The latest ’90s alt-rock icon to streamline the relationship between themselves and their fans’ dollars by cutting out the major-label middleman: Tori Amos, whose manager told Billboard that the singer has split from Epic and “chosen the path of independence for her next work.” Amos had been working within the major-label system for the past 22 years, first for Atlantic (which released the ill-fated Y Kant Tori Read, and her solo albums through 2001’s underrated all-covers album Strange Little Girls) and then for Epic.
Amos’ new album is slated for a spring 2009 release, and given that her manager described it to Billboard as “a project of new music and visuals” I’m going to guess that the freedom afforded to her by her newfound independence, the fact that she has a 480-page book devoted to her work coming out, and the devotion of her fanbase will result in her making her own pretty hate machine all over again.
Ask Billboard [Billboard]
She better have a cover song to send out to radio as part of that collection, otherwise she’s only gonna sell to the 480 people left who still care about her.
@owenmeany: She released an entire album of cover songs and only about 480 ppl bought that.
For the record, i was one of them
@owenmeany: I saw her last fall (still have a soft spot for her live show) and the place was sold the hell out. Doubt that was a fluke. I think she’ll make out just fine with this new venture.
Torians will buy three apiece, just so they can have one at home, at work and in their cars. She’s not on radio anymore, but the cult thrives.
[blog.newsok.com]
A Tori release on her own terms is money in the bank. She’ll probably personally see 3-4x the cash from sales even if the sales are only 10% of what they were when she was on Epic. Note that Epic has always done a truly crap job of promoting her albums so she’s only missing out on distribution by leaving them and she can sign a distro deal with anyone for a lot lower cost than Epic was taking her for.