Columbia Records' Rick Rubin: Clueless on Grabbing Listeners By the Wallet
The title of Sunday's New York Times Magazine cover story was "Can Rick Rubin Save The Music Business?" The answer, apparently, is No, although Columbia Records, of which Rubin is now the co-head, would like to believe otherwise. Rubin, as well as David Geffen and Columbia exec Mark DiDia, who are also quoted in the article, have a great sense of what's wrong with the music biz, but not a lot of great ideas about how to fix it.
Rubin has made a career out of selling records by artists who don't normally sell records. In the '80s, he helped put hip-hop on the white suburban map with the Beastie Boys' zillion-selling debut album. In the '90s, he turned the Red Hot Chili Peppers into superstars by encouraging them to branch out from their funk-rap roots into pop fare like the ballad "Under The Bridge." He took the moribund recording careers of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond and almost singlehandedly revived them by having them make records that appealed to a new, different -- and younger -- audience.
But almost all of those records were made in an era when people who listened to music also bought music. Today, when that audience is just as likely to get its music for free, either by home CD burning or illegal downloading, Rubin's as clueless as any other music exec about how to grab people by the wallet as well as the ears.
In the article, Rubin claims the way to save the business is the oft-touted subscription model, in which customers would pay for access to a downloadable library of music. Eventually, this probably will be the dominant mode for acquiring music. But it's a solution for years if not decades from now.
The immediate concern should be to slow the erosion of CD sales -- a proven cash cow -- as much as possible, while at the same time getting the major record labels to sit down and figure out exactly what's needed to make an online subscription service work. How to get the majors to even talk to each other, let alone agree on anything? Rubin doesn't have any better idea than I do.
Rubin's most boneheaded plan is to create Columbia's "word of mouth" department. According to a Columbia-sponsored focus group, word-of-mouth is how most tweens and teens find out about new music. No surprise there, considering that with the demise of radio and the music press, and MTV's evolution from a music channel to a lifestyle channel, there aren't many other outlets left.
But Rubin thinks word-of-mouth can be artificially created by a multinational conglomerate. The whole point of it is that it's NOT manipulated by the powers that be -- it's free of the bogus hype that labels like Columbia are known for. That's why marketing-savvy (and viral marketing-savvy) kids believe it. Co-opt its integrity, and you lose the appeal as well, not to mention the audience.
In the end, though, Rick Rubin is right about one ingredient that's necessary for the music business to survive, and one that he's proven to know a thing or two about. In the words of David Geffen, "... the top priority at any record company has to be coming up with great music. And for that reason, Sony was very smart to hire Rick." Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to sell that music. Maybe Sony still has Clive Davis' number handy?
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American business in general can be faulted for lack of foresight, and I can't see a more obvious example than with the big 4 record companies.
I can recall almost twenty years ago that Todd Rundgren and a few others were saying that the industry was going into this online direction, and that it would have to adapt in order to survive.
And now the people who will do the adapting are old farts like Clive Davis, Rick Rubin, and that club?
They're a big part of the problem, not the solution.
To which I say, YAAAY!
Give control of the music back to those who actually MAKE the music, and away from the fat cats who can blow money with the same level of skill that Boney James and his cohorts can blow a sax. It's about damn time.
sorry, i am late to this dance, but....
i've not read the interview but the words "subscription" and "columbia" brought back memories of the "columbia record club" via the US mail. it was a scam then (First record only 25 cents!), and will be a scam now, if given half a chance. sure, you can subscribe and pay a monthly fee to ostensibly have access to "a lot" of songs - but um, which songs would that be? by artists you like or artists columbia wants to promote?
in the old days, no one under 18 was allowed to partake in the columbia record club because it was "contract" to agree to buy a certain amount of records per month. you were given a "choice" of records to choose from at premium prices; if you did not buy for that month, you still owed for that month.
a friend of mine at the age of 13 wanted a 25 cent album. later, when inundated with bills and THREATS to pay for albums she didn't order, she had to have her folks write a letter stating that she was underaged and therefore this was an unenforceable contract. it worked. she got off the hook, as did her folks.
this is, in essence, what rick rubin proposes as the savior of the music business in the 21st century? everything old is new again? including the scam therein?
look, the music industry became "the industry without a clue" when napster was invented. that they then hijacked his model is obscene. i am 59 years old with 2,000 plus vinyls in my collection. i had very few CDs until napster came along and i was able to sample new american artists and a shitload of international artists i'd never heard of AND I THEN BOUGHT THEIR CDs.
once napster and the offshoot, gnuella (i think that's what it was) were sued beyond recognition, I STOPPED BUYING CDs.
get it, record companies? THAT WAS YOUR WORD of MOUTH.
morons.
