Category Archives: A to Z of Making It

A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

The Piracy Conversation: The Good and The Bad

Anyone heard of this beautiful new piece of software called “Popcorn Time”. There are no registrations, or restrictions on content. It looks like Netflix and it is free. The user just presses play. It’s easy to use and its design is elegant.

Did you also know that “Popcorn Time” was designed by programmers in Argentina, where the movie “There’s Something About Mary” is still classed as a new release by the movie industries in that country.

So of course, the “Popcorn Time” development team created an innovative piece of software to meet a service problem for their country because the content industries failed to. There is a reason why South America has the highest rates of copyright infringement when it comes to music. Access to content is not serviced in an affordable way.

Of course the creators shut the service down when their “experiment” put them at the doors of legal threats around piracy and copyright infringement.

However the saga did not end. Remember that the internet is a copy system. So of course, the source code was made available and now other programmers took over the open-source code and made it available to people once again.

Hollywood is not up against people who want to be millionaires. They are up against educated people who want to create something new to solve a problem that they have in their home country. If the developers followed the “laws” then “Popcorn Time” would never exist. The restrictions around copyright and patents would have killed it in the start-up phase.

To compete, Hollywood needs to employ the best and the best don’t want to work for companies who see innovation as a way to prop up profits from the past. They want to work for companies who see innovation as a way to stay ahead of other companies.

So the best minds go into business for themselves, or for companies that meet their expectations or they just stay in their bedroom and innovate without the law in mind.

We all know that piracy is wrong, however it opens up the conversation to the larger issue.

Let’s put into context what piracy/copyright infringement has done.

THE BAD

It made the RIAA spend millions suing music customers.

THE GOOD

While Apple started to see a market here and began to turn those Napster digital natives into iTunes buyers by making it easy to grab the latest music, anywhere, at any time.

THE BAD

It made the RIAA/Record Labels sue/kill off thousands of technologies that would have given them better profits if they only had the foresight to innovate instead of legislate. Think of Napster, Limewire, mp3tunes and many others.

THE GOOD

With the rise of Spotify/Pandora, the music piracy problem is declining and the labels are now cashed up

THE BAD

Artists are not seeing a lot of it.

THE GOOD

Piracy opened the door for format shifting.

THE BAD

The music industry introduced DRM and the ones that got hurt by it were the ones that actually paid money to purchase the product while the pirates bathed in DRM free mp3’s.

THE GOOD

YouTube piracy has also led to another source of income. It’s actually official now that record labels make more money from fan-made videos uploaded to YouTube than they do from their official music videos. Check it out on the link at the end of the post. And this is coming from Universal Music Group.

THE BAD

And still the labels send out billions of takedowns to these kinds of videos on YouTube because they still see fan made videos as a breach of copyright.

THE GOOD

However, YouTube has innovated even more and now the label is notified when a user uploads copyrighted content. The label can then choose to place advertising before the video, making royalties from the views.

THE BAD

And the labels/RIAA still scream that Google (the owner of YouTube) isn’t doing enough to protect their profits.

THE GOOD

YouTube fan made pirated videos is a massive growth area alright.

THE BAD

How much is the artist seeing? Again a lot of power in the hands of the label and a lot of money coming into the label accounts for work done by fans this time around. These monies should be at least 70% to the artist.

THE GOOD

Basically, piracy has also highlighted how broken Copyright is. The pure essence of Copyright has been hijacked by the Corporations that now hold the majority of copyrights. To further show how broken it is, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (one of the main creators of the World Wide Web) has called for a copyright reform passage to be included in any new legislation written as part of the “Web We Want” initiative. He further stated that the current law is purely there to protect the interests of movie producers, not the public at large.

THE BAD

The labels see piracy as a case for even more draconian copyright legislation and even longer terms post death.

THE GOOD

Piracy has opened up more distribution channels

THE BAD

However the “Popcorn Time” software has shown that the current movie industry is still employing the old distribution model.

THE GOOD

However, Netflix has shown the movie industry that fans of movies and TV want content on demand/twenty-four hours a day for a fair price. And Popcorn Time has shown that they want top-tier content.

THE BAD

Google is still blamed for not doing enough.

THE GOOD

Because the future is in streaming for music and video.

THE BAD

However the RIAA and the MPAA are doing their best to kill it. Pandora had to raise their fees to cover the cost of licensing the songs. Plus they also had an expensive lawsuit in relation to the royalty rate paid on a radio stream. While the movie studios still lock content away.

THE GOOD

Legacy analog revenue sources get replaced by digital revenue sources. It’s a transition right now. The transition isn’t happening fast enough for the labels however it is their fault in the end. As their need to control has more or less slowed the transition process down.

THE BAD

It is a shame that the RIAA and the record labels focus on the shortfalls between analog and digital revenues at this point in time, instead of looking at the bigger picture.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/3/21/technology/how-video-piracy-killing-hollywood-star

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/17/popcorn-time-is-hollywoods-

http://www.themusicnetwork.com/youtube-fan-videos-earn-labels-

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pandora-raises-

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140317203156-

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/3/21/technology/tuning-musics-digital-struggle

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Demo Days Re-Visited

RULES OF THE INTERNET

Machine Head have been leading up to a demo release for the song “Killers and Kings” since February. In the lead up, Robb Flynn talked about his youth, the San Francisco thrash scene and how bands used to release demo’s of songs before the album and how the fans would go away and debate it.

Then the marketing started. Machine Head (along with Nuclear Blast) started releasing covers on a weekly basis (which look great by the way) and they got into partnership with the Record Store Day event.

So as Machine Head fans wait for Record Store Day (and of course a lot of fans are going to be disappointed if they don’t get a copy or all of the different copies), Metallica just played a new song called “The Lords Of Summer” live and then released a Garage Demo on their YouTube page. The song is crap by the way, however there are a few riffs/sections there that would end up on other songs. James wont let those riffs go to waste.

Talk about stealing another bands thunder.

The question needs to be asked, what would Machine Head or Nuclear Blast do, if the demo of “Killers and Kings” leaked online somehow before the actual Record Store Day, because when you start producing a physical product, you get the distribution chain clicking into gear. This means that a lot of hands and five-fingered people will be touching that product at certain points.

The rules of the internet dictate that gated window releases don’t work.

