Ryan Sprute dot com

Just wanted to comment on a couple of things Lefsetz brought up:

- I’m not quite sure what to make of Josh Freese’s new album promotion scheme. First off, it’s a great attention-grabber, and Josh Freese is one of the best rock drummers alive (If you don’t know who he is, think the tastefulness of Dave Grohl, then combine that with intense technical ability on par with any drummer alive. Quite a talent). Anyway, it’s a great concept, and I realize that it’s mostly a parody, but man…is that what it’s coming to these days? Where do you draw the line? I guess that’s up to the individual artist, but I certainly would want to put those hours into the album itself rather than complicated schemes to market it.

- Bob’s right about the price thing, 75,000 is just too much. I’m biased because of how my band works, but why do the formal and EXPENSIVE studio route anymore for long term projects unless you are sure you can make it back (i.e. highly successful acts)? If I was planning to put more than a month into an album, I’d rather just get some sweet mics, hire someone to help set them up and teach us the ropes, and get a cabin or something and record there. Ian Rogers said something like “I’d rather listen to an album that a couple of guys worked on for months in their kitchen instead of something made by hired guns in a week”, and I could not agree more.

- Clearly not an expert by any means, but I just can’t see the majors lasting much longer than 5 years. The companies themselves are just too evil and unwilling to change, not to mention they continue to lose money hand over fist. Shit, DRM wasn’t even about protecting the artists, just about creating sources of revenue using old and evil business tactics. The sooner the better; there’ll finally be some copyright reform and substantial changes to how the music industry operates. I hope.

- It’s almost comical how late I am to discovering new music (I’m finally getting caught up through 2007-2008), but Bon Iver is GREAT. I absolutely love his album “For Emma, Forever Ago”. Simple folk/indie rock, but I think his stuff is really quite beautiful. Check him out at his myspace or buy his album on Amazon.

Here’s what I don’t get when majors make ridiculous claims like this: do they understand the internet? Don’t they understand that nearly anything and everything can be cross-referenced and checked?

Universal claims they are going to make 100 million by the end of the year from YouTube revenues. Really? Because last time I checked, that’s at least 50% of YouTube’s total revenue.

It’s stuff like this that explains why majors are losing more money every year. They are so used to an information advantage that they don’t fully comprehend the transparency the internet fosters. You can’t just straight up lie anymore, because you’re going to get called out in some way.

Once majors understand that they can’t look out for themselves exclusively, that they have to treat fans with respect, and that they have to become considerably more transparent, the music industry will finally start to turn around.

Here’s another example of that kind of blatant stupidity/arrogance.