Posted on 05/22/2005 9:43:39 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
ATLANTA - He entered the rock 'n' roll pantheon as a joker, a smoker and a midnight toker.
But sitting in a gray business suit in front of 400 corporate executives, Steve Miller's message had more to do with knowing how to take the money and run.
"I love playing, but you can't get to the good stuff unless you keep an eye on the business," Miller said after speaking at a conference put on by a corporate research and advisory firm.
Miller's speech underlies a truth that's been around for decades, but become more obvious recently - rock 'n' roll is big business and, hard-living stereotypes aside, the rockers who succeed over the long run are the ones paying attention to their finances.
With competition increasing and traditional revenue sources such as album and ticket sales continuing to slide, music industry experts say the rock world's long-blurry line between art and commerce is threatening to fade entirely.
Selling out, once the ultimate insult in rock circles, has come to mean much less, they say.
"It's a whole different kind of world we live in now," said Doug Brod, executive editor of Spin magazine. "Artists want control over how they're getting paid; a lot of them just want to take it into their own hands."
Experts say changes in the industry are requiring artists to be even more mindful of ways to market themselves, and their music, to the public.
With the advent of Internet downloads, album sales have been dropping steadily for the past five years. Concert attendance has seen a similar dip. And with cheaper recording equipment thanks to computer technology, more bands are competing for fans' attention and dollars.
"With less (record company) money to promote them, the onus really falls on the artists to promote their own careers," said Matt Hatau, vice president of Signatures Network, a music marketing and licensing company that has worked with KISS, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and U2.
"They're not just looking to the labels and saying, 'Hey, run my business and hand me a royalty check,'" Hatau said.
If any band has carried rock's hippie image into the 21st Century, it's Athens Ga.-based Widespread Panic - whose shows pack in legions of tie-dye wearing "Spreadheads" reminiscent of the scene at the Grateful Dead's traveling carnivals.
Behind the scenes, though, the group is a $14 million-a-year corporation with profit-sharing, a pension plan and health care benefits for its employees.
"We have a board of directors and board meetings; we have conference calls," said Buck Williams, the group's Nashville-based manager and agent. "We discuss what we're going to do, why we're going to do it, how much it's going to cost and what we're going to get out of it."
The band's six members play an active role in the business, Williams said.
"There are some that are more involved, more vocal than others," he said. "But I promise you at the end of the day there's not a single one of them that doesn't want to know where the money's going and why."
Increasingly, though, high-profile rock-business mergers have become more visible than Widespread's number crunching.
Brit-rocker David Bowie startled the rock world in 1997 when the man who once took the stage as a space alien Ziggy Stardust announced he would issue bonds backed by royalties from the future sale of his music.
The $55 million issue of 10-year notes was bought entirely by Prudential Insurance Co. at an interest rate of 7.9 percent.
And in October, U2 announced an unprecedented partnership with Apple computers, joining CEO Steve Jobs to endorse the company's iPod audio players - including one specially designed to play every song the band has ever recorded.
During his recent speech, Miller traced his business impulses back to Dallas where, as a 12-year-old, he mimeographed letters to fraternities announcing his rock band was available for bookings - but only for a limited time.
It's those instincts that led the business conference's Atlanta-based sponsor, The Hackett Group, to add Miller to a roster of presentations that included Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage and Generating a Return on Compliance Efforts.
Miller makes no apologies for always being mindful of the business end of his music career, including licensing his songs "Fly Like an Eagle" to the U.S. Postal Service for an ad campaign and "Rockin' Me" for a Wrangler jeans commercial.
The same marketing skills he showcased as a preteen would lead Miller to become one of the first rock artists to earn a sizable cash advance on an album from his record company and among the first to negotiate for complete artistic control from the label.
"I never found anybody who could manage my career any better than I could," Miller said.
Spin's Brod said he doesn't fault new acts for doing whatever it takes to get noticed - even if it means selling the rights to their music for commercial uses, sometimes even before the songs are released on an album.
Warren Hudson, a music store owner in Decatur, Ga., defends artists who lend their music to commercial uses, saying sometimes it's the only way to get noticed or stay ahead in the crowded industry.
"I don't necessarily consider it a sell-out," Hudson said as he slapped price stickers on a new batch of CDs at his shop. "It all depends on how you approach it."
The results, though, can be unsettling to some.
"It's kind of funny that the music that was our rebellious music is now being bought and sold wholesale by corporations," said Frederick Noble, who edits Degenerate Press, an online music and pop culture magazine out of Atlanta.
In the end, says Williams, bands like Widespread Panic have a responsibility to play the money game - not just for themselves, but for their fans.
"It's not just about us and what we can do," he said. "We have to make all the numbers work so we can grow and keep enhancing the value for those fans."
BUMP
These record company execs don't get it. The reason sales are down is that the music is not worth listening to. Kids in bands don't know how to play their own instruments. There are kids in recording studios who can't even tune their guitars.
