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Re: PAYOLA [was: HOUSE CONCERTS]



A decent rant, amigo.
~Tim


> [Original Message]
> From: Stephen Goodman <spgoodman@earthlight.net>
> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Date: 2/18/2006 10:00:38 AM
> Subject: Re: PAYOLA  [was: HOUSE CONCERTS]
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Fox" <billyfox@soundscapes.us>
> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Sent: Saturday, 18 February, 2006 02:59 AM
> Subject: PAYOLA [was: HOUSE CONCERTS]
>
>
> > loop.pool wrote:
> >
> >> Things like this are never big money makers,  they are labors of love
and 
> >> very necessary labors of love as new and emerging
> >> artistry is crowded out of this culture's venues.
> >
> > ...as evidenced by the report 20/20 did on Thursday night on Payola in 
> > radio.  Still going strong.  Still keeps all the airplay for the big 
> > budget labels, to hell with the rest of us.  I have nothing against 
> > business and making a profit.  In fact, I insist that musicians make a 
> > profit.  But the Payola system is just greed; greed on the part of 
> > commercial radio and greed on the part of major labels not wanting to 
> > share the airwaves with little niche markets like where we loopers
reside. 
> > Thank goodness for non-commercial FM radio and the internet.
>
> Warning!  Rant follows!  (some would say what else is new, eh?)
>
> Indeed!  It's interesting to me - and a little discouraging at times -
how 
> business deals that would otherwise be labeled "collusion", 
> "anti-competitive", or to use the actual legal phrase "in restraint of 
> trade", have been allowed to be made over the past 15 or so years.  AOL 
> buying their only competitor CompuServe, for example, if not also their 
> assimilation act with Time-Warner.  I'm sorry that 20/20 doesn't appear
over 
> in the UK - but then such a program as described above would most likely
be 
> ignored by the British TV-licensed public, who would be surprised that 
> anyone would object to payola, anti-competitive groups like Clear
Channel, 
> or government control of the media.
>
> While I used to despair at the state of LA radio in the post-KROQ world,
at 
> least there were occasional blips of independent radio before they were 
> bought up by Clear Channel and turned into a piece of the Big Tapioca 
> Machine.  A listen to a range of stations in the UK - we've had various 
> groups of workmen in the house here since 2003 - makes one wish for more 
> than bloody revolution, frankly.  UK radio is not much more than an 
> extension of the Sales departments of the Big Five, with exceptions like 
> Juice FM and a few rasta pirate stations that pop up only on Saturday
night, 
> for instance... and one gets a strong impression that what is thought of 
> elsewhere as an entertainment medium is more of an employment medium.  It
is 
> as if a bunch of civil servants, middlemen, cigar-chompers and
accountants 
> have thought up the idea to maintain a kind of funnel leading to the 
> Marketing Pipeline, in order to catch large numbers of aspiring or
wannabe 
> acts, with the supposedly-best finding their way into the Pipeline.
>
> What does one get when you're on the consumer end of such a Pipeline?  
>An 
> awful lot of barely-infringingly-duplicated, tone-corrected rubbish that 
> sounds like there aren't any songwriters anymore, just performers of
other 
> peoples' material (cut up, resampled, slightly rearranged to have a 
> over-bass hip-hop beat slapped on top of it).  James Blunt?  Are you
kidding 
> me?  What's darkly hilarious at times is that such pablum is played
on-radio 
> in juxtaposition to Led Zeppelin, which even if you hate Zep still makes
the 
> New Crop (er, Crap) sound even less interesting.  On the depressing side
it 
> presents a reality that doesn't exist - one where there are no more real 
> songwriters, just committees and promo execs that approve what you'll be 
> allowed to hear.
>
> Most of us on this list know there are songwriting musicians out there,
and 
> that they either cannot bear the idea of dealing with the civil 
>servants, 
> middlemen, cigar-chompers and accountants, or believe that if they did
so, 
> they'd just get pimped and robbed, and their material stolen and
'performed' 
> by one of the new breed of Tone Corrected Celebrities.  Robert Fripp 
> recently said in his diary that he'd "rather be dragged around England by
my 
> left testicle" than deal with record execs etc.
>
> The Internet is the Next Frontier.  We all know this.  The Big Five 
>never 
> anticipated CDs, CDs on computers, P2P, and they just barely got their 
> anti-competitive paws on DVDs.  Unfortunately the DVD cat has also been
out 
> of the bag for some time, and even non-moving-parts items like USB 
>drives 
> are out of their reach.  There is a future for people like us, one that 
> still doesn't involve us crawling across some cigar-chomper's carpet just
to 
> have the right to record our work.
>
> And now back to cleaning up after yesterday's workmen dust (Fripp calls
his 
> 'workmen's pollen'), and clearing out my Mum-in-law's cupboards for the
last 
> time.
>
> Happy Washington's Birthday too.  Yipes.
> Stephen Goodman
>
> * Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
> * http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
> * The Loop Of The Week since 1996!
> * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios
>