To put it in simply pseudocode;

Where an audience exists and if an artist has new material, release it.

I will be on the look out for the “Killers and Kings” singles and as a collector I will be trying to collect all 4 covers. Wish me luck.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Faktion and The Year That Was 2006

They are no more. According to the internet, they barely existed.

Faktion’s self-titled release hit the streets in 2006. I came across it a few days ago, almost 8 years since it’s release. And I have stayed with it, because it is a damn good album. A real strong album. Back in 2006, it might have sounded generic and formula driven against some of the bands that had records out at that time.

It was up against some stiff competition for listener’s attention. The audience that could have gravitated towards Faktion had already devoted their ears to other bands.

Breaking Benjamin released “Phobia”, Skillet released “Comatose”, Stone Sour released “Come What(ever) May”, Daughtry released his self titled debut, 10 Years released “Autumn’s Dream”, Crossfade released “Falling Away”, Pillar released “The Reckoning”, Red released “End Of Silence” and Papa Roach released “The Paramour Sessions”. Already it is a pretty crowded marketplace. BUT it gets worse.

They had a deal with Roadrunner Recrods. Maybe Roadrunner just didn’t know how to promote them against a crowded modern rock scene and it is as dead set shame. Maybe Roadrunner put all of their energies into promoting the ones that already had a following, instead of trying to break a new band to the masses.

Other Roadrunner stable mates that released albums in 2006 are as follows;

Dragonforce – Inhuman Rampage
Stone Sour – Come What(ever) May
Hatebreed – Supremacy
Black Label Society – Shot to Hell
Cradle of Filth – Thornography
Killswitch Engage – As Daylight Dies
Trivium – The Crusade
Madina Lake – The Disappearance of Adalia [Digital EP]
Theory of a Deadman – Gasoline
36 Crazyfists – Rest Inside The Flames
Chimaira – Chimaira
Ill Niño – One Nation Underground
Roadrunner United – The All-Star Sessions
Dresden Dolls – Yes, Virginia… ‎
Satyricon – Now, Diabolical
Fear Factory – Demanufacture
Soulfly – Soulfly
DevilDriver – The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand
Type O Negative – The Best Of Type O Negative (Comp)
New York Dolls – One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This
Opeth – Ghost Reveries
Black Stone Cherry – Black Stone Cherry
Slipknot – Voliminal: Inside The Nine ‎
Delain – Lucidity
Liv Kristine – Enter My Religion
Bleeding Through – The Truth
Life Of Agony – River Runs Red
Creetins – The Spirit Is Willing ‎(7″)
Caliban – The Undying Darkness
Junkie XL – Today ‎

As you can see from the above list, the label had 32 releases happening for the year that I could locate and in amongst all of them was the monster that is known as Nickelback, who had singles and videos released well into 2006 from their 2005 album. And somewhere in this mix was a band called Faktion. A band that had even more competition from bands on other labels;

Tool released “10,000 Days”,
Rodrigo Y Gabriela released their self-titled debut,
Iron Maiden released “A Matter of Life and Death”,
Europe released “Secret Society”,
Evergrey released “Monday Morning Apocalypse”,
Poets of The fall released “Carnival Of Rust”,
Muse released “Black Holes And Revelations”,
Jet released “Shine On”,
The Killers released “Sams Town”,
Senses Fail released “Still Searching”,
My Chemical Romance released “The Black Parade”,
Smile Empty Soul released the excellent “Vultures”,
Red Hot Chilli Peppers released “Stadium Arcadium”.

I can go on, however the point is made. It’s a pretty crowded marketplace for listener’s attention. And “Faktion” was there, one of many bands in the music business trying to break through the noise.

Add to that noise the other big internet stories.

On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email address. Suddenly people (including fans of music) had a new outlet that had nothing to do with music.

Then there was YouTube. The site grew rapidly, since kicking off in 2004 and by July 2006, 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day. The site was also receiving 100 million video views per day. Suddenly people (including fans of music) had another new outlet to focus on.

MySpace was still a giant back then and the 100 millionth account was created on August 9, 2006.

Also in 2006, a little known company called Spotify was created. From small beginnings, large things grow.

The following year the first iPhone hit the streets and the people (again including fans of music) had another new outlet to spend time on that initially didn’t have anything to do with music.

And the paradigm shift that started with Napster in 1999, became a tidal wave in 2006.

Music really needed to compete against different markets. It wasn’t about a cost issue. It wasn’t a piracy/copyright infringement issue. It was a competition issue. It was economics 0.1. Supply and demand. When supply is limited, demand is higher. With supply in abundance, demand is lower.

Fans of music became early adopters of technological products. If they are spending their time and money on those products, that leaves less time and less money to spend on other products.

So what about Faktion? The post was meant to be about Faktion, however when i started researching some papers around innovation and competition for a different post, everything started to link together. Faktion and 2006 became the catalyst.

Reading one of their earlier bios, they make mention of their MySpace play count metrics and maybe those stats played a key role in getting Roadrunner interested. However those MySpace metrics will never equate to a 1 to 1 relationship with sales, the same way that pirated content will never relate to a lost sale.

Who is Faktion? Ryan Gibbs is on vocals and was the last addition to the band. Marshal Dutton played guitar and was the original vocalist. Josh Franklin was also on guitar, Jeremy on bass and another Jeremy with a surname of Moore on drums.

Does the name Marshall Dutton sounds familiar?

It should.

Remember a band called Hinder. “Welcome To The Freakshow” was produced by Hinder drummer Cody Hanson and Faktion’s Marshall Dutton, with mixing done by James Michael from Sixx AM. What a team?

Also remember when Austin Winkler stepped out of the tour for the album. Guess who stepped in as a fill in vocalist. Yep, that’s right, the same Marshall Dutton from Faktion.

So when Faktion called it quits, he formed a band called “Drankmore” with Faktion’s tour manager Jarrod Denton. In that same band is Cody Hanson, the drummer from Hinder.

Remember that music is a relationship business.

And speaking of relationships, I remember reading an interview that Marshal did and he mentioned that he wouldn’t be opposed to doing Faktion again, so lets hope that happens.

It was the lead breaks in Faktion that got me. It was a pretty ballsy move to do leads for a melodic rock band in 2006. Comparing this album now to the bands that had commercial success in 2006, Faktion is streets ahead. And that is because of the guitar work.

