Boy oh (Tommy)Boy - 80% of you make music that is "crap"?

Yesterday, Tommy Silverman stated that:

“...80 percent of all records released are just noise — hobbyists. Some companies like TuneCore are betting on the long tail because they get the same $10 whether you sell one copy or 10,000,” he says. “Those are the people who are using TuneCore and iTunes to clutter the music environment with crap, so that the artists who really are pretty good have more trouble breaking through than they ever did before."

He further, claims that "79,000 releases sold less than 100 copies last year."

I think Tommy had a cameo in Hot Tub Time Machine, as he sure sounds like it's 1985 again. It almost sounds like the old mean neighbor from next store telling those darn kids to get off his lawn!

Yes Tommy, 79,000 releases sold less than 100 copies last year, and to make matters worse, not one of them sold a copy of their release on 8-Track. This proves...ummm, well I guess it proves it's not 1985 anymore. Not sure how else to say it: PEOPLE BUY MUSIC FOR DOWNLOAD BY THE TRACK ACROSS CATALOG, so of course less "albums" are selling.

Anyway, there is a long previous blog posting about how Tommy has a lack of understanding on what is selling etc located here, so that answers that part of his statement.

His "hey-you-kids-stay-out-of-my-industry" conviction that TuneCore Artists are "... clutter(ing) the music environment with crap, so that the artists who really are pretty good have more trouble breaking through than they ever did before," clearly has us all owing Tommy a collective apology.

We're sorry that the fact that people are buying music from TuneCore Artists is stopping people from buying music that Tommy likes. If Tommy could only control what music you get exposed to you would be more inclined to buy his music. It's actually a brilliant strategy: limit choice, force the releases you want to sell down people's throats, control what music is exposed by the media outlets (like radio and MTV) and then take all the money from the sales that come in. Oh wait, my mistake, that's the way it was in the old music industry, and 98% of what the majors labels released failed. I guess limiting choice does not make music sell.

Well then, let's attack this from a different angle: Tommy distributes his band, "Flock Of You Gotta be Kidding Me," into iTunes and it does not sell. OK, let's take 79,000 releases out of iTunes, poof, gone. Now let's sit back and count the money that starts rolling in. Wait, it's still not selling?! How is that possible, we took 79,000 releases out of iTunes. Hmmm...

And with all due respect, we are talking about digital stores here. Okay, in the physical world he might have had a point: if a CD was not on the shelf, it could not sell. But in the digital stores, how in the world does a song on a hard drive stop someone from buying a song from "Flock Of You Gotta be Kidding Me"? It's not like the person is walking down a physical aisle and the album is not in the bin. My release sitting on the iTunes server is not stopping nor blocking anyone from finding or buying FOYGBKM (going with the acronym now). Well, I guess it might if they hear my song, only have $0.99 and use their money to buy my song instead of his.

But philosophically, I disagree with the concept that one person, i.e. Tommy, gets to make the decisions for the rest of us. The world can decide what does/does not have value, not one person on my behalf.

What’s more ironic, this is the same person that runs/owns New Music Seminar. I find it a bit odd that Tommy thinks 80% of the people he is trying to get money from (by selling them a ticket to his conference) make music that he thinks is “crap.” If this is the case, why take their money? Why not have attendees send you in music so you can determine what is not “crap” and then charge them to attend the conference? After all, you wouldn't want to take advantage of someone. Why in the world would you want to empower these evil bastard musicians with information that let them get music out to the world and god forbid allow someone to hear it?

Even more odd, well over 95% of the releases on Tommy’s label, TommyBoy Records, failed. So does just being “signed” make you good? I would rather make that decision myself.

But ultimately, I take issues with someone attacking and delegitimizing artists around the world. There is more music being created and recorded today than ever before in the history of humanity. Although the sheer volume of music creation does not make it good, the fact that more people are creating it certainly increases the odds. Hell, just having access to affordable gear and recording equipment (like your Mac) allows more music to come to life, both the terrible and the incredible.

What Tommy does not seem to know, or acknowledge, is that the real “music industry” is over in the corner, and main-stream media is neither reporting nor aware of it.

