Obnoxilicious

Ahh, the online music business. What can I say, except I knew something wasn't right, right from the beginning?



It looks like, on top of all the other crap that's out there, we've now made (what many say is) "the worst song in America" into a bonafide hit - and, practically overnight, netted little ol' Rebecca Black a million dollars:

Black’s tune comes courtesy of Ark Music Factory, a so called record label that churns out tween pop for a couple thousand bucks a tune. Co-founded by Patrice Wilson and Clarence Jey, the L.A. based company courts young teenage singers and “signs” them to short, vanity recording projects. Jey reportedly is the lyrical genius behind “Friday.” According to The Daily Beast, Black’s mother forked over $2,000 for two songs written by Ark Music Factory’s team and one video, the now infamous “Friday.”

It would seem that the investment paid off, many times over. Although the YouTube/Google party line on video ad revenue is vague (“There are no guarantees under the YouTube Partner agreement about how much you will be paid.”) some digging turns up speculation on potential profits. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld reported today on Google and YouTube’s revenue figures. Looking at 2010’s actual numbers, the site makes about $1 per thousand page views. For videos running ads as part of the revenue sharing program, that revenue is then split between YouTube and the content creator. Content creators, or partners, take 68% of the profit. At 30,000,000 views, that lands Black and Ark Music Factory $20,000 – a 1000% return on investment. That number matches the figure reported by Damian Kulash Jr., the lead singer of indie pop band OK Go, who have made a name for themselves via viral videos.

The revenue doesn’t stop there, though. Where Google has had a notoriously tough time monetizing YouTube content, Apple’s iTunes has had significantly fewer problems. Since hitting the online music store last Monday, “Friday” has amassed a staggering number of downloads, reportedly topping 2 million; the song currently sits at #45 on the iTunes Top Singles chart. According to 101 Distribution, an independent music distributor, iTunes pays out $.70 per single download in the United States. That’s a much juicier check for Black and Ark Music Factory; even if the numbers are exaggerated, the intake from “Friday” could top $1 million. What’s more, Black is planning to release an acoustic version of the song to disprove speculation that her voice is reliant on AutoTune. Cha-ching!

...Like it or not, there’s probably more to come from Rebecca Black and Ark Music Factory.

And that last sentence is the point of this post:

As Sir Bob Geldof and Bon Jovi (of all people) have recently pointed out, the internet has not only wrecked the music industry, but music itself.

Of course, you can't get many to admit it. The writer at the Bon Jovi link, above, claims he's "never listened to so much amazing and diverse music in my life", but then starts promoting what headphones he bought before mentioning a generic and mediocre Euro-style Trance artist - DJ Tiesto - without wondering A) what he's missing or B) whether he's got any taste to begin with.

Let's consider this guy is right, that DJ Tiesto is brilliant and the music world is fine (I know - it's a stretch - but bear with me) why is the first comment I found at Tiesto's link this?

I find it sad that the highest rated comment here is about Justin Bieber. Why the fuck do people care so much about him? If you don't like him fine, neither do I but don't post stuff about him on a Tiesto video. Just listen to music you enjoy assholes.

I'll tell you why:

Because there's something other than music appreciation going on here, folks.

Prior to the advent of the internet, America was known world-wide for consistently good Pop music - across all genres - but now there are literally millions of great artists and musicians, starving, ecause of how the internet's notoriously immature gee-gaw factor warps the business of music, so we're now making millions for aural disasters and novelty tracks, and dooming ourselves to more of the same. That's the situation we're in.

And considering that's the case, despite the occasional one-hit-wonder, or overnight success story, is it any surprise that sales have gone through the floor overall, too?

Odd Future: Wanting A Father's Respect (Mine)

The keynote speech at the 25th annual South by Southwest Music festival, which took over downtown Austin from Wednesday to Saturday, was a bit grumpy. Bob Geldof, the Irish rocker who led the Boomtown Rats in the 1970s and went on to assemble the global Live Aid benefit concert in 1985 and its Live 8 sequel in 2005, bemoaned music’s loss of relevance. Although there was no shortage of “cool bands,” he said, music didn’t have the kind of broader social impact that it did with the Beatles, Bob Dylan, punk and grunge. He argued that music was no longer channeling rebelliousness and discontent.

He might have changed his mind had he seen Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, the teenage Los Angeles hip-hop collective that tore across this year’s SXSW. Rapping about drugs, rape, murder, getting pulled over by the police and wanting a father’s respect, over blotchy low-fi tracks, members of Odd Future climbed stage scaffolding and dove into eager crowds. Audiences responded with mosh-pit surges and hearty chants of “Wolf Gang!”