A good band is a band that has a lot of different elements. Having breakdown riffs by 2006 we getting old. While it worked for bands like Red, Breaking Benjamin and 10 Years, the audience wanted “Guitar Hero’s again”. Remember back in 2005, “Guitar Hero” the game was unleashed to a massive audience and to great success.

The song “Always Wanting More” is a stand-out. It’s heavy with great guitar work.

All your pleasures have brought you greed
Only thinking about yourself again
All the things that you say you need
Are the poisons that eat you from within

In the end we all end up in a wooden box. Focus on accumulating experiences instead of wealth. Focus on building relationships instead of enemies. The Recording Industry failed to build a relationship with the people who actually purchased music. They exploited the artists and then abandoned them whenever they felt like it.

The one that resonated with me was “Who I Am”.

I know I’m not prepared for a life
That keeps me far from home
But I know if I just sit there,
I’ll never find out who I am

The life of a musician is a tough gig. I love writing music and playing it, however I hate to be away from home. When I was in bands, I hated touring. And this song is about that life to me, however the chorus is done in such a general way, that it can be interpreted that you need to get out of your comfort zone to make things happen.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Treating Fans Like Shit

What Metal and Rock Labels Should Be Doing?

One thing is clear when it comes to the digital music market. It is constantly evolving. Apple is trying it’s hardest to retain its competitive advantage as streaming services start to reduce the number of downloads they sell. We can safely say that Apples monopoly on download sales is more or less over.

Across the board, song downloads are down and digital album sales are down. CD sales have been declining for a long time as well.

So what do we have at the moment. Streaming is growing in popularity and YouTube is still there, the unofficial streaming monolith. As fans of music we are using our smartphones to stream music instead of downloading it.

So if you are a metal or a rock label like Frontiers, Century Media or Nuclear Blast and you have all the above information in front of you, what do you do?

1. Don’t hold back music from streaming services. It’s not about sales anymore. It’s about who is listening to it.

2. Corporate deals/exclusives alienate the fans while it brings a return on investment to the record label.

3. If piracy sites make so much money from offering mp3’s for free, why don’t the record labels get into the same act. Get into bed with BitTorrent. High piracy rates today will lead to payola in the years to come. Volbeat were streaming stars in Denmark and Sweden before they even broke through in America. Moby’s “Innocents” BitTorrent bundle was downloaded 8.9 million times. Expect 20% of those customers to purchase the next album and expect 50% of those customers to attend a live show from Moby.

4. iTunes is finished as a main income source much in the same way CD’s are over. Sure, hobbyist will still purchase, however the fans have moved to streaming.

5. Streaming is not the enemy. To use a non-metal or rock example, hip hop artist Schoolboy Q had his “Oxymoron,” album heavily promoted on Spotify. In a smart promotional move, they released the album on Spotify months ahead of the album physical and digital release and by the time it got released, 3.3 million streams got racked up and in its first week of release it sold over 130,000 copies. The first two earlier albums, “Setbacks” and “Habits & Contradictions,” sold 17,000 and 48,000 units respectively.

6. It’s not a great marketing strategy to dictate to fans how they can consume that band’s music. People want uniqueness and those special packages. People want to stream. People want to download mp3’s for free. People will download mp3’s and pay for it. People will buy a CD/DVD package. People will download a free app, if they know that it contains the whole album. If “Flappy Bird” was making money from a free app, why wouldn’t music artists make money.

7. The label is in the recording business to make money. The best way to make money is to have deals in place that is a win-win for both the label and the artist.

8. Sales are not a measure of success anymore. I was following the band Otherwise after their album “True Love Never Dies” was released in 2012. Each week they moved 400 to 700 units in the U.S. They were also on tour with 3 Doors Down and Daughtry. By delivering on stage, they saw sales resonate. Eventually all those small amounts started to add up into 10,000. Then 20,000 and so on. Spotify shows the song “Soldiers” at 937,417 streams. The song “I Don’t Apologize” with 768,304 streams. “Die For You” has 402,458 streams. The “Soldiers” official video on the Century Media channel has over 1.7m views.

Smaller returns today, will lead to greater returns in a few years. It’s all about longevity.

As a label, YOU WANT YOUR ARTISTS TO LAST and STAY TOGETHER. It is about outlasting the competition.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories

Music Business Rules Found In Songs

On Motley Crue’s 2008 song ‘Welcome To The Machine’ they provided a few general rules about the recording business and the machine that is the music business.

Rule Number 1: “Sign on the x to sell your soul”.

Yep, if you want a major record deal, prepare to sell out. Major labels want hit acts. Hit acts need to play to a formula. The labels are not interested in the Mumford and Sons or Kings Of Leon outliers. They want the acts that will sing the songs written by a committee.

Rule Number 2: “It’s so automatic, Hocking broken plastic, Royalties you’ll never know”.

Yep, the good old measure of success. Record sales. Still used by the labels as a barometer of success in 2014. And the labels still employ creative accounting when it comes to royalty payments. Dollars for the label, pennies for the artist.

Rule Number 3: “Give your ass like a whore, Once you take a hit, You need more more more”.

Once an artist tastes success, they will go back to the same restaurant over and over again. Because we all want to be loved.

Rule Number 4: “Welcome to the machine, Once it sucks you in you’ll never leave, Grind you up spit you out, After all you’re just a piece of meat”.

You can make a memorial wall as big as the Great Wall Of China that has the name of artists who the recording business used and discarded.

Rule Number 5: “Sell out to the rats, Make em rich make em fat”.

Record label executives earn a lot more than the artists that actually make them that money. Is this the way it should be?

On Motley Crue’s 1999 song ‘Fake’ they seem to provide a few more general rules about the recording business.

Rule Number 6 (supporting Rule Number 1 and 2): “Sold my soul while you sold records, I have been your slave forever.”

Yep, when you sign away your copyrights to the record label and then they lobby hard to have those copyrights extended 70 years after your death. It sure sounds like a slave forever.

Rule Number 7 (supporting Rule Number 5): “What are you fat cats doing anyway?, Take our money and flush it down the drain.”

Yep, fat cats fly private and make the Forbes Rich List.

