4 Years Ago (2017)
When you create your most important work, it could be ignored by the audience because it’s ahead of its time. It requires people to change their thoughts and beliefs. But all important work ends up rising above the noise.
Black Sabbath’s debut album didn’t reach platinum in the U.S until October 13, 1986. Yep 16 years later, the most influential heavy metal album had moved a million units in the U.S.
But their tours sold out, which goes to show that people didn’t always buy recorded music.
You could be an artist creating work which is popular, and it resonates with the audience who already like what you do. “Dr Feelgood” was always going to be Motley’s best seller. They spent 7 plus years building an audience with each release and tour.
In addition, it spawned a new production sound that would become known as the “Black” sound after Metallica’s self-titled album destroyed our senses and the charts.
Our best work is the heart of what we do and sometimes getting it out there is a long difficult journey full of scams and rip offs, highs and lows, good and bad people, rejection and acceptance.
But you will not get there if you quit. It’s what you do in the dark, which will make you shine in the light.
8 Years Ago (2013)
The highs of success and fame are brief. The air at the top of the mountain is thin, so you’re not expected to hang around for a long time.
Vince Neil
On July 6, 2013, Vince Neil played a solo show in Mexico City.
The venue was Jose Cuervo Salon.
The capacity of the venue is 1,500. The attendance was 64 people.
That’s right, less than 5% of the total venue size.
Total Gross sales for the night was $2,286.
Does anyone really care about Vince Neil outside of Motley Crue?
Based on the ticket sales, Mexico sure don’t.
What a hard truth that is.
His debut album “Exposed” celebrated 20 years in 2013, but Vince went out and played Motley songs.
Power Metal Rules In Europe
On April 18, 2013, Helloween, Gamma Ray and Shadowside played a Power Metal feast in Hamburg, Germany. The venue was the Docks.
The capacity of the venue is 1,500. The attendance was 1,171.
Total Gross sales for the night was $51,299.
The thing with power metal bands is that they know the size of their audience. It is a niche and it has a hard core and devoted fan base.
The Black Crowes still do good business
On July 19, 2013, The Black Crowes, Tedeschi Trucks Band and The London Souls played a show in Nashville, Tennesse.
The venue was the Woods Amphitheater at Fontanel.
The capacity of the venue is 4,056. The attendance was 3,273.
Total Gross sales for the night was $215,641.
In the end there is plenty of money available in music and the more people that have access to recorded music means more fans that could turn into customers.
In Australia (and a lot of other countries) a copyright for a sound recording lasts for the life of the creator + 70 years after death.
If the creator lives to 80, then the Total Copyright is a 150 year term.
And since the large Corporations control a lot of the copyrights, a 150 year term benefits them.
Keith Richards famously said that you can’t copyright the blues.
The acts from the Sixties and Seventies, brazenly borrowed and built upon songs that already existed.
And didn’t we got a lot of glorious music.
As a fan of Jake E. Lee and the work he did with Ozzy and Badlands, it was cool to hear that he made the decision to record music again.
Frontiers Records signed the project.
Are there any Classic Eighties metal/rock bands or stars that Frontiers haven’t signed?
And “Feeder” was doing the rounds and i didn’t like it because there was no classic riff that stuck around forever to haunt my eardrums.
The expectation that most artists have is that since they have talent, can write a song and love what they do, they should be able to charge people to listen.
The reality is that there are thousands of artists trying to reach the same fans that are very careful with the money they spend on music.
Music is never a sure thing.
We live in a world of loyalty schemes. If you shop at any major retailer there is a pretty good chance that you have signed up to their loyalty scheme and after you spend a certain amount of dollars with them, you get a discount or some other reward for your next purchase.
So why isn’t this happening in the music business.
Back in 2013, two Queensryche bands did the rounds.
The Geoff Tate version is on Cleopatra Records and the Todd LaTorre version is on Century Media Records.
And there wasn’t a demand for two versions of Queensryche?
Then again demand for Queensryche was diminishing since Chris DeGarmo left.
And that’s another wrap for another week.
destroyerofharmony 
Funny how you said it took many years for the debut Sabbath to go platinum Pete. You hear so much about that record that you would think its 10 times platinum. Another album like that was the Sex Pistols. So much talk about the Bollocks record that you would think it was mega yet it scrapped just past gold I think..
Food for thought I suppose.
Yes indeed. I’m just guessing that People didn’t always buy records
Weird isn’t it? People go on about these albums yet they didn’t buy them lol
That is some scary numbers for Vince. He still only plays small clubs here in the States. And the press lately has not been good. For me, it is Motley or nothing really as he wasn’t the best part of the band.
I agree he wasn’t the best part and man I’ve seen some of that footage on YT. Geez.
But I’m still of the view that if you go out on a solo tour and you have three solo albums out, play some solo stuff and some Crue songs.
Agreed. I saw Ace recently and he didn’t really play hardly any of his solo stuff. It was 90% Kiss songs.
But Ace is allowed. Lol.
Ha! Yeah, I guess he is!
That Queensryche mess was a real soap opera. And yes, it was for a band whose light had dimmed long ago. They seem to have done ok after coming out of all of that but they’re still a shell of what they used to be.
I read about Geoff Tate using the Queensrÿche name and I thought it was bizarre because he could’ve used any other name for his new band. Yet, he chose to use the name relating to his former band. As for Vince Neil, I do feel bad for him, but clearly, he’s not in shape to perform anymore (vocally and mentally).