The Price Of Music
The Price of Music
Jon Collins, 26 Apr. 04
Marillion (www.marillion.com), the UK rock band, yesterday achieved its first chart placement in the UK Top Ten for over seventeen years. Even as the applause dies down in the heartlands of the band’s fan base however, alarm bells continue to ring at the very hearts of the major music companies – EMI, Sony, Bertelsmann, AOL-Time Warner and Vivendi. Like other recent chart toppers John Otway and The Alarm, Marillion have no place in the strategic plans of the music industry. Just like the problems faced by the corporate behemoths, they are refusing to let the industry off the hook. “We never really went away,” says Steve Hogarth, vocalist with the band since 1988.
How did Marillion hit Number 7? Ironically, by employing the same tactics as the majors, with a little help from their friends. First, they invited the hard core fanbase to buy their next album a year in advance, at what was an inflated price by anyone’s standards. Unbelievably perhaps, over 13,000 copies were sold, providing the band with a marketing war chest that it has been exploiting to its best advantage. There was advertising and press work for the new single, and promoters and pluggers were brought in to ensure maximum airplay, just like a real record company.
Is near impossible to fix the charts these days, but it is recognised that money buys chart success. A carefully placed video on the right channel, subscription to radio services which just happen to result in airtime, exchange of discounted CDs for window space at a retail chain, all of these techniques are so ingrained they’re part of the culture, not to mention more kosher techniques such as billboard and TV advertising. According to Simon Napier-Bell, industry veteran and author of “Black Vinyl, White Powder”, there is recognition that getting into the charts is also a great way to sell records. The corporate approach has been evolving to managing this process such that the latest sounds can deliver the best return on investment.
The impact of the Internet on this seemingly perfect business model has been well documented, albeit inconclusive, but the majors cannot afford to wait and see. The bulk of downloads are by teenagers, so companies have turned their attention to the “grey pound”, older generations who would rather buy than rip. Ironically this goes against the grain: while older minds remain open to the new, they are equally content with the old.
Meanwhile, it is these, more mature bands that are taking their own initiative. The fans are key, thinks the Marillion front man. “If you can enable a dialogue with your fans, you’re in a position to move mountains,” says Steve, who doesn’t believe that Marillion has exclusive rights to this phenomenon. Indeed, there are plenty of other bands that have been nurturing fan bases of their own, from old timers The Stranglers to bands with a younger appeal, such as Thrice. Steve’s advice to new bands is uncompromising. “Instead of gigging round toilets for ten years trying to get a record deal, gig around toilets for ten years and ask people for their email addresses,” he says. “If what you’re doing strikes a chord, you’ll be financially better off while remaining pure and free to do what you want.”
What does this mean for the music industry? Steve sees the writing on the wall, “History will see it as a funny little anomaly that happened between 1950 and 2010,” he says. “While technology made it possible, advances in technology will also make it impossible.” He might have a point: while pressure has been put on file sharing technologies from Napster to Kazaa, it is difficult to see what protections can exist against the biggest file sharer of them all – email. “As soon as we can send an email and attach an entire album, music will become free,” says Steve.
Ironically, while the industry cannot afford to make significant changes without damaging its current business, musicians are in a far better position to test new ideas on the market even to the extent of beating the corporations at their own game. For Marillion, the chart position of number 7 has been accompanied with headline terms like “comeback”, and if that’s what the media has decided, then that’s what the market perceives. Meanwhile, the band can continue to write the music they want to write and as producer, publisher and retailer they see the majority of revenues rather than a paltry 5% royalty.
In the words of the Marillion song, “We get what we deserve”.