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2 Music Week 23.11.12 NEWS EDITORIAL


Taking a Chance on guitar bands - why there’s still life, Jim


IT’S INARGUABLE: George Ergatoudis is absolutely right when he says the popularity of British guitar bands has “reached a nadir”. Some will blame quality, some will blame piracy, and as sure as eggs is eggs, some will blame George himself. Regardless, when the music boss of such an influential radio


station acknowledges this devastating pattern in a nervy climate, it’s going to become an infectious point of view. (Not an Infectious one though; that label’s busy bucking the trend.) Using David Joseph’s 100,000 unit threshold as a barometer,


this year’s album sales do not make pleasant reading for fans of six-string-wielding mobs. There’s a Mumford here and a Florence there - whether or not we’re still counting the Machine. The Vaccines’ second album hasn’t done bad at all. But in amongst 70-odd acts, that’s pretty much it for British guitar bands. My personal take? This drought is less to do with talent or


trends, and all to do with patience. It’s very rare for truly seminal British guitar albums to emerge in a band’s nascent years and the major labels generally - understandably - don’t have the natural perseverance or, frankly, the money to let indie acts suffer a commercial dip or stagger gradually towards brilliance.


“Jim Chancellor gawped in awe at The Maccabees six years ago. Their third album just surpassed the 100,000 sales mark. The lesson? Patience pays.”


That’s why excellent, mature rock acts like Frightened Rabbit


release two albums on indie Fat Cat before graduating to Warner. And why Frank Turner builds and builds on Xtra Mile/PIAS before giving a Polydor JV a go. The independents as patient career incubators. T’was ever so. Except, that is, for one beaming example. Fiction boss Jim Chancellor’s faith in The Maccabees has always been charming, but you could hardly call it commercially inspiring. Earlier this year, he told me of the first time he saw the band back in 2006, when he and his A&R chief Alex Close shoulder-wiggled to the front of the stage and gawped in awe like hyped-up school kids. The band’s first album, Colour It In (2007), has to date shifted


around 35,000 copies - quite a way off Joseph’s magical six figures. Their follow-up, 2009’s Wall Of Arms, is closer to 70,000. A stellar jump, but not exactly a breakthrough. By this stage, I’m willing to bet that Chancellor - who also


helped send Elbow’s career into orbit - was under a little pressure from above. These are not knockout major label figures. Yet there it is: this year’s excellent Given To The Wild (on which


BMG snapped up publishing - the insightful scamps) has finally, heart-warmingly topped the 100,000 mark. This is important; not just to the group, who have grown into


one of UK alternative music’s brightest and best hopes, nor to British rock in general, which is still clearly painfully wounded. No, it is vital to guitar bands’ value amid the internal culture of


the biggest major label in the world. Jim Chancellor’s protective faith in a group he so adores proves that nurturing an indie band’s career with enduring TLC can pay dividends - even in Kensington. For those who still get a kick out of the kinship and thrill of


following a brilliant guitar act’s progression from spiky debutants to all-out national treasures, I for one salute him.


Tim Ingham, Editor Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing tim.ingham@intentmedia.co.uk COULD A FAMILIAR NAME BE NEXT KING OF STREAMS?


New Myspace: ‘The biggest music library in the world’


DIGITAL  BY TOM PAKINKIS


I


t has a licensed music catalogue that rivals Spotify and twice as many licensed


music videos as Vevo. No, this isn’t the latest streaming start-up; it’s the new Myspace. The previously crest-fallen


social entertainment platform caught many music fans off guard in September with a relaunch video demonstrating a stylish interface with music streaming, playlist creation and internet radio among its features. But, behind the scenes,


Myspace also has deals in place with 20,000 independent record labels and all three major labels. It amounts to an in-browser service offering around 15 million licensed tracks and 100,000 music videos. “Our library is very substantial, definitely from the point of signed label music,” said Chris Vanderhook, COO of Specific Media, the ad firm that bought Myspace for $35m last year. “I’d say our catalogue, is pretty similar to someone like Spotify’s from a signed label music perspective. “But the real robustness


comes from the unsigned artists,” he added. “We have relationships with 5 million unsigned artists, who’ve uploaded over 27 million songs, which pushes our catalogue to 42 million, which is why we have the biggest music library in the world.” The numbers are similarly substantial when it comes to Myspace’s music video haul, which boasts double the amount currently being advertised by Vevo. “The licensed music video


number is around 100,000 but if you look at total music videos available there’s around 2.6 million,” said Specific Media


Spacemen three: Tim Vanderhook,Chris Vanderhook and Justin Timberlake unveil the new Myspace at an employee launch event


CEO Tim Vanderhook. There are 14.2m artists


on Myspace in total, 48,000 of which are signed to major labels and 86,500 of which have indie deals. “The depth of content


available is like an endless sea and I think that’s what’s unique – how much is actually there and then the way we’re surfacing it to consumers,” he added.


“Our catalogue is pretty similar to someone like Spotify’s from a signed label music perspective” CHRIS VANDERHOOK, MYSPACE


Another driving objective for


the Vanderhooks – along with Justin Timberlake, who has an ownership stake in the new Myspace - is to forge a more powerful link between artists and fans, providing more data to labels. “The labels look at this and


are extremely excited, not just in terms of design but what we are going to be providing for them,” said Chris Vanderhook. “Labels often have no idea who buys their music. They don’t handle the transaction. “For us, a big thing that we’re


providing for labels and to the artists themselves is the actual


analytics. That’s the number of listens but also the very valuable analytics about who the most influential fans of particular artists and they do see all the possibilities of where that can go.” “For now the platform is ad-


supported and we want to provide a home for an artist, who might belong to a label but they want to simplify everything they do. By supporting artists in this


way, The Vanderhooks believe that the new Myspace could attract a sizable user-base. “We believe that there’s no-


one out there servicing them in a way that really satisfies their needs,” said Tim Vanderhook. “We think that the


opportunity is enormous and could potentially go into the hundreds of millions of consumers globally.” According to a leaked investor


presentation from Specific Media, Myspace could use its song library to challenge the current crop of streaming services more directly in the near future. With Pandora and Spotify


cited in the document specifically, a Myspace mobile subscription streaming service is slated for launch in Q2 2013, while an e-commerce solution for music downloads, ticketing and merch was said to be planned for the second half of next year.


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