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23.11.12 Music Week 13
VIDEO STARS GETTING THE TUBE
“YouTube is getting more
COOKING VINYL HAS STARTED to reap financial rewards from YouTube, with income significantly increasing year-on-year from the streaming video site. But in 2013, inspired by K-Pop sensation Psy, it’s
going one step further. “There’s an artist we’ve signed this year who’ll be
How’s your relationship with Spotify? We hear a lot about scale and it needing to grow 10 times its size to become viable… It does. They claim that the average premium user pays twice what the average iTunes user pays for music in a year. But you hear of 60 million active iTunes users; so you need 30 million active Spotify users to be in the same place. That doesn’t mean you’d lose the iTunes income, either. We’d be laughing. The Swedish industry’s in great shape because of Spotify. The Spanish industry’s been saved from complete decimation by Spotify – and it’s the free ad version that’s done it. Spotify’s income is bigger than iTunes’ income for Spanish labels. That’s how significant it is.
You’ve worked in this industry for decades. How do you think the music trade’s reputation is doing in the public’s eyes in 2012? Not good. It’s not as bad as it was, but it’s still the case. The big issues at major labels are: ‘How do we get to The Brits? Have we got the most expensive party? Warner are spending £200,000 on theirs, we should spend £250,000.’ In my job, they’re not the big issues.
Uh-oh… we’re verging on an anti-major rant! Be honest: is there anything the majors do that you find inspirational? Yes, actually. We work with them quite a lot. Most people who work in this industry do so because they love music, and they make a salary sacrifice to do so. The majors are by-and-large the same – they’re full of people with an amazing love for music who don’t want to work in any other job. You have to be devoted. A lot of the best people
in the industry are at majors: they’ve got the money to hire the top pluggers and press people. Lucian Grainge is amazing - he’s like an evil genius to me! What he’s pulled off with the EMI merger is astounding: he’s got the most out of that situation that Universal could have ever hoped for.
Some people say otherwise. You can’t pretend the Parlophone divestment is pain-free… At the level Lucian operates, it’s not about small records. It’s about increasing your market share. His biggest opportunity to increase market share for a long, long time is EMI. He was competing with
particularly interesting called Ny,” explains Martin Goldschmidt. “She’s an urban artist and we’ve done two singles with her. The first one got some radio play but the second one didn’t – not any national airplay, anyway. But she’s set YouTube on fire in a small way. She’s had 1.5 million views and is really connecting. “We’re going to really try and develop her through
YouTube next year and not focus on radio at all. We’ll organically build her in a different way; through YouTube and live. That’s an exciting prospect and a bit of an experiment for us. “YouTube has buckets of potential. It’s been
developing artists for a long time but it’s getting more significant, and it’s not controlled. There are a lot of filters and gatekeepers in TV land – YouTube doesn’t play by those rules.”
some real fucking heavyweights with a lot of money behind them: Warner, BMG/KKR, etc. The way he played it was so clever. He outwitted them all. The fact that they were allowed to buy it at all is quite incredible – Martin Mills is right on that. And quite a lot of the divestments are unimpressive: they’re getting rid of Universal Greece. Who wants that?! Form an orderly queue, guys! [Laughs]
Who would you like to see Parlophone go to? Fuller and Blackwell would be fun… I hope someone gets it who keeps the jobs intact and who doesn’t just want the catalogue. There’s really good people working there. Fuller and Blackwell would need the people, as would BMG. So to be honest I’d prefer them over Warner for that reason. Not that I wish Warner bad: I just want
significant, and it’s not controlled. There are a lot of filters and gatekeepers in TV land – YouTube doesn’t play by those rules” MARTIN
GOLDSCHMIDT, COOKING VINYL
the scenario where people don’t end up leaving the industry and going into banking.
Then there’s Co-Op, which we understand is likely to be announced as a PIAS purchase soon… Co-Op are a really good operation and have been a big competitor of ours for years. What can I say? Thank you Lucian! He took out Sanctuary and V2 and we did really well out of those… I should send him a bottle of champagne! [Laughs]
I’m sure he’d be both confused and delighted. We’d have loved to have bought Co-Op, but I don’t think that’s an option.
How’s Cooking Vinyl Publishing doing for you? You’ve signed Reverend & The Makers, Pop Will Eat Itself and The Virginmarys as writers… It’s quite small, but Paul Kinder joined us from Chrysalis and he’s made a massive difference. It’s now a significant part of the business and it’s profitable, which includes paying Paul a salary. We’d love to buy some catalogues. We’ve got big plans.
What are your plans on the record side for 2013? This year’s been a shock, a complete surprise. It’s been amazing. Next year we’ve got some great records. The new Ron Sexsmith is coming - the last one increased sales by 10 times with four hit radio singles. He’s playing the Royal Albert Hall, which is quite a step up. We’ve got the new Billy Bragg album, hopefully. We’re waiting for some ink to dry. Then there’s The Blackout, who are already on the Radio 1 B-list.
Anything else? There’s also an Ocean Colour Scene album and possibly – possibly – we’ve got a Prodigy record lined up. That’ll be fun. Working with The Prodigy’s not that hard. They’re very respectful and are amazing to work with. They really appreciate what other people do for them – which is rare – but they don’t suffer fools gladly.
BELOW Under Firestarter’s orders? Goldschmidt has mooted the possibility of a new Prodigy record
I guess after your 2009 success with them you can be confident The Prodigy won’t be tempted away by a big money major offer… A lot of artists have their success with a major, then it’s a safety blanket and they’re frightened of leaving it. The Prodigy have the same thing, but being with an indie is their safety blanket! They’re very comfortable with us, as we are with them.
You’ve benefitted from investment capital from Icebreaker/Shamrock. How’s that relationship? They’re very happy. It’s been a great relationship. They want to do more with us and we want to do more with them. Virtually everything we’ve done has been successful. They’re not used to such a high strike rate. Shamrock invest a lot of money in the music industry, a lot of it on projects that fail. But they give a lot of people a shot that wouldn’t have it otherwise. What we do with Shamrock is not typical. The industry needs every bit of impetus it can find. I’m not a massive fan of X Factor on a musical level, But at the end of the day if the trade is connecting with the public in whatever way that’s great for all of us. It gets people into the habit of buying and consuming music. That’s what we need to achieve as an industry – it’s imperative that we increase our reach.
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