In yet another open letter to a hegemonic media power–in this case, EMI–electronic artist Moby decries the reticence of his corporate masters toward selling music to people who both want it, and are willing to pay for it.
Let’s go back to Sunday, when he posted this to his MySpace blog (punctuation is all his):
i’m writing this as a sort-of open letter to the people at emi.
i’m signed to mute records(for the last 15 years, actually), and as mute is owned
by emi that makes me an emi artist.
as some of you might know, the record business is falling apart.
revenues are down, cd sales are plummeting, people are losing their jobs, etc.
things at the record companies, especially the major labels, aren’t looking so good.
one bright spot in this dismal retail firmament is the sale of music on-line through
portals like i-tunes.
the dance music equivalent of i-tunes is a site called beatport.
beatport, and other similar sites, enables you to preview dance tracks and then, if you like, buy them.
the average cost for a track on beatport is twice or three times the cost of a track on i-tunes(which
makes sense, as the tracks are a lot longer).
emi happily allow their music to be sold on i-tunes, but they don’t allow their(and, by extension, my)music
to be sold on portals like beatport.
for over a year now i’ve been asking people at emi why they won’t allow their electronic
dance music to be sold on beatport and i still haven’t received a good answer.
one might think that in a time of rapidly dwindling revenues that a viable
and proven outlet like beatport might be greeted ecstatically at emi and the major labels.
but no.
very simply, i don’t know why emi won’t allow their(and my) dance tracks to be sold on beatport(for
an average cost of around $2.00 per track), but i do know that by not allowing their
electronic dance music to be sold on beatport that emi have denied themselves
very considerable revenue and have limited the audience for their electronic
dance artists(not to mention remixes done for their non-electronic dance artists, like
radiohead and coldplay).
many dj’s live in urban areas with great indie-dance shops, and many dj’s buy vinyl
and cd’s on-line from great indie-dance shops, but there are thousands and thousands
of dj’s who pretty much only buy their music from sites like beatport.
and with emi refusing to allow beatport(and similar sites)to sell their music it basically
means that tens of thousands of dj’s around the world don’t have access to any of
the dance records being released by mute and emi artists.
so this is my letter to anyone at emi who might be reading: by not allowing your music to be
sold on sites like beatport you are losing money daily and seriously compromising the careers
of your electronic artists(like, for example, the chemical brothers, me, massive attack, etc).
i can’t see why you(the people at emi)wouldn’t remedy this immediately and allow
people to buy your records on beatport and similar sites.
thanks
moby
[SIC]! But seriously, Moby is onto something here that confounds me as well. We only have a few more years left in this whole “selling music” thing, so you would think the majors would be jumping at any opportunity. And here’s this store, Beatport, targeted to the types of people who would (theoretically) buy Moby’s music, not to mention much of the Mute catalog, and EMI doesn’t sell it there. EMI gave up on DRM a while back, so the store’s trafficking in MP3s isn’t an issue. The prices are higher than those charged by iTunes et al, so it’s not the money. Call me ka-razy, but if there is an outlet that wants to, you know, sell your artists’ music, then don’t you want to sell it there? I know there are rights issues and the like in some cases, but why is every major label’s entire catalog not for sale in every single retail outlet out there? Why do I have to troll the Internet just to get one lousy MP3 of Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road”? Are these questions that I should even have to ask?
Apparently so.
(P.S.: Let me know if you have an MP3 of “Holiday Road” in comments.
He is my favorite guitarist ever.)
i’m writing this as a sort-of open letter to the people at emi. [Moby's MySpace Blog]
Beatport [Official site]
I am so deeply embarrassed to admit that I always thought that Eddie Rabbit did “Holiday Road” - at least now I know why I always liked it! Thanks Lucas!
I’m guessing the issue isn’t that EMI don’t want to sell music on beatport, but rather that they don’t have the manpower in legal and ecomm to do the deal with a small, niche site. This is what happens when Terra Firma let’s a ton of people go. As it is they can barely keep up with the demand to clear their own back catalogue of things like, oh say, music videos for major partner sites they do have deals with (MySpace, YouTube, MTV) because they’re under staffed.
Psst…e-mail me re: LB/”HR.”
I got one as well; not the best quality, but it exists.
@defendme: Good points there.
I wonder if such “sandbagging” (if we could call it that), or failure to distribute the artist’s music to appropriate outlets would be enough of a reason for Moby to legally opt-out of his contract. I know all contracts vary, but, just as an artist must deliver on his promise to create music according to a timeline, the label must also fulfill their promise to sell the music. It’s purely subjective, but I’d like to see artist’s attack the labels for this BS.
I’m glad Moby is calling them out, and I hope other artists follow suit (possibly punt intended).
What self-respecting DJ is buying Moby records?
@relaxing: Well, yeah. That’s why I said “theoretically”.
I think re-mixes shouldn’t exist. If the original song is good, it doesn’t need a remix, and if the original song is shitty, the listeners shouldn’t be reminded of it in a remix.
just sayin.
Hmm… I’ve heard of Beatport, but never took the time to visit. It kinda rock! Those previews are long!
Moby has a point, and I would like to add that, at least here in the UK, it is pretty much impossible to buy high quality versions (i.e. 320kbps mp3s to play in clubs) of big US hip hop tunes online. which sucks.
the music industry is great at having a product, but terrible at letting people buy that product.
another thing - most of the labels have a presence on youtube showing the videos for the songs they release - but why don’t they have a link with them where you can buy the tune, at a range of qualities and prices? people are obviously watching the youtube vids, at least would want to be able to go ‘yoink I’ll have that’.
and finally -
what happened to feeling the Fabric??? :(
@juiceandgin: What? Aside from the practicality of having a more dancable remix for “the clubs” remixes give producers and other artists to experiment ideas on established tracks, creating something that can sometimes by exciting and new. If you don’t think there’s a point for remixes then you obviously have never bought a Depeche Mode 12”.
And I had no idea Lindsay Buckingham did “Holiday Road.” You learn something everyday…and that song is going to be stuck in my damn head all morning. Thanks Idolator.
The problem with “Holiday Road” is that the Vacation soundtrack is completely out of print (cassette copies are going for $65 on Amazon), and Buckingham’s never put out a greatest hits. You can get a live version on Amazon’s mp3 store.