Don't call us we'll call you . . . if we like your upload. Jim Carrollon the record companies' new proposition for unsigned bands
IF you are a new band looking for a record deal from any of the Sony-BMG labels, there is no longer any point sending a CD of your future hits to an A&R men. As of this week, these labels will no longer accept unsolicited music on any physical format. The demo tape has been decommissioned.
Of course, there was never really any point in the first place sending a demo of your songs on spec to a label and hoping it would get you on the fast track to fame and fortune. No band has ever got a record deal directly and solely on the back of a demo CD or tape. Everything from an act's management to their live chops have a bearing on whether or not a band get signed.
But this didn't stop thousands of bands buying padded envelopes and despatching CDs and tapes to labels plucked randomly from a music industry directory. Just as every publishing house has a slush pile of unsolicited and unread novels, record labels have always had boxes and boxes of unplayed CDs and tapes scattered around the office.
But if Ged Doherty gets his way, these untidy piles of envelopes will soon be a thing of the past. The Sony-BMG boss has said his labels will no longer accept CDs from unsigned acts seeking a record deal.
Instead, bands and acts will be required to go to the label's blogs (columbiademos.co.uk or rcademos.co.uk) and sell themselves by uploading a video or MP3. The content will then be accessed and checked out by the label's A&R department - as well as by any musician, fan or rival talent scout who happens to drop along.
Such methods have been tried before. A few years ago, both Universal Music (with Farmclub) and Epic Records attempted to get similar online demo submission formats off the ground with little success.
Doherty, though, has a knack for these big gestures. Six months ago at the In the City music conference in Manchester, he spoke frankly and bluntly about the problems the record business was facing.
"We're running a business model that is so out of date it's not true," he said before predicting that the value of CD sales would halve by 2010, leaving labels floundering around desperately seeking new revenue streams.
"For years, record companies and major labels have had it all their own way but that's changing and we have to change with it," said the label boss.
"We need to enter into a new relationship with our artists, where they see us as partners rather than the enemy."
What Doherty is now proposing are joint ventures where the band and label split all revenue from concerts, sponsorship, telecom deals and merchandise.
While a business model along these lines was used by EMI Music with Robbie Williams and Korn, it is Doherty's insistence on making such arrangements the basis for all future record deals which is sure to prove controversial.
Since most smart bands and their managements now see a record deal simply as seed capital to help them build a sustainable live audience, Doherty's call for a joint venture has merit.
After all, if the label is prepared to invest at an early stage (and given that 90 per cent of all signed acts don't turn a profit), it makes business sense that they should also share in all or any financial windfalls.
However, while Doherty does say that he is prepared to examine the currently prohibitive and punitive royalty structure, it remains to be seen just how many bands will trust the labels to come through on this.
Jim Carroll's blog, On the Record, is at http://www.ireland.com/blogs/ontherecord/
