Brian Babineau/bpbphotography.com
Pearl Jam, seen here performing earlier this month in Mansfield, Mass., sells recordings of each of its concerts on the Internet.
Posted on 07/14/2003 7:29:44 AM PDT by College Repub
Brian Babineau/bpbphotography.com
Pearl Jam, seen here performing earlier this month in Mansfield, Mass., sells recordings of each of its concerts on the Internet. |
By CHRIS NELSON
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or the musician who wants to get CD's into stores around the world, the best approach has long been assumed to be signing a contract with an international giant like Sony Music. These days, the old assumptions no longer hold — at least not for the rock group Pearl Jam. And other bands are watching closely.
Last year, Pearl Jam, one of the most popular acts on the road, fulfilled its contract with Sony Music's Epic Records, both of which are units of the Sony Corporation, with the release of its seventh studio album "Riot Act." Now the band — a group that sells more than half of its CD's outside the United States, according to its manager Kelly Curtis — is considering myriad options for future releases.
One possibility is a crazy quilt of arrangements that includes signing with major music labels in some countries, aligning with independents in others and releasing albums on their own in America, all to strike a balance of distribution, artistic freedom and commercial control.
"I've been trying to look at it almost like a restaurant, where I'm picking each country and choosing what we need off the menu," Mr. Curtis said. For a particular country, the band might require not only a manufacturer and distributor, but a publicist and radio promoter. "Theoretically, if you're cutting all these separate deals, you'd be carving out the best possible scenario in each territory" from both a business and artistic perspective.
Other artists, managers and music label executives are eager to see how it plays out. A decade ago, such an assemblage of deals was unheard of among superstar artists, who typically re-sign with their current company or shop for another label that will give them more cash or creative license.
But as music sales decline and independent recording and distribution become easier, more bands may be willing to consider unorthodox routes when traditional deals are over.
"I remember sitting on the floor of my apartment stuffing cassette tapes into envelopes; we don't have to do that now," said Tony Margherita, manager for the rock band Wilco. He estimates that bands can make a top-quality recording for 10 percent of what it would have cost 10 years ago, because of the plummeting cost of sophisticated recording equipment.
After AOL Time Warner's Reprise label dropped Wilco in 2001, that band contemplated some of the same options Pearl Jam is considering. They made their album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" available for listening online for free before eventually releasing it in 2002 through the smaller Warner Brothers label Nonesuch, which is also owned by AOL. While the band signed on for more than one album with Nonesuch, the deal is only short term, Mr. Margherita said. He expects Wilco to begin considering other distribution options.
Old assumptions about the value of major labels are no longer valid, said Howie Klein, a former president of Reprise. "Maybe without them I'm going to sell 25 percent less records," he said, "but they're taking 40 percent more money that I wouldn't have to spend — so it's not worth it. There could be a calculation for this, a very mathematical calculation."
While the Internet has helped bring music production and distribution to the grass-roots level, the music industry blames online piracy for lagging sales. Shipments of CD's dropped nearly 9 percent in 2002, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. That decline, along with industry consolidation, means labels are expected to pare their artist rosters in coming months and years. Even bands that might be happy to stay with a major label may find themselves looking at unusual options out of necessity.
Pearl Jam, the reigning survivor of the Seattle grunge music explosion in the early 1990's, played at Madison Square Garden last week and is scheduled to perform tonight in Holmdel, N.J., as part of a tour that runs through Saturday. As has been its practice lately, the group is selling recordings of each concert. Buyers can download MP3 files of the songs from the Internet within six hours of a show's end. Finished CD's, made by Epic, are available within a week or so and are primarily available to order online.
The band's operation is sophisticated enough to release studio albums on its own, at least in the United States, Mr. Curtis said. The band has also sold 50,000 copies of its self-released "Showbox" DVD this year through its fan club and at concerts. But Pearl Jam is not interested in becoming a full-fledged record label, he said.
Other experienced independent label owners would attest to the fact that doing so is labor intensive.
Ian MacKaye, co-owner of the 23-year-old Dischord Records and a singer-guitarist for the punk group Fugazi said, "It's not like you just start a record label and that takes care of that."
"Someone has to run it," Mr. MacKaye said. "It's work. That's the one thing about the do-it-yourself kind of thing: you actually have to do it yourself. It's not just that you put the record out and it sells itself."
Pearl Jam seems to be in no hurry to sort out its recording future. Mr. Curtis said he hoped to have details sewn up by July 2004.
"What I can say is that we're not going to do a traditional record deal with anybody," he said
One reason is that a big label like Sony music isn't interested in a washed up act. So yes, to that extent, a rock band like pearl jam has to try some new things to sell CD's.
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