Nobody knows anything until it happens.
Then come the predictions which are merely the extrapolation of what's already happening.
In the music biz we're waiting for somthing to happen.The
This might well mean YOU.
Rick needs to put brass plate signs on every Sony-Columbia office door that says,
"It's the songs stupid"
Rather then Joe Cool, VP Bean Counter Division or Robert Brown, VP Artists Hedge Fund and Investments Department.
That Rick Rubin interview was half silly, half fun . I liked when Rubin said that they had to get out of their building right away and one of his options for more positive energy was an old CAA bldg. (Maybe after they do an exorcism?) The Word of Mouth team was just bizarre and surreal and I can't believe the writer didn't call him on the cluelessness of it. He has good taste but it might be more appropriate for a boutique rather than an entire label, but maybe his tastes are broader than I imagine. Everything he said about anything other than music seemed disconnected and New Age-y. Labels should pull a play from the DVD world -- they've got competing better audio quality formats fighting it out for a much higher price. Duh. Sell new CDs with more quality and lots of video for the same or less price as now. Cut off ALL payments to radio stations. Without that artificial heroin addiction to money, maybe radio will create real playlists. Push Congress to decentralize radio, lower the number of stations conglomerates can have, allow a LOT more low power stations (and in big cities too) and you might get an explosion of small outlets over the air. It's just as cheap to create a radio station in your home as it is to record an album now. The entry costs are low but regulations keep them out. Free them up and creative airwaves wil lead to excitement about music. Lower ticket sales to concerts. Ge, the American Idol tour isn't doing well? Might it have something to do with charging $60 for a show that appeals mostly to kids? All I know is don't despair: I've got a pile of good CDs to listen to that just came out in the last month or two.
there is so much fantastic music now: tegan & sara, straylight run, talib kweli, the editors- so many...the boomer market is what's declined and it will just take some patience to await the next market. to me, it seems pretty clear that music videos will be the basic product of that market- not just tunes themselves, but music videos breaking with the songs. i think some new music as music-video in its original release can break through in a pay per view format (cheap), save to favorites option (cheap but the viewer has already paid once), and download option - maybe free with very hip 10-second "presented by" ad, or pretty cheap without it. the gold mine will be concert and personality "collage" type video content of bands' classic songs and sold for download under original copyright. the "music video" that broke with mtv so long ago is awaiting its online reincarnation. the new mtv will be the guys who do best at creating an online "tower superstore" type website, for instance. possibly live-cams in a real record store where people can browse and buy online in various ways- even with interaction with customers and staff.
The music industry is failing because it is making a fatal mistake: it's trying to control its customers. I haven't bought a CD in a long time because every time I hear a piece of music I like, I realize I'm going to have to pay $20+ to own one song I like, and support the Fat Cats in New York and Hollywood. I also haven't bought a CD in a long time because music I do like isn't played on the radio, stocked in record stores, or made available on the internet, because Big Media only wants mega-hits and artists with smaller audiences can't afford the distribution costs that Big Media imposes. The problem with applying control is that you get controlled in the process - you become dependent on the control-ees. They're addicted to their customers' spending habits and will do anything - unimaginatively, more control - to get money out of them. It doesn't work. The solution is to understand that creativity and the joy of listening doesn't come from mass-produced sameness delivered with little selection, but rather the "long tail" of a huge variety of artists and works, each selling a little bit. The challenge will be for someone to find a way to connect this "long tail" of creativity with the public at a cost that the artists and public can afford. Applying more control in the form of DRM, lawsuits, and reduced over-controlled music outlets won't do it.
CDs, as long as they stay artificially inflated in price (you can get CDS at garage sales-gently used-for a buck $1usd) will continue to decline in sales because most of them are, as many have said before me, pure garbage that I know I won't spend my hard earned money on, neither will the teenagers. Having said that, there are the rare gems out there still, worthy of buying whole, the rest you just pick the song you like and buy that instead of committing to a whole album that is probably not worth the money, period.