Ugly Kid Joe asked “Mr Recordman” if he knew who they were or if he gave a damn about them or if he was purely there for the dough. Based on their career trajectory, the answer was obvious. Mr Recordman didn’t give a damn about them once they stopped being “commercially viable”

Rule Number 8 – Mr Recordman doesn’t know who you are. Look at the band “Winger”. When Reb Beach called the label after the Beavis and Butthead episode hit TV screens, the label claimed they never knew a band called Winger.

Rule Number 9 comes from Disturbed and their song “Sons Of Plunder”.

Rule Number 9: “You say you’ve found yourself a new sound, one hundred more all have the same sound”

Yep, like the thousand of hard rock bands that came out in the late nineties. Yep, like all the alternative/grunge bands that came out towards the end. Yep, like all the metalcore bands that are out right now and all of them claim to be different, yet they all sound the same.

The song Chainsaw Charlie from WASP is littered with music business rules. The first three lines, “Will you gamble your life?, Sign right here on the dotted line, It’s the one you’ve waited for all of your life” fall into Rule Number 1. Then the lyrics of “And tomorrow when I’m gone, Will they whore my image on?” brings us to Rule Number 10.

Rule Number 10: The record label will forever whore your image on after they have dropped you or after you have departed this Earth. There is a lot of money to make in death.

Rule Number 11: “We’ll sell your flesh by the pound you’ll go, A whore of wrath just like me, We’ll sell ya wholesale, we’ll sell your soul, Strap on your six string and feed our machine.”

This is relevant today when even the image of the artist is owned by the record label in 360 degree contracts.

Rule Number 12: “Welcome to the morgue boy, Where the music comes to die”

Songs written by a committee. It’s soulless, however it sells.

Rule Number 13: “Ah, trust me boy, I won’t steer you wrong, If you trust me son, You won’t last very long”

Remember the advice by Ugly Kid Joe in Mr Recordman.

Rule Number 14: “The new morgue’s our factory, to grease our lies, Our machine is hungry, it needs your life”

The definition of the recording business.

Rule Number 15: “I’m the tin man, I’ve never had a heart, I’m the tin man, But I’ll make you a star”

The Record Label CEO. All promises and that tin heart doesn’t care if those promises are broken.

Savatage is another band that covers the music business in a bit of detail. Rules 16 to 18 are from the song “Jesus Saves”.

Rule Number 16: “You know Jesus he started changing, Things got really strange, He saw his tee shirts everywhere, He started missing shows, The band came down to blows, But Jesus he just didn’t care.”

Yep, it’s a tough gig keeping a band together, especially when a band member becomes the idol that the fans latch onto.

Rule Number 17: “Things got out of hand, And so he quit the band, Still the critics they would rave”

The uncontrollable egos get in the way of a great band.

Rule Number 18: “Her Him cut through the night, On those late night radio waves”

Eventually, we get old and we become “classic rock”. There is no way around out. Embrace it and play to your core audiences.

The final two rules are from the song “When The Crowds Are Gone” from Savatage.

Rule Number 19: “I don’t know where the years have gone, Memories can only last so long, Like faded photographs, forgotten songs”

Rule Number 20: “The story’s over, When the crowds are gone.”

Pretty self-explanatory.

If you’re looking to embark on a career in the game of music, then use the above as a blueprint to get you going.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

The Labels Want To Be The Good Guys

The labels want to be the good guys. They really do. However their lobby group the RIAA does not carry itself it in public in a manner that is acceptable. They put across an image that all the labels are focused solely on the now and what money can be made now. They put across an image that all the labels have no interest in planning for the future. Then the labels follow suit, flying the bullshit flag from the RIAA.

Regardless of the labels motives and business sense, they will survive.

Read the financial reports on Universal Music Group. Spotify has propped up their bottom line and that bottom line will get better each year. And with money, comes power and relationships. So how do the major metal and rock labels rate in relation to influence and relationships.

Century Media Records and Nuclear Blast are still independent labels. While Century Records lost their cash cow “In This Moment” to Atlantic, Nuclear Blast gained a new cash cow in “Machine Head”. Looking at the rosters, Nuclear Blast has surrounded themselves with a stronger group of artists however Century Media are the ones out there trying to identify new talent. Both labels will be around for a long time.

Frontiers have become a major player in the classic rock, melodic rock and hard rock scene. Frontiers kept the flag of melodic rock flying high since 1996, when all of the other major labels put their monies into grunge first and then industrial rock/metal and then nu-metal. Now that they have traction, I am just confused as to what their business model is.

Let’s sign up all the classic popular artists from the Eighties and get them to re-record some of their classics along with new music. CHECK.
Let’s get artists from different bands together to do a super group project. CHECK.
Let’s get female singers to re-record melodic rock songs that the label president likes. CHECK.

What about identifying new talent and breaking that new talent to the masses with creative and innovative ideas? NOT CHECKED.

Metal Blade is still independent however with strong ties to Sony Music and Warner Music Group in relation to distribution while Roadrunner used to be owned by Universal between the years, 2000 and 2006 and after that, they are under the control of Warner Music Group.

Roadrunner is still the major player here, however with ties to Warner, expect them to be “RIGHT NOW” profit driven and be all about the HYPE. With all the corporate deals they organised on the new Dream Theater album, they would have made up the advanced money plus the recording costs and more.

Spinefarm Records is part of Universal Music Group, with a lot of power to operate independently. They are getting out there and signing new talent. However, like all of the above labels, they are stuck in the old way. And that is the ALBUM.

They just need to realise that it is not about the sales anymore. While Steaming numbers and revenue are still small today, in the long term the labels will be able to reap the benefits.

Why?

Because streaming is a regular recurring revenue business.

For example, I have been streaming “Strife” from Trivium non-stop. Each stream is regularly producing revenue for that song. If I purchased that same song as a download, the revenue produced would be at the time it was sold. Every time that I would have listened to “Strife” at home or on my iPod or on my smartphone would not have produced a cent. All that the band or label would have made from me is the sale of the downloaded song. However with streaming they will continue to make money long after the album is released.

So if anyone believes that streaming is bad for music and that it is going to kill the incentive to create new music, tell them they are uneducated. If bands or artists are complaining about their payments, then they need to negotiate better deals with their labels or get back their Copyrights.

Let’s put it this way, if Metallica is on Spotify, then the rates paid back to the COPYRIGHT HOLDERS (and Metallica do own their Copyright) must be good, because Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burnstein would not allow Metallica to enter a business arrangement that is not in their favour.

