To DRM or not to DRM

To DRM or not to DRM…is this really the right question?

The problem with DRM in the music space is a terrible music experience and lack of interoperability. DRM itself that is the problem, but the lack of transferability between the DRMs of the various players like iPod/iTunes, Zune, Napster, Rhapsody, and SanDisk, among others.

The bottom line is that people want music and they want it in a format that’s convenient for their lifestyle. If the typical music consumer wants the same download they’ve paid for on their iPod for one reason, or on Zune, their mobile, their mini disc player or their MP3 player for yet other reasons, why should they be punished?

Consumers aren’t meek like they were in the days of yesteryear…ask any Advertising exec and they’ll tell you. Once upon a time a consumer did as he or she was told. Those were the days when companies and corporations were infallible and unassailable. Those days are gone and they have been for quite some time. The more manufacturers and producers of goods attempt to force consumers to toe the line, the more modern consumers will rebel. And these days, consumer rebellion is openly hostile. The column inches dedicated to stories involving music downloads and file sharing show that the music industry is on the front line of this rebellion.

While I don’t have a magic wand to magically fix the sorry situation labels are now faced with…I hope I can lay claim to that most British of virtues: Common sense.

An informed and open discussion with music consumers is long, long overdue. No clever marketing surveys are needed, no expensive media campaigns to win hearts and minds and no heavy handed threats and legal actions required. It’s time for the music industry to, well, face the music and dance. It would naturally be impossible to ask every man, woman and child who buys music what they think. An effort could be made to initiate dialogue with enough music lovers around the globe to find out what, exactly, they want. What music formats do they want, how do they prefer to listen to the music they purchase, do they think the current pricing structures are equitable and fair?

This can be accomplished relatively simply with an open, moderated online forum. Labels (major and independents), music publishers, industry organisations, collection agencies, retailers, manufacturers and distributors could post their case. Consumers would post theirs. Polls, online forms and similar vehicles would be the conduit to ascertaining the answers to questions which need to be asked. Specific forum categories would be easy to create to address main areas of discussion.

While it seems a straightforward way to proceed, it does require two essential ingredients: compromise from both sides and understanding. The music industry will certainly hear some uncomfortable home truths. Not all consumer demands can be met. If both parties could accept those starting terms, then let the dialogue begin.

At the end of the day, this label is in the business of getting its music to the people who want to buy it in the format they desire; without difficult hurdles to jump over or fiery circus hoops to jump through.

Atlantic FM interviews Aardvark Records

When Nigel Barker asked us to drop by the Atlantic FM studio for a bit of chat, we knew it was going to be fun. Here's your chance to find out a bit more about aardvark - how it all started, a bit about Andy & Alex's music industry background, hear some of our latest releases and hear some of our thoughts about todays' music industry.

http://aardvark_records.podomatic.com/entry/et/2007-08-27T02_38_48-07_00

How not to approach a record label about your demo

I will hold my hand up right now and say that I’ve become more than a little lax in listening to demo submissions. I keep promising myself that ‘next week will be the week I get a handle on the demo situation’. Next week comes, next week goes and the mountain of emails and CDs multiply in a rather Gremlins-like way – except no water seems to be needed in the case of demos.

I used to respond to demos like a crack commando unit with its game on. Not this year. Now I shuffle along like George Peppard doing an A-Team reunion. So I’ve been asking myself why. The light-bulb moment came a couple of days ago. The quality of demo submissions has taken a serious nose dive in recent times. I liken the speed of the decline to an elephant jumping out of a plane minus a parachute…and just as messy as that same elephant actually making impact.

When I was a band manager in the early 90’s there was still an acceptable way to approach a record label; especially if I was contacting them cold. I had facts about the bands, sales figures, demographics, marketing and promotional campaigns, successes and failures readily to hand. Oh yes, and properly recorded demos. In short, I had a story to tell about whichever band I was shopping. While deals may not have always been struck I did get just about all the meetings I aimed for with the labels I genuinely wanted to do business with.

Now I’m not one for being taught how to suck eggs. I know that ‘demo’ means ‘demonstration’ and that a certain amount of slack is required to be cut when listening to them. And believe me, I’ve cut enough slack to service the entirety of the Cornish fishing fleet where demos are concerned. However, a deluge of facile ‘listen to my demo’ emails and stunningly bad recordings makes me think there should be a revival of old school demo submitting practices.