On a different note, (pun intended) whenever I hear the line in "Fly Like An Eagle" that says "House the people...Living in the streets" I always say, "They's fine. How's you?"
Miller tours nearly every summer and plays to sold out crowds at several-thousand seat venues. He hasn't had a hit song since the early 1980s. He draws crowds by concentrating on his library of hits from the 1970s played the way they sounded on record. This is what his fans want to hear and it has been a recipe for success that has served him well over the years.
Many of yesterday's rockstars sobered up and came to the unhappy realization that they squandered their wealth on worthless indulgences: mountains of cocaine, $1000/night hotel rooms, sycophant entourages, shady business managers and poor licensing of their music. A few have been able to recoup some losses on "nostalgia" tours but one would be surprised at how many of yesterday's rock giants are today living very meager lives, wishing they had better grasped the business side of the industry back during their heyday.
I’m a hard working man
I’m a son of a gun
I’ve been working all week in the noon day sun
The wood’s in the kitchen
And the cow’s in the barn
I’m all cleaned up and my chores are all done
Take my hand, come along
Let’s go out and have some fun
How could anyone have missed the Free Republic sentiments in "Take the Money and Run"?:
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes
Sounds very Republican to me, recognizing the responsibility of public servants due to public funding. ;-)
As an aside, this has to be one of the worst-rhymed songs ever put to paper. In addition to the above couplets of "facts is/taxes" and "Texas/Justice", Miller also gives us the immortal "El Paso/big hassle" combo. I have to believe that the talented and intelligent Miller laughed his keister off when he wrote that stuff.
I would amend this statement to read it is the "hit" music that is not worth listening to. There are a lot of great bands out there driving from smoky bar to smoky bar in beat-up vans, playing in front of small crowds simply for the love of performing live. They will never get record deals because their music doesn't fit the current Top-40 format that dominates today's radio and MTV.
I sometimes think that the day of multimillionaire pop stars are coming to an end. Sure, there's a few but their careers are so short-lived because they posess no real talent. As you said, they can't even play instruments (much less write their own music). Their only key to fame was that someone else successfully marketed their good looks.
The industry execs don't get it. They blame downloading for a decline in sales without understanding that most people download music that they would A.) not purchase in the first place or B.) from bands that do not have recording contracts.
Millers' use of extended bass lines and echo-chamber was hypnotic...(see: Motherless Children),and having Nicky Hopkins on piano in "Baby's House", which fit in with drug-induced stonedism. His early stuff was a great. His later stuff proves his capitalistic ideas, which I do not begrudge. His music when he decided to go that route went down in my estimation....but that's just MVHO.
FMCDH(BITS)
Yep, too many artists don't have ownership of their masters and don't plan ahead.
Yes, the rap world ought to take notice of this. There's a boatload of money being made and the rappers themselves get very little of it. In fact, most of the jewelry they wear is *leased* to them by the record companies! They are given a per diem expense account so that they may maintain the lifestyle that their image demands. Their cars are leased and their homes are leased. Their careers are short-lived and many of them are going to wind up back on the streets dealing drugs again, or dead or in prison while the executives and agents get rich of their so-called "music."
You're right, except those smoky bars don't exist around here any more. When I was younger, almost any building with a roof (not necessarily a good one) was turned into a road house. When the drinking age was raised to 21, they all went out of business. These road houses were the music industry's version of the Minor Leagues. It's where people with instruments became musicians. They not only learned about music, but about the equipment that makes it. How many times have you run to a Radio Shack to get a 12AX7? Or a new speaker that you knew you were going to fry, but they have a 90 day guarantee that you'll use to get your money back?
Do you still have places like this where you live?
You have to speak "Texan" to understand the correct, errrrr, enunciation, LOL!
I am a substitute teacher in a local high school, and most of the kids there are into Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix, and other classic rock folks. They even remember Buddy Holly, especially those that play an instrument. Why? Because even they see the worthlessness of rap, and the so-called "modern" rock, or what passes for rock these days.
I used to be able to listen to alternative rock, but couldn't watch it, because of the unsightly and less-than-coordinated gyrations they attempted while playing. But now they sound as bad as they look.
I've always been a Steve Miller fan. Always will be. As the one poster notes, he recognizes that his fans pack his shows because they want to hear (basically) his Greatest Hits album played live.
Well said. I'm waiting for the "what's a 12AX7" response...
Thanks. I figure that those who know are saying "Been there, done that." and those who don't will FReepmail me to ask.
A man who knows his tubes!
Do you still have places like this where you live?
Yep! The 15th Street Tavern in Denver, Colorado. Smokiest, seediest, diviest hardrock bar in the world! Where the PBR flows cheap from cute tattooed bartenders, roaches roam the vomit-strewn restroom and loud rock and roll plays six nights a week to crowds that make the local fire marshal nervous.
If Denver ever enacts a comprehensive smoking ban, this place is doomed.
Thanks for the post! I googled the tavern and they have a nice website that lists all the bands. Some of the band names are very interesting. Chixdiggit? Hillbilly Hellcats? LOLOL
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