The real truth is that there is much more music out there than there has ever been, so the issues that are present to artist and labels is how do they get people’s attention directed towards that new music.

Personally, I don’t even know anybody who pirates music anymore. There is no reason to pirate and legitimate customers/fans would always turn to legal alternatives.

In relation to sales figures and charts. Goneski. No longer relevant. Sales (as a stand-alone measure) no longer means anything. Focusing on recording sales is old school thinking. It’s all about everything else today.

“Recording Sales Revenue” plus “Streaming Revenue” plus “YouTube Ad Revenue” plus “Ticket Revenue” plus “Merchandise Revenue” plus “Corporate Deals Revenue” plus “Sponsorship Revenue” plus “Publishing Revenue” plus “Licensing Revenue” and then decide if you are winning or not.

Again, if you are not seeing a lot of revenue, then you need to be speaking to your label, because if you have numbers in all of the above Revenue streams then something is a-miss contractually.

Another thing that the metal and hard rock labels need to understand is that they reside in a niche. The heyday of when that niche was mainstream is long gone. Today, certain artists might have a crossover song that many people will latch onto and then it is back to the niche.

“Adrenaline Mob” released “Men of Honor” last week and by the end of the second week it will be forgotten. The songs are great, the musicianship is great, so what is the problem. The hard core fans picked it up and everyone else doesn’t know about it. It’s a twenty four seven job staying in the public eye and it’s god damn hard. It’s the labels job to figure out it out, however the labels don’t want to spend the money to innovate, so what they do is get most of the hate directed towards them because of their monopolistic extortion like practices from back in the day.

If the labels want to be the good guys, they need to be more transparent. They need to call out the RIAA when they spin shit. They need to do be realists and sensible. And the main thing they need to understand is that the days of when they had control of the distribution channel are long gone. The profit margins from the CD sales are never coming back. So don’t dwell on the past and start to move forward.

http://theconversation.com/music-sales-slump-is-streaming-or-the-music-industry-to-blame-23901

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/5915732/spotify-drove-universal-musics-75-jump-in-streaming-revenue-last-year

http://torrentfreak.com/artists-think-instead-spewing-spotify-hate-140222

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit, Unsung Heroes

Music Trends in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal – What’s On The Up and What’s On The Down

ON A DOWN SLOPE

DAUGHTRY

The band leader, Chris Daughtry messed up big time chasing the crowds of “Train” and “Imagine Dragons”. He was a hard rocker from day dot and that is what gave him his legion of fans. For the ill-fated and recent “Baptized” album, he committed career suicide, throwing his lot with the hit songwriters. The songs are good, however they are not Daughtry songs. It would have been better for him as an artist to have given those songs to other artists that are more electronic pop rock minded. Daughtry needs more music right away and they need it to ROCK.

RECORD LABELS

The major metal and rock labels will continue to sign the bands and artists that had success in the Eighties and Nineties and get those bands to release forgeries of their greatest hits. It’s all about locking up the songs under copyright. “He who owns a lot of copyrights, will make a lot of money in the future, when said artists are dead and buried.”

In relation to new bands, they will sing fewer bands on even more shittier deals and shift their efforts to breaking them. It doesn’t mean that we will pay attention. It will be bands from certain niche’s that will break out and we will gravitate to them.

Also no one wants to pay. Look at the APP business. The highest downloaded APPS are all free ones. And they are still making money. We are happy to provide our private data to Apple and Google, as long as we get what we want, with no strings attached. If a record label has a business model that is dependent upon people paying, re-evaluate.

KIRK HAMMETT

He is out of touch. We live in a world right now that is connected 24/7. A lot of those connections happen because of social media. So his recent, “Ivory Tower” comments about social media show just how out of touch he is. Also from seeing him play live on three occasions, he has made a career on the coat tails of James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Don’t believe me, watch the making of the Black album, especially the scene when Bob Rock tells him that the solo he just put down for “The Unforgiven” is garbage.

HYPE

We can see through the hype and we hate it. So much hype was around Dream Theater’s self titled release and it disappeared from the conversation within six weeks. Megadeth’s “Super Collider” is being outsold by the Black album. Daughtry’s “Baptized” took forever to record and it did nothing. You can’t have a song called “Long Live Rock N Roll” and not have it sounding anything like ROCK. It sounds like that one hit wonder song “I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker With A Flower In My Hair.”

RESPONSE SYSTEMS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

NAPSTER showed the music business and the entertainment business at large, how fans of music, movies and books want to consume content. They want to download it easily, free of DRM, use it in any way they want and they want to do it for free.

For all of the talentless CEO’s that flew in private jets off the hard work by the artists, this was a big NO NO. So off they went to their lobby group arms, the RIAA and MPAA and they started to lobby hard the governments. The various sister associations around the world started to do the same thing. The best thing they could come up with is a graduated response system, financed by the ISP’s. It failed in France. It failed in New Zealand. In the U.S it is hard to tell, especially when you have a copyright troll like Rightscorp shaking down IP addresses. So if Rightscorp is sending shake down notices to ISP’s, then why does the US have a graduated response scheme?

The bottom line is this, the people who the RIAA and MPAA want to catch are years ahead of them in INNOVATION. And INNOVATION is what they should be focusing on.

THE ALBUM FORMAT

We are challenged with time and we only want the best. Since we are allowed to cherry pick, we will. Heavy Metal and Hard Rock artists need to understand they are in the hit business. It doesn’t matter if they are radio-friendly or not. Each band in each metal and rock genre, needs to create that song that hits us on the first listen.

That is why bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold and Shinedown are so successful. They get the game. That is why Killswitch Engage is successful. Adam Dutkiewicz understands the power of a massive chorus. That is why Trivium is having a career. Over the course of all of their albums, they always had a song that had “hit potential” for the genre they are in.

Making money is hard. Just because a band releases an album, it doesn’t mean that we want to pay for it in its entirety, especially if it has got a couple of crap songs on it. It’s better to release 8 songs that a “certifiable smashes” instead of 12 songs that have four crap ones. However, it turns out the public still has time for Metallica’s “Black” album. It is still moving two to three thousand units a week and it is expected to pass 16 million by May.

