Words Of Wisdom From Thom Yorke
My business partner, Anthony, just sent me this article, which I found very exciting!Thom Yorke summarizes the state of major record labels. In short, they’re on verge of completely dying. Personally, I’m happy to hear it – dinosaurs must die.This also very exciting for Barn Productions; it means we’re onto something…I think the one thing that article glazed over is that, despite Thom Yorke’s praise of DIY sales and marketing for artists, Radiohead would not have been nearly as successful if they had not had the full-force of a major label behind them when they started. So there will always be some value in having some label support, especially for budding artists.However, eventually that “support” starts to feel more like a trap. This was definitely the case in Radiohead’s scenario when they decided to walk away from EMI.This why I’m happy that our agreements are all non-exclusive. So we offer the pros of a label, without the cons.Imagine that EMI hadn’t been gouging Radiohead so badly on their first several records. Radiohead would likely have stayed with EMI indefinitely. Now imagine that EMI was doing marketing and distribution *in conjunction* with Radiohead’s “pay what you want” campaign for their In Rainbows album, instead of being an *opposing* model.If that had happened, Radiohead would be happy (and rich), and both the band and EMI would be making money from both sources. That’s basically what we do at Barn Productions. It’s simply win-win.
