EMI LABEL GROUP IS SOLD TO A F*CKING BANK
If I were in a metal band on EMI or any of their affiliated labels I’d be running for the hills. Metal Insider is reporting that the label group — one of the remaining “Big Four” major labels — has been purchased by Citibank. Yes, a label has been purchased by a bank. Too fitting in the dire record industry times and dire financial times of 2011.
On the surface this transaction doesn’t seem like it would have much impact on metal, but any major move involving one of the biggest label groups in the world, regardless of genre, is going to have a “trickle-down effect” on all segments of the industry, to borrow a term from my good friend Ronald Reagan. Many metal labels we know and love are distributed by EMI — Century, Season of Mist, Earache, and Willowtip among them — although I don’t expect this deal to really have much impact on those businesses; if shit hits the fan with EMI, I’m sure those labels can find other distributors for as long as distributors remain necessary (which isn’t very long). Moreso I’d worry that the absence of a major source of investment in music on the whole would just result in… less music.
But the fact is that music will continue to exist and thrive regardless. Today’s recording technology is cheaper than ever, and widespread broadband Internet access makes it easier than it’s ever been to get that music out to potential fans. Art will not suffer if there aren’t big labels around, even if there is less money being invested in it. Periphery, TesseracT, Chimp Spanner, Keith Merrow, Animals as Leaders, Cloudkicker and countless other metal bands are perfect examples of why things are going to be just fine.
The days of record labels as we know them are numbered; sure, musicians will always stand to benefit from a team of experienced businessmen and businesswomen to guide their careers while the musicians focus on what they do best, making music. Those people will still exist, it’s just that their goal will be to sell tickets to shows, sell merchandise, and set up endorsements and syncs for their artists (things they already often do) instead of selling recorded music. And their numbers will be fewer. The writing’s been on the wall for quite some time, and I’m honestly shocked it’s taken this long for the labels to start collapsing.
And here’s the big elephant in the room no one wants to talk about: everyone needs to get used to making less money. Musicians have always been historically poor; it’s only in the past 100 or so years, since humans invented devices on which they could sell recorded music, that musicians have been able to live the lavish lifestyle, or even a comfortable one. It was a blip in the overall scheme of the history of music, one that worked out very nicely for musicians and the people who work for them. But it’s over now. Let’s face it. Just like after a spike in the stock market or the weather following an abnormally warm winter day, things are now correcting themselves and going back to the way they should be. Musicians are not supposed to be rich. They’re supposed to suffer for making art their existence but do it anyway because they love it. I’m sorry, that’s just how it is. If you stop making music because you aren’t making money at it then making music probably wasn’t that important to you in the first place.
And yes, I know full well that I’m biting the hand that feeds; most of our advertisers on MetalSucks are record labels. But I’m just calling it like I see it and trying not to let my biases get in the way.
Anyway, back to the EMI deal; it seems EMI’s publishing arm is doing just fine while their recording division has accumulated a massive amount of debt. I can’t see the monkeys investment bankers at Citibank foolishly believing that sales of recorded music are somehow going to make a miraculous comeback, so they must have some kind of plan in store. My guess would be that they’ll spin off some of their more viable recorded music units to some other suckers while laying off massive amounts of workers and merging units that are flailing, all the while holding onto their publishing assets that will continue to bring in the dough for some time to recoup their investment and then some.
So what does this mean for metal, anyway? Short term, Century Media and the rest of the metal labels distributed by EMI should probably start looking for new homes, or better yet taking all distro matters into their own hands (like Century already does for physical product). Long term, the picture is much more bleak and I certainly don’t have an answer. Labels have been exploring diversifying their profit streams by dipping into bands’ merch and touring rights (aka 360 deals) to mixed success. Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe they need to put more time into developing bands instead of hopping on the latest bandwagon. Maybe they need to sign fewer bands. Maybe they need to sign more. I really have no idea.
Or maybe everyone in this business just needs to get used to earning less money. It wouldn’t be the worst thing for the music itself.
-VN