On average, not counting anyone else at this label, I personally receive around 30 or so ‘listen to my tracks on MySpace’ emails every day. 95% of these emails just say that: “Hey, listen to my/our tracks on MySpace’ with a link to a MySpace page. There aren’t any further details. Nothing about how long the band/act has been performing, not a whisper about career goals and objectives (there’s far more to it than just releasing a CD), not a jot about genre/style and the word ‘fanbase’ seems to have been omitted forever. There is absolutely nothing to make me curious, much less excited, let alone tempted away from doing my job running a successful division of this label.

So here’s rule number 1: Never let your website or your MySpace page (or equivalent) do your talking for you. That’s just being lazy. An artist’s website provides the details; an email to a record label needs to have bait to hook a label executive’s attention. A one or two line email that boils down to ‘check me/us out online’ will just sit there with a mountain of others and will get looked at, if at all, way down the queue.

You saying you’re ‘hot’ in an email rarely works either. What works in everyday life also works for demos: hot people never have to say they’re hot…other people say it for them. So if you’re hot, get a review or a quote that says you’re hot. That packs more punch and is usually a fairly good incentive for a label executive to click your link sooner rather than later.

“I'm a hot artist from xxx” – long may that sentence rest in peace.

Never over-egg the pudding. While I want to feel there is a buzz going on about an artist or band, overhype is overkill…and can often appear as arrogance. And arrogant is one thing you don’t want to appear when approaching a label. The only thing worse than arrogance to A&R is an ex-wife / husband / girlfriend / boyfriend…or one of ‘those’ phone calls from the tabloids about one of your acts. Confidence is one thing, arrogance is quite another. Statements like ‘We’re going to be bigger than The White Stripes’ or ‘I’m the next Tiesto’ only belong in one place: inside someone’s head.

Be polite and courteous, give a bit of a story about how you reached the point you have, a bit more about what you want to achieve (without once mentioning how you’re going to make a label millions), what team you have around you (manager, agent, etc) and talk about your current single or album sales levels (if you have them) and talk about your fanbase (who are they, how did you get them onboard, what relationship do you have with your fans). These make you a serious prospect. Nuggets like these tell me an act is serious; that they are businesslike and are serious about wanting to do business. Are you getting – or have you received – radio support? Any reviews? What about previous promotions you’ve done? Plans for a video? Items like these make an artist or band even more appealing. Artists who can supply details like these get listened to almost immediately.

While not having radio play or a video doesn’t necessarily mean your demo listening request will automatically go unheeded – be aware that there are plenty of acts out there contacting labels who have one or the other or both.

Now things can either take off or fall down like a drunk in my local boozer when it comes time to me actually listening to tracks. I can forgive ‘almost there’ production values. I can even forgive ‘almost there’ arrangements. What I can’t forgive are vocals that patently scream vocal coaching or complete vocal training. Lyrics are half of a song. If I can’t understand what’s being sung, what’s the point of the song in the first place?

I can’t forgive vocals or instruments that are either out of key or out of tempo. Dropped notes, or drummers whose click tracks are operating in a parallel universe and not in the same recording studio as the rest of the band, is yet another kiss of death. Acts should never tell themselves that today’s A&R won’t notice such things. We do.

A&R also know the tricks of the trade. Constant reverb on vocals means the original vocals were poor – and that’s being polite. I want to hear on a demo what I would expect to hear on a stage where people have paid top dollar to catch your show: a solid voice with range and depth that doesn’t rely on modern technology to make it sound better.

You should also do your homework when it comes to approaching a label. What music does that label release? If yours isn’t there, there is a simple reason for it. That label doesn’t release that genre of music. For instance, I can’t count the number of times we receive requests to listen to Rap, Hip Hop, Death Metal, Modern R&B or urban demos. These genres fall outside of our points of reference. There are also plenty of blindingly good labels out there who do release these genres. This is something exceedingly basic but ignored more often than not.

So while my demo folder in my Outlook continues to shudder under the sheer weight of demo listening requests not yet acted upon, I just can’t bring myself to give myself a hard time about it. I know that the demo requests that met my personal quality control were listened to pretty much straight away. The rest of them, well…