The industry has been dying for years, the industry is made of greedy old men making money off the young, either the artists themselves (who sometimes are also now greedy old men) or the market they are trying to capture. They should just give up, stop trying so hard to shove worthless horrid music down our throats and let the music happen. The creme rises to the top, let it, stop stirring the pot to keep that from happening.
Online downloading of songs, instead of whole albums is the future of music, the sooner they embrace it, the sooner they'll be making money again. Don't these idiots remember cassette/cd singles anymore?
Frank Zappa, several years before his death, made a similar observation about the "greedy old men." He said that in the sixties (probably popular music's Renaissance period), the record guys might not like a Jimi Hendrix, but they knew that there was the chance that millions of others would like them, so the record men of those days would give those artists a chance. Today, the record companies are run by people like Simon Cowell - those who are convinced that they do know what the public wants and are "inflicting those tastes on the general public", to quote Zappa. (How's that second Fantasia record doing, Simon?)
I'll tell you why the music industry is falling apart, because it is what it is. It rips off the artists as well as the consumer. For example, you pay 20 bucks for a CD that has one good song on it and the rest sound like they were written by the "lowest-co
Then, when your favorite group comes to town, they want 100 bucks for a ticket to their lip synched poor excuse for a concert, which for some reason they think will sound good in a hockey arena.
Here's how you revive the record industry.
1. Fire all the A&R people, especially the ones who think Britney Spears is talented. Hire people who actually understand the art form.
2. Require your signed acts to be real musicians, composers, artists, then don't fuck them. Don't try to manufacture them either. (psst: it's really obvious)
3. Make sure your acts spend their time doing concerts, air-breathing humans playing real instruments, at a price people can afford.
4. Make CD packaging worth buying the CD for. It should have great liner notes, artwork and can be used as a rolling tray (like the old double LPs).
5. Finally, wake up, man, because the only thing that will never change is the fact that everything changes. I am in my 40s, grew up with LPs and 8-tracks and now I get 90% of my music from the subscription model emusic.comm, etc). The rest I get...well
Ah, Neon Park (graphic artist for Little Feat), where are you now?
Amen and amen, RickO!
(Man, do I wish I'd SAVED those great album covers with the artwork and liner notes!!!!!)
Amen, brother. I think Rick Rubin as an A & R guy is a great idea. He's just not the guy to move a record label into the 21st century. And the sad thing is that nobody else seems to be the guy (or gal), either.
CD's aren't dead, they're just too expensive. To date, almost 300 million have been sold domestically and over 600 million will move by year's end. Hardly dead.
And of course, bands manufacture CD's - DIY bands sell them at every all ages show I've ever been to. They're typically priced between $5 and $8 and they move if the band is good. Real music fans are happy to support bands they like, especially if the price is right. How else would you have them supplement income from merch sales and ticket sales? Give the music away? Sell a track at a time on a dedicated web site? Yeah, that'll work.
Just because a trendy magazine says something's dead doesn't make it so.
but maybe you wanna buy my Apple TV?
And what is the first think that you do with a CD? You rip it and convert to a digital format.
They have value to some collectors but as far as music the market now prefers digital. I have instant access to my ENTIRE collection on my 60gig Ipod while traveling to include video content as well. I could never carry that many CDs and DVDs with such ease.
The music industry deserves to die. It should've died a long time ago. Word of Mouth Department! HA! I thought Rubin was more clued in than that.
hey tony...199
seriously, you need to get out of the time warp.
CD's are dead. Bands don't make DAT masters anymore and don't manufacture CD's.
but maybe you wanna buy my tape deck?
Where to begin?...
dexxjones' point re: subscription services is well taken. Unless the labels in aggregate are forced to make ALL their content available as part of the deal, the model will end up being a ripoff for the consumer. The labels could simply choose to load up the subscribers with crap and still sell the "good" stuff a la carte.
I'm also not convinced that Rick Rubin has the answers to anything other than what Rick himself likes to hear. Don't forget that Def Jam had its share of clunkers as well as hit makers (Oran "Juice" Jones and Blue Magic spring immediately to mind). Further, even if Rick likes it, there's no guarantee that Columbia will know what to do with it once it has it. Once the music leaves Rick's hands, it becomes the property of the same people that brought the biz to its current state to begin with.