I have to suspect that Tommy has heard perhaps less than half a percent of all the music being released. But even if he did, who cares? Finally, the world gets to decide what has value, and that’s the point. The industry has been democratized and set free from those that anoint themselves as its gatekeepers.

That's why music download sales by unit are UP, not down! That's right, there are more songs/singles being bought by more artists now than at any other time in history. There is more great rock, punk, dance, hip hop, classical, funk, folk, country, etc., etc., selling than ever been before--and this is WHY IT IS SELLING. Finally, artists have access to distribution, and the general population can decide what they like.

Since its launch, TuneCore Artists have generated over $70,000,000 in gross music sales. Some TuneCore Artists are actually outselling Top 40 artists–guess the Top 40 aren’t really Top 40 anymore.

And with all due respect, people ARE buying and consuming and stealing and streaming and listening to music. More and more of them are becoming so inspired that they're actually going out to teach themselves how to rock.

So, unlike Tommy, who apparently has the golden ear and can tell all of us what is good and what is bad, most of us take the time to listen and make our own decisions. He better quickly call Pandora, LastFM, MySpace, Slacker, Jango, iTunes, Amazon, Beat Port, Amie Street, etc., and tell them (aside from a few artists) the hundreds of thousands they play and sell are “crap.”

Jeff Price
TuneCore

Comments

[SUPREME WIZEWORDZ]

http://Earthishood.com F the majors and all the vampire leech family idiots. How dare someone complain about their pockets getting thinner after they screw and mislead these poor bastards who just had a dream and a will and passion to express it. Exploitation, and mind control every genre has its leeches it's time to put them on blast you can reach me at wempyre@earthishood.com we'll lead the way.
And to my fellow artist (soldiers) keep creating if you've been in a writer block..your comrades need you to pick your pen up, or pick your instrument up, or pick your mic up and get busy! WE NEED YOU. PEACE

[Jeremy Knedler]

Obviously both business models are out to make money off of the artists success BUT if the artist has limited success which model leaves the artist broke and owing hundreds of thousands of dollars? At least TuneCore’s model is not promising the world and enslaving the artist financially for years to come. Not to mention practically stealing the artists rights to their own music in the process. There is hardly anything to compare here. I have no sympathy for the Majors when they whine. It’s like a carjacker complaining about the disc the owner left in the player...

[Aaron Burr]

Clearly the criticizer is not open to criticism - looks like a few comments have been censored/removed. How ironic.

[James A, Lumpkin, III (StJamesIII)]

Here's some irony. When I poll folks asking why the music business is falling off, and these are folks that buy the music, not the people in the industry trying to sound like experts.

The #1 Reason....Crappy Music.....Coming from THE MAJOR LABELS....not lil indie artist payin to throw there stuff on iTunes.

The Majors!!!

They turn on their radio, look at BET, VH1, and MTV, (not the main channel, the offshoots and they hear crap music.

So i'm not really registering this idea about a bunch of crappy artist, that nobody knows exist, being able to get their music on iTunes as a hinderance for you to get heard.

The only crap music we get subjected too is from the Major Labels.

If you're putting your own stuff out chances are you're not on the radio or on BET or MTV so if you don't have a good marketing strategy and good product nobody is gonna pay attention enough to be distracted from your "Diamond Music" anyway.

Again, doesn't matter how much stuff is out there.....you either got hot music and a good plan or you don't and that's what's gonna determine whether you get heard or not.

Cliche as this sounds, it's true......"Cream Rises To The Top", no matter how many cups of coffee with no cream are on the table.

[GavCaz]

Are you actually misunderstanding what Tommy said or are you just being obtuse because the controversy will drive traffic to this page? I have been an independent artist for 17 years. I would like to tell you it is much harder to be heard now with the open system than it was with the closed system. I say that being fully aware of all the benefits that the open system has given me. With the current system, every single human in this country has the means to be an "artist" at a very very low cost... and I mean "cost" not only in regards to equipment, software, phone-bills, and distribution but also talent, rehearsal, and the massive financial and emotional sacrifice that it takes to be a full-time performing artist. If you want to be daft and point out that having lots of "bad" songs in iTunes doesn't physically obstruct one from purchasing "good" music on iTunes, then pat yourself on the back, Captain Obvious. But insinuating that Tommy's comments were a critique of the iTunes or Tunecore search engine is silly - the problem he's citing is how the sonic drivel prohibits listeners from discovering the "good" music in the first place, especially if their hunting is as uninhibited by filters as you suggest it is. Yes they can easily purchase anything they want if they like it, but sifting through the garbage to find what they like is much harder than it used to be, because of the sheer volume of it.
Face it, a culture who does not make the time to invest in culture will always need filters and aggregators, it's just a matter of which ones do the best job. So even if you're right when you say that major labels did a crappy job of filtering (I tend to agree with you), the current system, where Pitchfork inflicts a system based on snobbery and irony is not necessarily an improvement.