Artists need to think about the no limits that digital offers them. We want the good stuff. Artists need to think about how they can provide us the good stuff, without resorting to the album format. Don’t base your career on dropping an album every two years. An artist needs to base their career on constant events.

GOING GOING ALMOST GONE

CLASSIC ROCK

The artists are on their last legs. Motley Crue is ceasing to tour, however stand alone shows, plus new music are still in the works. They have hit the same markets over and over again since their 2004 comeback and in between they have released 3 new songs on a “Greatest Hits” album, 13 new songs on “Saints of Los Angeles” and 1 new song in 2012. The train is slowly coming to a halt.

Aerosmith released a DUD. The train is not a rolling anymore for them. All up, Classic Rock bands have maybe have another 10 years left.

A transition is happening. The younger acts are generating touring dollars, playing smaller venues and at affordable prices. It’s happening.

ON THE UP

STORYTELLING

That is why TV shows are the most downloaded torrents of all time. Tell a good story and the world will be at your door step.

RICHIE SAMBORA

Seeing him in Australia, he is invigorated and he is having a blast. Not having to play second fiddle to Jon Bon Jovi, he is branching out again and this time, his roots are strong enough to balance his branches. The “Aftermath Of The Lowdown” is the best hard rock record from 2012 that went unnoticed because it was released so close to his Bon Jovi work.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Thank You Richie Sambora – The King Of Swing at the Enmore Theatre

The Richie Sambora concert at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney last night renewed my faith in live music. The previous night, I watched Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold. While that was a great concert, the songs got played more or less “note for note” as per the album recordings. Last night, Richie Sambora was “communicating musically”. The sheriff was back in town. With three different hand motions he led the band into jams, out of jams and into sing a longs.

Sambora engraved himself into our hearts. He stopped and he talked. Sometimes it felt like for ages. I haven’t seen a lot of people do that a rock show. They are scared. You get the usual, “Are You Having A Good Time” comment, however that is it. Sambora is a true pro. He was endearing himself, creating a bond. And what a show he delivered.

Burn the Candle Down

It’s written by Sambora and producer Luke Ebbin, who was also part of the band last night. This was anti-mainstream. Each note was played with feeling and since the venue was tiny compared to say ANZ Stadium, every note resonated. We could hear it and we could feel it.

Whether it be Richie “communicating musically” or Aaron Sterling pounding the drums or Luke Ebbin singing backups or Mike Farrell making us go to church or Orianthi holding down the fort or shredding, or the solidness of Robbie Harrison’s bass. We felt every note.

There were no special effects and no auto tune. It was just a rock and roll band. Based on last night’s performance, I can easily say one of the best rock bands today in that free spirited Jimi Hendrix Experience sense.

Every Road Leads Home to You

This song is a dead set classic and better than the whole “What About Now” album combined. From when I first heard it, the song resonated with me, so when you hear a song that you like live, your put your hands up in the air and sing along until the voice breaks. Because this is what we love to do.

Putting aside the Kings Of Leon style vocal phrasing, this is classic Richie Sambora, selling the song and the new album (which is over 15 months old) to the audience. The keyboard synths kick it off, however when the whole band joins in, it’s a pleasure to be there, watching it unfold.

And Richie is on song. Hitting the notes, keeping the train rolling and getting us to sing along with him.

Taking a Chance on the Wind

It felt like Richie was asking us if we will stand by him. The audience answered with a resounding YES.

If times taught me a lesson, it’s don’t dwell on the past
‘Cause the bad things fade and the good things..
The good things are built to last

Ain’t that the truth. I spent a lot of time dwelling on how I could have done things differently in the past. It is time that I can never get back again. You see when you consume yourself on the bad things, you fail to see the good things. And then it will be “Seven Years Gone”.

Again the Sheriff leads the band in and out of improvised jam sessions.

I’ll Be There for You

Richie begins it with a snippet of “Bridge over Troubled Water” from Simon and Garfunkel.

If you are a fan, you know the song as soon as it begins. That intro is definitive.

“I’ll Be There For You” was an unexpected Number 1 hit for Bon Jovi at the time. All of the focus was on “Born To Be My Baby” and “Bad Medicine” however it was “I’ll Be There For You” that stole the limelight.

Nowadays

Also from the new album. This song was unexpected and it went down brilliantly live. It’s got that punk rock vibe, but with a Phil Lynott style swagger in the lyrics.

Nowadays, trying to figure out who you want to be
Trying to tell your friends from your enemies
That’s the way it plays nowadays
Nowadays, trying to make some sense about the state of things,
Hoping better times are what tomorrow brings,
We’re just all insane, nowadays

That is why the song connects. Every day we are trying to find ourselves. Go on line and google self help books on finding yourself. Thousands of pages will appear.

You Don’t Wanna Know (Orianthi cover)

Swampy blues got a sexy make over with the Orianthi tune, “You Don’t Wanna Know”.

Richie teased the audience on this one with the double neck acoustic guitar. When the audience first saw it, we all got the impression that “Wanted” was going to be played.

Orianthi is a great talent, however her biggest success also proved her greatest Achilles heel.

“According To You” showed her to the world as “Avril Part 11” with some show off guitar licks chucked in.

It didn’t really show the real Orianthi.

Her best is still ahead of her. She doesn’t need a label and she doesn’t need to sell millions. She needs to be true to herself and “You Don’t Wanna Know” is Orianthi showing her true colours. It will be interesting to see what kind of music she creates with Richie.

Wanted Dead or Alive

The classics cannot be denied. These are the songs that bring us together. The funny thing is, “Wanted” never went to Number 1 like “Prayer”, however it was a hit and at a time it was so popular, I couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing it.

We got the real deal here, real musicians, infected by the spirit of rock and roll. Musicians who followed the call of music, despite being broke and no college degree to fall back on. They followed their dream and it came true.

We need to press the reset switch on life. We need more dreamers and less accountants. We need more dreamers and less lawyers. The dreamers clear the path and lead, while the accountants scheme and the lawyers bend the rules. I know who I would want to follow.

I remember back to December, when the current Bon Jovi band played it. It was a good rendition, however Richie’s version had that swing element to it, especially when he cranked into the solo break. He felt it, we felt it and we carried the song home with him.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)

I doubt Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, could do it any better. It’s all about musical roots, our ancestry. We all have roots. And as I read somewhere, the key is to never forget our roots. Listening to some of the music my favourites release today, it is easy to see how people can forget their roots when it comes to chasing dollars.

