quantity.’ it’s better to have 500 really enthusastic followers on twitter than 2M lax ones like ashton kutcher does. if each follower has 100 fans you have a reach of 50,000. and if each of these people has 100 followers your audience rises exponentially. you are in tweet heaven.

but there’s also such a thing as overkill. which films like ‘snakes on a plane’ suffered from. you can actually build an excellent award-worthy viral marketing campaign and nobody turn up for your film. but it’s the same in the offline world. one of the best marketing campaigns of the 90s was for godzillia. the campaign alone got loads of people out to the theatre opening day. but since the film sucked, WOM immediately killed its boxoffice. but not before roland emmerich made out like a bandit.

retroactive royalties, the music industry strikes again

men at work, a band few know anymore or even remember, has been ordered to pay royalties on their infamous ‘down under’ song which one now regularly hears as piped in music. apparently the band ripped off that infamous flute rift from a children’s song. next thing you know u2 will be sued by the german government for ripping their name off that of a subway line.

roland s. howard dies from liver cancer

according to the daily swarm, roland s. howard, guitarist from the birthday party and these immortal souls has died from liver cancer. he was 50 years old.

anita lane, barry adamson and roland s. howard.

rick astley versus nirvana

the bbc reports that some hackers have figured out a way to take over some iPhones and have created a risk astley worm which takes over your phone and creates a rick astley wallpaper on your phone. you’ve been rick roll’d:

for 20th anniversary of fall of the wall u2 erects a wall

u2 has erected a wall around the brandenburg gate for their so-called, free concert in berlin. well, it is free. but either u2 or mtv or a combination of the 2 decided that they would only make tickets available online and only issue 10K tickets. some people mistakenly believed they could hang out on unter den linden and catch a glimpse of the show. but the brandenburg gate, one of the most popular landmarks in the city has been walled off for tonight’s concert.