Market Share Report

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But I thought EMI was history, on the brink of extinction, how could Terra Firma's company almost equal the Warner Music Group in new release market share, only half a percentage point separating the two?

HitsDailyDouble has an exhaustive market share report:

http://hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news07997m01

You may have to register first, but it's free, and you should check the site on a regular basis, there's a plethora of information. But be sure to check for biases, both positive and negative. Their vendetta against Lyor and Warner seems to be done now that they're getting paid, but I haven't quite figured out their problem with Randy Phillips. I thought the "Hits" guys were radio mavens, who moved into management as the business caved. Guess they want some of that tour money too...

Anyway, the reason EMI is doing so well is because of one album, Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now", which has sold one and a half million copies so far this year (complete chart here: http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/special/market/hits_marketshare_2010_03.htm)

And why did Sony essentially equal perennial market share winner Universal? Can you say Sade and Susan Boyle? Which sold 990,000 albums and 553,000 respectively?

And why is Jimmy Iovine's IGA second in label new release market share? Can you say Lady GaGa? Placing at number 3, with 553,000 and number 10, with 334,000?

Ain't that an interesting spread. Number one, Lady Antebelleum's album, sold 1.2 million more than GaGa's "Fame Monster", number ten.

In other words, now, more than ever, the major label game is about hits.

They don't want your single. And by this I don't mean track, rather I'm employing a baseball metaphor. You can argue they want home runs, but I'd say the major label game is really about grand slams.

I can't fault them for this, they're businesses. But what if you're an act, do you belong in this game?

If you think you can sell tonnage, if you make radio and TV-friendly music, take your chances. If you're looking to build to a solid touring base, despite lip-service, the major can't be bothered. EMI is fighting for its life, actually, it's already dead, they're just arguing in court over potential fraud in the inducement by Citibank. Do you really want to put your developing act on EMI?

Or even Sony. Sure, Susan Boyle and Sade rain down cash, but the company just wants new winners of the same stature. So maybe they'll start you, but they might finish you too. As in jumping ship to something that shows major traction, leaving you to languish in signed to the label hell.

And usually, you're signed to a 360 deal, so even if you're working on the road, you're working for the label. Which is doing exactly what for you?

It's interesting to question whether these sales numbers evidence Long Tail backlash. Whether it's about winners more than small sales for the truly obscure. But looking at the spread between the number one and ten albums on the chart shows that it's about very few winners!

The majors created their game. Blame MTV, the concomitant resurgence of Top Forty radio, media manipulation by Clive Davis and Tommy Mottola. They've been so busy swinging for the fences, that's all they know how to do.

Hell, they've fired all the little people who help you build slowly.

Sure, Kings Of Leon broke through, but how many other acts have been nurtured from obscurity to mainstream success? You need immediate action, and at least gold at the end of the sales curve in order to continue to get attention. So if you're performing anything but mainstream music, if your act and music need time to develop, run from the major label system.

You've got to be willing to slog it out until you get lucky. The major labels try to force luckiness. But the hype and the fakery end up turning people off. GaGa is so big, she's got nowhere to go but down. And there's not another GaGa stealing attention. It's kind of like the Tiger Woods crisis, it festers forever in the public consciousness, because no one that big is willing to do something that stupid. GaGa should be toning it down, reducing expectations in order to achieve longevity, instead we've got press stories about a billion video views... Shit, anything that ubiquitous is headed for overload and ultimate obscurity. Hell, ask my buddy Peter Frampton, he went for the gold after his big hit album, played to the masses with "I'm In You" and the "Sgt. Pepper" film, and still has regained neither his credibility nor sales. Who to blame? Management! Which steered him wrong.

How's the major gonna steer you?

Are they even interested in you?

Are they going to be around long enough to see you through five albums? Or, if the name remains, will the employees sustain?

Interesting times.

All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)

Cover of Manassas

"Do what you do, don't bring me down"

I was driving down the San Diego Freeway, sun in my face, the interior of my car still cold from sitting outside overnight, listening to Deep Tracks.

They played that Manassas track "Right Now"... This is the quintessential Stills, not the debut which got all the hoopla. Buy this double album.

Then "Dig A Pony". "Let It Be" will never be a throwaway for me because of "I've Got A Feeling", but I can't imagine being a deejay and selecting "Dig A Pony" to play on the radio. I thought of switching the channel. But I ended up zoning out and enjoying it.

You know how driving is. You're going along at 70, checked out, almost asleep. But somehow, your synapses fire and get you to brake, swerve, in case something untoward occurs. Ah, the human body, what a machine. Not built by Toyota, but GM. Works great when you buy it, it's just as you get older it starts falling apart. The mind says yes, but the limbs say no.

But I'm still functioning. Old age has not yet caught up with me. And I hear something... It's an intro. A couple of strums of an electric guitar, a whistle and a few drumbeats. I'm drawn in, like they're giving away a million dollars in the dashboard. But this is better than money, this is quite clearly "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)".

We played these records so much we know every nuance. We can name them BEFORE the tune begins. But then Mike Kellie hits the drums and Peter Frampton begins to wail.

Yes, I looked it up. I've still got my original 1972 vinyl album. I bought it because I was so impressed with Peter at the Fillmore East, on Humble Pie's farewell tour (at least with Peter). I saw it in a bin in London. But didn't buy it until I got back to the U.S. that fall. And I seemed to be the only one. Oh, other people bought "Wind Of Change", but I didn't know them. There was no Facebook, no social networking. We didn't find other fans of the band until we went to the gig.

At first my favorite was the opener, "Fig Tree Bay", slow and enticing.

I didn't understand the cover of "Jumping Jack Flash". It seemed superfluous, especially since Frampton had no problem writing his own material.

But it was the second side opus that entranced me, that made me a fan.

Yes, "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" opens side two. The second side opener was never the single. Unless an album contained two. It was always a statement. Of where the artist was coming from. The first side opener was for the label, the manager, the second side opener was for the artist.

"All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" is six minutes and twenty five seconds long. But it plays like 3:30. It starts with the verses, then drifts into instrumental territory and builds and builds. Kind of like "Layla", if the second half of that Clapton classic wasn't blissed out. Yes, both halves of "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" definitely hung together, were of a piece. As if you went to dinner with someone and found yourself drifting in a boat down a river thereafter. There might not be tangerine trees and marmalade skies, but the feeling of euphoria was the same.

And I'm listening to "All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)" in the car just now and I hear something, that I've never noticed before. The way the guitar notes have this funny way of sticking together, they're not separate, they're fluid, not drops, but an endless pour with staccato elements. The track is almost forty years old, yet brand new.

And then it starts accelerating towards the end. That ride on the river is going to end. We're going to tie up the boat. Please no, NO! But Frampton and his buddies are not done, for the final thirty seconds they flourish, like your love winking at you before she walks up the dock and evaporates.