Gotta be real careful with that "word of mouth" stuff. The minute the kids think that WOM is manufactured by the label, they'll never believe another thing you say to them.
Finally, the answer to all of this may simply be that labels, in the strictest definition, are no longer part of the equation. A band that has access to Pro Tools, a basement, some borrrowed cash to make a DAT master and manufacture CD's, a great local live show reputation and a van can, in theory, clear more for itself than the traditional label route of going into debt for hundreds of thousands, only to be dropped if the first disc does not meet the label's expectations. Bottom line, if a Rick Rubin likes you enough to sign you, you can make a heck of a lot more doing it yourself. this kind of creative freedom just might save rock and roll.
Seems to me that "ripping off the consumer", not to mention the hapless artists, is all record companies know how to do, and all they care about doing. And that has never really been significantly different.
Record companies long ago stopped giving a shit about music. They're run by huge conglomerates who give all the decision making jobs to accountants.
Thus, we get "accountant music". All they know how to do is jump on a trend until they beat the life out of it.
You got that right.
We all know that a system like itunes is the future of getting music to the masses but the greedy execs cannot steal enough money to maintain their lavish lifestyles from this format so they are constantly looking for news ways to continue screwing the consumer.
Soon they will run out of options and will have to join the digital world.
Agreed. Considering that a band is considered lucky if it can negotiate a royalty rate above 10% with a label (and not have that money taken away with recoupables), then DIY is the way to go.
Check out this book by Kashif: "Everything You'd Better Know About The Music Business". It recommends the same thing - most of the time, you will make more money putting out the record yourself and promoting it properly than depending on one of the big 4. And you own and control the copyrights.
Sounds like a nobrainer to me.
Get RID of the stupid playlists/format radio stations (JACK, Clear-Channel), etc - and get back to playing LONG SETS of MUSIC!!!
One of the best channels for discovering NEW MUSIC is, surprisingly - NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO -after I heard their interview with Michael McDonald, I rushed right out and bought his Motown One and Two CD; I bought a Dixie Chicks CD because of an NPR interview; I've bought Keb Mo for the same reason.
NPR is NOT constrained by vapid, idiotic playlists of the same 10 songs - they interview interesting artists, new and old, play some of their music, whetting the appetite for more.
As a 1958 baby (yah, do the math) - I used to listen to WIOQ-FM 102 FM in Philadelphia, which played album-oriented rock: Little Feat, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, etc, etc.
If radio stations would play LONG cuts from artists as well as feature interviews - people might actually WANT to purchase a CD!!!!!
As a 1954 baby (harder math) I too find NPR music progamming to be as close to the "Boss Radio" of my youth. All music played. No crappy playlists. Did the hits get repeated? Yes. There were enough that it did not get repetative. Listen to "Morning Becomes Eclectic" on kcrw.com or on iTunes public radio stations listing. Radio can be good. There is good music to be heard. Listen
Harder math still, kids--'52. One of the most
obvious reasons CD sales have dropped is the
rip-off price. It wasn't that many years ago
that Sony and some other big companies were
convicted of collusion in the high pricing of CD's, and had to repay consumers who filed with their respective states for refunds. There
were only a relative handful of artists who ever questioned the pricing (Pearl Jam, maybe?)
by the mega-bucks corps, so I have never really
had much sympathy for artists who feel under-
compensated. I'm sure some are, as there always
have been in an industry controlled by the fat
cats. But a CD for $15-20, or even $25, even if
it's a quality artist, is hard to swallow. This
is all stone-age stuff to the younger set. I know it's a brave, new musical world out there,
but I'm still buying CD's because I want to hold something in my hand when I buy it, and get some pictures and other info about the artists as well. Call me old-fashioned, but I like liner notes and who's sitting in from another band, or whatever. You can't get that stuff from the on-line music services, can you? I'll probably jump into the new system sometime, whatever it is, but not until I have a much better idea of what's going on.
I love it that the music companies are going down! Karma is a bitch. For so many decades the record companies have been making insanely high profits and screwing the artists as well as the public (with crappy product). Anarchy in the Music Biz!
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Posted September 4, 2007 | 11:01 AM (EST)