Odd Future’s foul-mouthed gross-outs were exactly the kind of music to appall parents and stoke youthful adrenaline. It has disseminated them not through record sales or radio play but in the digital cloud: giving away a dozen full-length albums by its members online, making videos for YouTube and through constant social-networking posts. Lately it has made television appearances, including one from Austin for the Woodie Awards given by MTV’s “college music” spinoff channel, mtvU, which latched onto the underground cachet of SXSW. Members of Odd Future now have recording contracts and coming retail albums; at SXSW no less an insider than Diddy (formerly P. Diddy) praised them as “the future of the industry.” But with maverick cool, Odd Future stormed offstage 12 minutes into its official SXSW set, complaining about bad microphones.

--The New York Times

I'm not sure if I approve yet - this video is the best thing I've seen - but they're kids, so give 'em time.

Sir Bob Geldof: It Takes One To Know One

It sounds (and looks) like Bob Geldof and I have been sharing the same sippy-cup:

The irony of some of keynote speaker Sir Bob Geldof’s remarks on Thursday morning at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, were palpable. As thousands of musicians of all sounds, shapes and sizes converged on the festival to sing, rage, bellow, croon and dance, inside the Austin Convention Center, Geldof, the singer, songwriter, humanitarian and honorary knight of the British Empire, complained about the sheer volume of music being produced today, comparing the combined output to “the half-witted mutterings of the village idiot in the dark corner of the local pub.”

Given that a majority of bands over the five-day music showcases are, quite literally, performing in dark corners of 6th Street pubs, it was hard not to make a connection, and that Geldof was there to rain on everybody’s parade. Over the course of his hour-long keynote, the singer, who’s best known as the organizer of the 1985 Live Aid concerts for African relief, looked the music of today straight in the eye and found it severely lacking.

Expressing outrage at the economic inequality that's permeating the lives of the many, Geldof wondered where the voices are to convey that feeling: “What’s music got to say about it? I don’t hear it. Maybe I can’t hear it. Maybe this hyper democracy of the Web simply gives an illusion of talent. You can download a studio. Download any instrument. You can pick up any instrument for nothing. You can make, cut and paste to create fab artwork to make your CD. Everybody has got the means to say anything they want, but nobody has anything to say. We need to talk about it."

Courageous stuff, delivered as it was from a podium from the smartly dressed, witty, eloquent Irishman who, 36 years earlier had defiantly introduced himself to the world with the line, “The world owes me a living.” The song, "Looking after Number One," wasn’t about selfishness per se, but about the feeling of a perfectly able man standing in line for his dole check and wondering what the hell he ever did wrong to deserve such a fate.

Music, he explained, is the best tool to deliver this message of outrage, and throughout the address Geldof walked around on stage, comfortable and in his element, citing the musical heroes of the past who transcended individualism to speak for entire populations, from Howlin' Wolf to Mick Jagger and John Lennon to the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones. He drew a distinct line between "good" music and "bad" music, and suggested in so many words that we're currently living in a world with a lot of bad music, and that somebody needs to step up and overthrow the proverbial institution that rock 'n' roll has become to send shockwaves across the world.

It's hard to argue with his point that we lack unifying voices, and that the music world is so fragmented and saturated that it's hard for anything to be heard. And that in times prior, music has helped frame political conversations in ways that artists never imagined, and that it has power to impact not only individuals but entire constituencies. The problem, he said, was complacency. "I don’t hear the disgust in music, and I need to. It doesn’t have to be literal. It has to suggest it."

He then declared music to be "the most powerful cultural tool that has been invented in a dozen lifetimes. Music is dangerous." That being the case, Geldof concluded, "We need someone to pause, to reflect, to consider, to be wise, to make decisions, or to interpret, to stop time for a moment, and suggest. And that seems to be the function of the artist."

I've been saying I'm that person, and - down to the details of "good" music and "bad" music - delivering that very same speech, for years.

And that's all I'm going to say about it now.

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With The Hands Of The Left All Over It

"CHINA'S NEW slave empire in Africa? 'We have come a long way from Cecil Rhodes to Bob Geldof, but we still have not brought much happiness with us, and even Nelson Mandela's vaunted 'Rainbow Nation' in South Africa is careering rapidly towards banana republic status. Now a new great power, China, is scrambling for wealth, power and influence in this sad continent, without a single illusion or pretence.'"

-- Peter Hitchens, probably wondering if there might be another way, by way of the Instapundit.

The Left is remarkable. Always claiming they know better while everything they touch goes to hell. Whether it's America's foreign policy, or even Africa, if the Left is involved it's just a recipe for disaster. They're really just a disruptive force, standing in the way of progress while calling themselves "progressives", slapping the hands of everyone else away, and braying about anyone who doesn't go along. It's just pitiful.

