Comments on: Kim Gordon, Voice Of Reason

By: saturn

saturn — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:09:47 +0000

David Byrne had a really good article in Blender sometime in the past year in which he addressed a spectrum of promotion/release models ranging essentially from “the musician is in complete control” to “the record company is in complete control.” I can’t possibly replicate his arguments, but he made a good case for the idea that all musicians should make decisions for themselves about which models fit them best, based on a whole factor of issues.

By: jadedeyes

jadedeyes — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:00:30 +0000

What Radiohead head was, in theory, a relatively good idea at the time. Given the continual controversy over “digital music” and the never ending debate on piracy and regulation, it comes as no surprise that artists such as NIN and Radiohead are looking to their fans via their web presence to better control and regulate their music, granted where Radiohead went wrong was their “name your price” platform quickly evaporated into charges, set prices then limited access before being replaced with a lavish but outrageously priced discbox set. In Rainbows as a solid record and they had the right idea, but the whole thing seemed to go south rather quickly, so in that aspect, I can agree with Gordon’s criticism, though I feel eventually a means of music distribution in this sense may more or less be a step in the right direction.

By: marcusg58

marcusg58 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:01:06 +0000

This is far from brilliance, people. This hits me as if the band was complaining about Michael Jackson videos because they can’t dance. Very uncool.

By: jonian2008

jonian2008 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:29:44 +0000

Kim is brilliant. And she answered the question in a way that most people outside of the music business could possibly grasp.

By: CaptainWrong

CaptainWrong — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:07:06 +0000

As a musician can I just say I’ve felt for quite a while that Radiohead has done as much as Lars Ulrich in making musicians look like assholes for expecting people to actually buy their records. Halfwit, I remember when Robert Smith said it and I agreed then. I’m glad Kim Gordon is saying it, and I agree now.

On a side note: if you’re not aware of eMusic’s impending rate hike, the shitstorm surrounding that is also tied in with the whole idea of what is a fair price for music. Oh, there’s a lot more to it than that as well. eMusic really cocked up the announcement and tied it in with getting some Sony back catalog. Despite the fact that Drag City and Epitaph have left because of the low payments and that rumblings of other labels threatening to pull roots as well, the whole thing has become about greedy corporate labels and blah blah blah. I really can understand some of the outrage, but at the core I see a lot of people outraged at being asked to pay 40 cents a track instead of the 20-30 cents they are now and it’s kind of sad really.

By: Halfwit

Halfwit — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:28:22 +0000

Didn’t Robert Smith get neck deep in internet crap for saying something similar a couple of months ago?

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:25:07 +0000

@k-rex: DING! IAWTC. It's the promotion: that's what RH doesn't need, and what makes their "model" unreplicable.

By: k-rex

k-rex — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:53:05 +0000

Unless one inhabits the Biggest Band In The World throne the way Radiohead did, somebody has got to promote it. I think it’s very unfair to assume that a person is both a talented and ambitious promoter as well as a talented and ambitious musician. It might not have been a record label doing the job, but somebody was doing the record label’s job for Radiohead.

By: jt.ramsay

jt.ramsay — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:49:40 +0000

@Maura: I don't disagree, but you must admit their bandwidth game is tight.

By: NedRaggett

NedRaggett — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:45:18 +0000

@boxofboom: Wait, are you saying the record company will fuck things up or the fans will?