This is the song that had Richie saying afterwards “that the band are communicating musically on stage”. The band was playing the song like the audience wasn’t even there. Richie as the sheriff led the way as usual. It was like a jam session in a rehearsal studio. All of them looking at each other, waiting for cues from the Sheriff.

This is what makes a gig. When you hear the unexpected. It makes the night special.

Stranger in This Town

This the definition of a great song. When we sing the song by ourselves, with our own voice leading the way. Like the big Bon Jovi hits, “Stranger In This Town” is also in the same league. You don’t need no accompaniment.

On the album it sounds intimate. Last night, this song was like a freight train. It was powerful and mesmerizing. Sterling drove everybody forward with the shuffle. We all locked on, nodding our heads to the beat and in agreement.

Lay Your Hands on Me

Another number from Bon Jovi. The surprises. This song is one of my sons favourite Bon Jovi songs. They were disappointed when Bon Jovi didn’t play it live at ANZ Stadium in December.

However, Sambora didn’t disappoint. This is what the gig is all about. Hearing the unexpected. Even Richie didn’t know what song was coming up next as they have changed the set lists for each show.

The band was cruising on that crazy train, at a hundred kilometres per hour.

Seven Years Gone

The piano lines underpin the song, however it is the rock groove that comes after (which Richie made sure to tell the crowd that it was his favourite bit of the song) that propels it higher.

Being so close to the stage, I can hear every note. Every single instrument stands alone, breathing out and filling my senses.

When I watched Avenged Sevenfold the previous night, at the Big Top at Luna Park, some of the sections in the songs all bled into each other, creating a wall of noise. But last night, there was no noise. Just talented musicians, producing their own sounds and they all come together.

This song gave me goose bumps. It was intimate and magical.

Like the moth dances with the light
Sometimes a shadow that burns too bright
Shattered silence in the night
You wake up, move on

Livin’ on a Prayer

The funny thing about “Prayer” is that it means more to me now than it did back then. When you are in your teens you don’t appreciate the message, because the future was sold as clear skies and smooth sailing. In 2014, what a nice piece of propaganda that was. How wrong could our teachers be?

My Dad, he was a realist. He didn’t sugar coat anything. He told it how it was. I used to argue with him so much on these issues. When a stroke took his voice in January 2006, those arguments stopped. He is still alive today, but those wonderful days of communication from him are long gone.

In 2014, I have no savings. I live above my means. I have credit cards, a mortgage, a personal loan and no money in the bank. I am living on my pay, month by month. And I failed to follow my dad’s advice that he told me a few weeks before his stroke, “you can lose it all, your job, your house and your health.” It’s like he knew something was up.

This is the song that started it all. A great track that just couldn’t be denied. “Prayer” gave the Bon Jovi band traction in the charts and “Slippery When Wet” gave the band a career.

Don’t Change (INXS cover) (with Jon Farriss) and Richard Wilkins had a brief moment in the spotlight.

This was a historical moment. The start of the first encore and after “drumming tragic” Richard Wilkins had his shot, it was over to Tim Farriss to bring the song home. With INXS being in our headspace recently due to the mini-series and the recent interviews, it was a perfect match.

We all have influences. The greats always show their respect to someone else’s work and they make it their own. It’s all about roots. The lines on Sambora’s face are all about experience and life. It is that experience that molds and shapes us. It is that experience that influences us.

It’s My Life

When Bon Jovi played the song live at ANZ, it lacked the power. There was none of that tonight. Richie’s talk box is so definitive, it makes the song.

The best part of it was the extended jam in the middle that was just riff heavy, then the chorus was sung acapella before building up into the ending, with an improvised jam added in just for fun.

These Days

I rarely play this song. When the album came out in 1995, the lead single “This Aint A Love Song” just didn’t connect with me and it more or less turned me off the album, apart from “Hey God” and “These Days”.

Live, it was one of the highlights. The banter at the start with the piano playing the intro set the tone.

Purple Rain (Prince cover)

Hearing Purple Rain, I was reminded of Jon’s and Richie’s own attempt to write their own “Purple Rain”. In this case it is a demo called “Wedding Day”.

I’ve seen it done better. But Sambora still knocked it out of the park. I don’t think some of the youngsters in attendance knew this song. However the rest of us did. That’s the power of music and the power of a classic Prince tune, when music was his muse, instead of changing names and suing his fans for linking to bootlegs.

The song is basic, however that is why it works. Sambora is a professional, giving us not too much, just enough. With his hand signals to the rest of the band, he KNEW when it was enough.

The person behind me was screaming, “Rosie”. The person in front of me was screaming “Ballad Of Youth.” The person to the left of me was screaming for “You Can Only Get So Hight”. My boys started screaming for “You Give Love A Bad Name.” I guess that we all have to wait until the next time, because a great concert always leaves you wanting more.

My kids said they loved it, but they had to tell me that Richie Sambora was acting the way I act when I am drunk. I couldn’t stop laughing at their assessment. And what are the chances that he would play my kids favourite Bon Jovi song in “Lay Your Hands On Me”.

Coming out of the show, I just wished that every Bon Jovi fan that was at ANZ Stadium in December 2013 could have been at the Enmore last night to see and experience Richie Sambora live. Then people would finally understand, that music doesn’t need no backdrops, no dancing, no pyro. When it is done right, the sound, the emotion and the feel is enough.

Thank you to the KING OF SWING and the marvellous musicians he had in tow for renewing my faith in the live scene. Thank you for showing my kids what a live show should be. Not a perfect NOTE for NOTE forgery of the recording, but a real rock n roll show were the band communicates with each other musically and connects with the audience. It was the best $210 ($68 times 3) that I spent (compared to the $1000 ($250 times 4) that I spent on the Bon Jovi tickets).

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The Rock Dream Was Never About The Money

Bob Daisley wrote that we are all going off the rails on a crazy train. And that train to the afterlife seems to be departing a lot these days.

People like Tommy Bolin, Paul Kossof, Steve Clark, Phil Lynott, Kevin DuBrow, Robin Crosby, Jani Lane, Brad Delp and Paul Gray never even made it to the station.