That's all I've really got to say about this story: it's just too damn depressing.

It's All About How You Look At It?

"These killings are shameful and distressing to our society."

-- President Jakaya Kikwete, of Tanzania, in his recent State of the Nation speech

Yes, yes, I know - many of you were hoping that quote was from President Bush commenting on Iraq - but no, it's actually in reference to what African witch doctors are doing to people for,..well, I'll let President Kikwete explain it further:

"Sometimes, word spreads around that body parts of people with certain physical attributes like bald people or albinos contribute greatly to attaining quick prosperity."

"Quick prosperity". Great. Can't Tanzania just get Bill Clinton and Tony Robbins to arrive and do their motivational dog-and-pony fire-walking medicine show? Fire-walking should have even more appeal in Africa.

But how embarrassing is it to know a President of the United States is involved in that nonsense? I mean, look at the pictures I'm using to accompany this post. Now, I don't care if he's wearing a suit-and-tie - these might as well be pictures of our former president - and, no matter how you cut it, that's pretty fucking "shameful and distressing" in itself. Here, try this one for a more accurate reference:

That asshole just announced he made $109 million pulling that crap - and that's mostly American money he took from gullible people. Yea, he can "feel your pain" alright - in his wallet. I swear, Bill Clinton is a fucking low-life on a personal journey to discover where the bottom is. But, hell, I have to admit, I'd pay 'em myself to stop African witch doctors from pulling this Tanzanian body part scam.

Bob Geldof says we Americans don't pay attention to Africa unless the "odd horror" occurs (which is true: I don't even pay attention to what's happening down the block) so it's not like I want to pile on, just because. It's just that, this story got me to thinking about all this nonsense I cover (or un-cover, as the case may be) and what'll be going through my mind when I die.

See, when I die, I imagine I'll be trying hard - really hard - to think of something "good". (I used to think, if I was lucky, I'd be staring into the eyes of my wife but that imagery won't fucking work anymore,....) Now, knowing all that I know about cultism, etc., I'm sure it'll be particularly difficult to come up with *anything* positive to focus on - and especially under duress.

From where I'm sitting now, it'll just be a lonely ordeal with nothing more pleasant to look forward to than this nightmare - started by my ex-wife - finally being over: No more NewAge. No more betrayals; no more gullible idiots; no more dealing with people, like the Clintons, who are out to do nothing more than swindle another sucker.

There's one born every minute, right? Sure, but - while I can understand the impulse to fleece 'em - damn it, no one can convince me it's the right thing to do. And the idea of a president engaging in it is just down-right depressing. I really don't like thinking about it. I don't like thinking about any of it. And I know I won't want to "later".

But "whatever" for now: one of these days this war will be over, and I'll be able to take down my poster of Osama bin Laden (authentic, right from Pakistan) and replace it with a picture of President Bush - my president - much the way people (during WWII) used to display a map of Europe, and eventually replaced it with a photo of FDR - their symbol of strength, courage, and integrity, through tough times - while, for me, President Bush's picture will represent the official end of the madness of the 60's: a thought that has always brought a smile to my face.

So, if I should die alone, I'll (hopefully) have to look on President Bush. Which, I'm sure, to many people probably seems like a strange thing for me to write. But, to many of those same people, it's gentlemen, like those in these photos, who have always been seen as a comfort: as long as (rather than killing albinos and bald guys for body parts) they were ripping off Americans to the tune of millions,...just "making a killing",...but doing it in a suit-and-tie.

*Thanks to Elizabeth Mika for the Tanzania story. No thanks, to the Clintons, for the rest.

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

"The Bush administration is the most radical - in a positive sense - in its approach to Africa since Kennedy,...It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man,...What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing."

Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed "to [brag about] this to Americans" but said he is also "pissed off" at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.

"You guys didn't pay attention,...Clinton was a good guy, but he did fuck all,...The EU have been pathetic and appalling, and I thought we had dealt with that 20 years ago when the electorate of our countries said never again,...The last time I spoke to the EU's aid people, they didn't even know where their own ships were. The food is there, get it here."

- Various reported quotes from Bob Geldof (leader/singer for the Boomtown Rats, organizer of LIVE AID, and self-appointed activist for Africa) with some from the (Moonie owned) Washington Times

One more, to make the point crystal clear:

"Clinton talked the talk and did diddly squat, whereas Bush doesn't talk, but does deliver."

- Lord Alli, African aid activist

Take that, Kanye, you fuckin' racist whiner.