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| The Fonz stealing music. |
Imagine that: A CD released on an indie label with little more than a hope and a prayer wound up outselling an album that supposedly had the full weight of the Sony promotion and distribution machine behind it.
Hmm, must have been the band's fault, I state facetiously.
I certainly missed out the supposed thrill of having a major label behind me, not to mention all the privileges that come with it such as landing a support slot on a major tour or having an entire marketing/promo department dedicated to pushing my music to radio and MTV, butI have never once regretted not signing over the rights to my songs or album masters.
Especially when used copies of my first album sell for upwards of $100 on the collector's market, or when a fan buys my latest release for $10 from CD Baby or Amazon and 80% of that goes into my pocket.
Meanwhile, peers who actually enjoyed a fair bit of success at the major label level receive exactly ZERO when someone buys a copy of their album.
It's enough to make you want to wage war against the major label system that has buried so many artists who, quite frankly, deserved better.
While it would be nice if one of those artists would undertake such a battle, I've never been known to back down from a dust-up.
Especially when the missteps of the major label system now threaten to cut into the sales prospects for any new project that I, and many others, would undertake. After all, what's the motivation to actually buy music anymore when the music industry's suspicious alliance with the likes of Spotify makes streaming the more convenient option?
While I would love to repeat past successes by ponying up the usual tens of thousands of dollars needed to pay musicians, producers, engineers, recording studios and pressing plants necessary to bring my new album to fruition, this is not a hobby, or a charity.
In actuality, this is my life and has been from the time I dropped out of college and began following my dream wherever it took me.
Like you, I have seen the major labels wage a seemingly misguided war against artists and consumers alike, but I have come to realize that it was an intentional act and today I exact my pound of flesh.
How, you ask?
By releasing an album comprised solely of sounds sampled from the albums I had to re-buy when the industry forced a new format upon consumers when, in truth, there was nothing wrong with the existing formats.
Instead of calling in a bunch of semi-affordable musicians, I chose to work with the greats instead.
For example, a young Bob Dylan (circa '65) stopped by to offer his tasty spoken word skills to my album's first single "Boo Mass Production" while Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos (circa 1977), Kix's Steve Whiteman (circa 1983) and Autograph's Steve Plunkett (circa 1985) stopped by to lend their swagger to "Come At The King".
Every sound on the album, whether it be a synth stab or a high-hat, was sampled from those albums and given new life in a new context.
If this sounds like something the Beastie Boys did on Paul's Boutique back in 1988, it was, but this is not a rap or hip hop album. No, this is one you'll actually want to listen to more than once.
To the music industry and the consumers, I say "You're welcome."
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sample this