Along the way we lost Randy Rhoads in a plane accident, Dimebag Darrel in a tragedy, The Rev in a prescription accident, Ray Gillen to disease, Gary Moore to a heart attack, Jeff Hanneman to liver failure, Chuck Schuldiner to Giloma and Ronnie James Dio, Jon Lord, Phil Kennemore and Randy Castillo to cancer.

Criss Oliva, Marc Bolan, Steve Lee and Mitch Lucker all died in vehicle or motorbike accidents.

If our heroes are not taken young, they end up dying from illness and old age. So when the angel of death spreads its wings, even all the money in the world cannot buy more time. That is why it is important that musicians keep pushing the limits of what is acceptable while they are alive.

It used to be that way once upon a time, however then the record label CEO’s got rich and started to fly private, the musicians that made that happened wanted to be just like them. And that is the problem we have today in the music industry.

Everything that I thought was so important is more or less gone.

The rock dream doesn’t exist if you want to have a family. If you want to have a long term relationship, with kids to the same partner and still live your rock n roll dream, good luck. It aint going to happen. Sacrifices need to be made. And if you are unwilling to make the sacrifice, trust me, your partner will.

The days of rocking all night and partying every day are gone, replaced by social media/gaming/surfing all night and going to work every day. The sound of a stereo is now captured in expensive headphones.

The days of becoming the legends of the local scene first and then the world are gone. If a band/act is doing great in a city, the whole world will know about it.

It’s not a rockers world anymore. The new rockers are the technologists. They are the ones that everyone is listening too. Did you know that Jake E Lee has a new band called Red Dragon Cartel and that they just released a new album?

Once upon a time the guitar heroes mattered. They broke ground in songwriting, technique, sound and guitar making, inspiring us by demonstrating simplicity in complexity. They didn’t know from were they where coming. Now they think about where they are going to. Nothing is started unless an offer is on the table.

And that is what a lot of the new breed of young bands are taking on board, thinking that selling out to corporations in order to get rich is the means to a career. Even Nikki Sixx mentioned that if Motley Crue are to release new music, it will be via a sponsorship agreement with a corporation.

I remember when a record could bring about change. When “Shout At The Devil” broke, every band dressed up in leather and studs. When “Slippery When Wet” broke out, all the bands went to pop metal. When “Appetite For Destruction” broke out, bands moved to a more blues based sound. When Metallica broke out twice, bands moved to a faster dirtier sound and then moved to a big heavy groove orientated sound.

In 2013, Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat had big releases. And to all those musicians who state that releasing new music is not worth it anymore, tell that to the three bands just mentioned. All of them are still selling today, months after their releases.

The rock dream was never about the money. It was about a lifestyle.

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Lessons To Learn From Don Henley: How many hard rock and heavy metal bands are seeking to reclaim their recordings?

When it comes to music, I am still catching up. In the last few days, I have revisited Don Henley and Doobie Brothers.

As I was listening to Don Henley I started to jot down the songs that I liked. By the time I got to his 2009, “The Very Best of”, the list was almost identical to what was on the Best of album. After hearing the songs over and over again, I still don’t like “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”, “Sunset Grill”, “For My Wedding”, “Everything Is Different Now” and “Taking You Home”. They just don’t resonate.

Basically, Don Henley’s solo output to me as a casual fan of his music is a perfect example of some good songs and the rest as filler. I know that all the Don Henley fans will lynch me for saying it. But that is the truth to the casual fan.

From the first album, “I Can’t Stand Still” released in 1982, the standout songs to me are the title track “I Can’t Stand Still” and “Dirty Laundry”.

The themes in “Dirty Laundry” are still relevant today. Back in 1982, Henley displayed his disgust with the media and tabloid news. Today, people are airing their dirty laundry on Facebook, Twitter and other forums.

From the second album, “Building The Perfect Beast” released in 1984, the standout songs are “The Boys Of Summer”, “Not Enough Love In The World” and “Land Of The Living”.

What can I say, “The Boys Of Summer” was huge. It gave Don Henley a four-year victory lap (plus he served notice to Geffen Records that he will be reclaiming the recording of this song in 2019), because the third album, “The End Of The Innocence” didn’t come out until 1989. The standout songs are “The End Of The Innocence”, “New York Minute”, “The Last Worthless Evening” and the closer “The Heart Of The Matter”. The other songs don’t matter. It is these four songs that matter.

Bob Lefsetz said that to appreciate and to really get “The Heart Of The Matter” you need to have lived. You need to have played the game of love, lost and picked yourself up again. And he is right. While all of the kids make top 10 lists of what’s cool, classic songs like “The Heart Of The Matter” get lost.

“Actual Miles: Henley’s Greatest Hits” came in 1995. And I actually liked all of the three new songs. “The Garden of Allah”, “You Don’t Know Me At All”, and Henley’s cover of “Everybody Knows”.

“Inside Job” came in 2000. It was 11 years since his last solo album and on a different label. Geffen was gone and Warner Bros was in. This is the album that had better songs and since it was 11 years between solo albums, Henley had some time to perfect them.

My favourites are “Nobody Else In The World But You”, “Everything Is Different Now”, “Workin It”, “Goodbye To A River”, “Inside Job” and “My Thanksgiving.”

In between solo albums, Henley has been busy with the Eagles, Geffen contract issues, Copyright issues against Record Labels, termination rights on songs and the Eagles again.

That is why Don Henley is important. He knows his rights. While people criticise musicians who turn into business people, it was inevitable that musicians will end up taking the business path. The great record label rip off/exploitation caused it. It is just unfortunate that a lot of the musicians that didn’t achieve world-wide domination still don’t realise their rights on songs that they made famous. Not a lot of hard rock and heavy metal bands are serving notice to their record label to reclaim songs they had written 35 years ago.

While I don’t agree on everything Henley does, like sending a cease and desist letter to an independent band or trying to get a remix law taken off the radar, the bottom line is this, he is a musician that looks out for his own interests. And that is why we loved our heroes.

Remember the creed from the past.

Artists were always reinventing themselves and taking risks.

In relation to music, sometimes the audience went with it and other times they didn’t. Risk isn’t always negative. Positive outcomes can come from risk.

However it seems to be that a lot of artists are playing it safe. Don Henley on the other hand is still taking risks. Not so much musically, but politically.

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