[Luis Medina]

I agree with Jeff and Bob -- Let the fans (consumers) decide what is good and what is "crap"...and not a major label sampler. If 79,000 releases sold less than 100 copies last year, that is not Tunecore's fault for better or for worst. We're (Mateo Medina - http://www.mateoworld.com and Kitarah - http://www.kitarahmusic.com) on pace to well surpass that because consumers are buying our brand - it's called marketing.

Luis Medina

CEO, KutRoc
www.kutroc.com

[Sorin]

One point of the initial statement is plain and simple and solid. If you have a collection of 100 songs, it's easy to identify the one good song from the garbage. If you have a collection of 1,000,000 songs, you'll identify the good song(s) only by pure chance or *never*. While companies like TuneCore open the doors to good "poor" musicians, they also open the doors to a lot of garbage from "artists" who don't know the 1st thing about music. Garbage is not good, it pollutes the environment, it chokes the crowds.

[Simplexicon]

I am an artist who makes shit music. This is because I do it on my computer, I do not play an instrument and I've only been at it as a hobbyist (with Logic 9) for a year. (You can see the results so far at music.simplexicon.com)

This article single-handedly sold me on using TuneCore for my first release. Thanks for the attitude guys! I love it.

[Ian]

Lets not listen to the old industry people here. It's pretty normal that they react, but it has been a long time coming. The major labels probably wont stay around for long. It's quite funny that the only part of the old business that really generate money is publishing these days, havn't we all handed over rights for our songs at some point in time?
I think now is the best of times for the music industry, we do things ourselves, see if it works, if it does we do more and so on... and the best part is that its actually getting fun again.
Regarding our setup, we've been on our thing since early spring, havn't thought about shifting units until now, but now we are about to start, lets see how it goes, but we get many many hits already in th etrial face. Pretty shure it will work out well in the end.

[James A, Lumpkin, III (StJamesIII)]

To me this is more of a looking at the cup half full or half empty situation here.

The biggest mistake you can make is focusing on what you feel is bad music and put yourself into a mental space that this is a hinderance to your business model or even art itself.

It's arrogant and presumptuous and a recipe for failure.

Me as a musician (who also has a brother who's a multi-platinum recording artist, which means i have a bit of insight on this) who's about to release product through tuncore, the last thing i'm worried about is how much crap music is out there. Just like in the past, whether it's wack or good but not presented and promoted properly, it aint gonna sell regardless and nobody will pay attention to it anyway so why worry about it?

People aren't weeding through crap music to find what they like. Most of the time when they go to iTunes they know exactly what they're looking for ANYWAY!!!

Bottom line is you have product that people want to listen to and buy or you don't plain and simple. I don't care how much crap is out there.

So i'm gonna focus on putting together the product that people wanna hear and buy.....not a buncha numbers and stats to throw out there and justify some arrogant and cynical stance on the business.

Also, art is in the eyes and ears of the beholder. Even the worst thing on iTunes that sold 2 downloads has artistic value to someone so all that talk is moot.

Far as i'm concerned just put together some HOT SHIT and put it out there and keep it movin and let the cream rise to the top.

That's the bottom line.

[Matt Dunphy]

Re: Jim, "Tech companies DON'T CARE about artists." Wake up, TuneCore's sole purpose is to distribute your music. If you want a company that promotes your music, hire a promotion company with the money you saved by putting your music online through a service like TuneCore.

With the old system, you signed away seven records, got an advance, recorded something that - if you got lucky - got promoted, and after notoriously bad industry accounting practices, you'd be lucky if you saw a dime of your royalties if you were anything but a superstar. And at the end of all that, the label owns your music, and continues to make money from it. It's a giant sham, but they got away with it because they controlled distribution.

You can do all that yourself now - get a loan, record your music, distribute it online, tour and pay your loan off, and you not only keep the rights to your own music, but you keep the lion's share of the profits.

There has ALWAYS been garbage music to sift through. If you haven't been stung by the price of a crappy album that you bought because of the catchy lead single, you're probably young/lucky enough to have gotten into music AFTER the MP3 revolution.

The world needs more TuneCores and Bandcamps and less Tommy Silvermans. If you think there's too much crap out there, there's obviously a need to filter that crap - and there's potential revenue in that. There's where your new 'record label' model may rise out of the ashes - labels will look less like the entertainment arm of a french water company, and more like a magazine or website (a la pitchfork, rolling stone, tinymixtapes, whatever)

If you can't roll with the punches, you're going to get knocked down. The old industry missed the wave, and there's no catching up. I just wish they'd quit whining (especially with their BS about being artist-friendly) and focus on music.

[Bob Cramer]

What's great about being an artist these days, is that you don't have to rely on someone at a big label to decide for you whether music is good or bad - as a fan, you get to decide for yourself.

And sometimes one person's crap is another person's "musical soulmate."

With the latest wave of direct-to-fan solutions, artists can now easily build a strong web presence, make their music merch tickets and bundles available to fans, and build relationships with those fans in a way that they "have the potential" to support their careers -- so they can do what they love to do, which is make and play music.

Tommy is right - by making it so easy to record, distribute, and market music, the result is there will be music out there that "the masses" (and sometime, even their own mother or best friend) won't care for.

But, if you have a following of less than 50 fans, and you can now move that to more than 1,000 and fill your shows, that can be "success" - and, sometimes it takes a while for you to develop who you are as an artist, your music and sound and brand and performance style, and by enabling the career growth of these non-mass-appeal artists, you may be enabling a future superstar in the making.

And Jeff is right - the "old music business" metrics of success probably aren't relevant to a majority of artists. Probably because success is in the eyes of the beholder (artist), just like music is in the ears of the beholder (fan).

So what if there's great diversity in the music out there, and so what if there's crap out there - fans and free markets will make that determination. But in the end, there will be more music, and more fans listening and passionate about the music, and more musical creativity being encouraged and explored - and isn't that a good thing?

Bob Cramer

Chairman & CEO, Nimbit
www.nimbit.com

[Cyrus smith]

I'm afraid I've got to agree with victor. The guy is slating tunecore because their company mission statement seems to be: pay us. There is no care or initiatives to actually HELP artists. It seems very obvious (also from how they speak) that tunecore don't know anything about musicians and are just a sales company. 

BUT well done TC for challenging the article, musicians deserve respect just for trying so hard. And even the beetles were amateur at some point.

[George Ziemann]

Instead of all the emotional responses, let's look at a few simple facts.

First of all, the same thing was said about the original mp3.com. The Universal bought it and gutted it. Then came MySpace, another "sludge pit" according to the majors. But who owns it now?

Socondly, the RIAA's press releases say that 95% of what they release is unsuccessful, aka crap. If 80% of what Tunecore gets into the marketplace is crap, that's still a success rate that's four times better than the majors.

In 2002, Hilary Rosen said that the majors released 7,000 new titles a year. Since then, about 2/3 of the artists have been cut from the rosters. I'm estimating less than 1,000 new releases for each major label a year now.

That would work out to 200 successful releases and 3800 in the crap pile.

70,000 of Tunecore's releases sold less than 100 copies last year. If this is the 80% crap, then the other 20% added up to 17,000 worthwhile releases.

Compared to the RIAA's 200.

So even if Silverman's 80% crap statement were accurate, Tunecore is still kicking the RIAA's ass by an 85:1 ratio. Once you know that, what Silverman has to say is barely even worth responding to.

Tunecore releases anything submitted and has a 20% success rate. Silvermen's label picks and chooses and is only on the money 5% of the time. He's just whining because he's jealous.

[Victor Lee]

Jeff posting took Silverman's statement out of context. One can understand why Jeff is defensive. Isn't what Silverman commented on Tunecore business model the truth?