2 MusicWeek 20.07.12 NEWS EDITORIAL
Video billed the radio star
A HUGELY IMPORTANT DOCUMENT dominated our online headlines on Monday. No, I’m not referring to IMPALA co-president Patrick Zelnik’s
sudden, shock defection against the Universal/EMI merger. (Although his mouth-watering op/ed, in which he claimed the deal could ‘rescue’ the music industry, did spawn three massive
MusicWeek.comstories. More on that later.) I’m not even referencing the UK Census, with which The Daily
Mail created the story, ‘The Census: It’s about immigration now’. (How can the DM’s self-parody be so laser-sharp but its political sketches so leaden and simplistic?) No, I’m talking about the BBC’s annual report, which notified
us – to nothing but a disappointing, limp murmur from the label, publishing and management sectors – that the Beeb has slashed away a whopping 90 hours of music & arts programming from its schedules in the past year. Most sickening of all, a full 70 hours of these shows have been
sliced off BBC4 alone. To many within the industry, BBC4 is the last hallowed house of cultural enlightenment; an engaging sister act to 6Music’s fearless, independently-minded programming.
“The BBC has increased entertainment TV hours: they could do a lot worse than scheduling in the story of Universal, EMI, IMPALA and Mr. Zelnik.”
So where was this deficit made up? Well it wasn’t in drama,
which lost 156 precious hours, following a move from buying in ready-made serials. And it certainly wasn’t in sports, which suffered a 389 hour drop year-on-year. No, it was in entertainment programming, which leapt more so
than any other category – a 327 hour hike. And what exactly do we get for our ‘entertainment’ licensing dollar? Snog, Marry, Avoid; My Penis And I; 8 Huge Nipples, 1 Huge Heart; World’s Craziest Fools. Is this what the public honestly plays its licence fee for? I mean, I
only made one of those up – and it’s not even the most ridiculous. If the music industry is going to fiercely debate the role Apple,
Google etc. play in diminishing A&R budgets, we should also be scrutinising another goliath – the BBC – just as closely. Considering we pay for it, a piece-by-piece erosion in Auntie’s
vital role as a platform to showcase the UK’s musical stock simply isn’t good enough. In a survey on whether the licence fee offered good value for money, only 56% of the grumpy great unwashed answered in the affirmative. I imagine the rest could do with some more music in their lives. Then again, if the Beeb are going to insist on ratcheting up the
‘entertainment’ schedules – at least it could give us the good stuff. Which brings us back to Mr. Zelnik. Another 56% figure grabbed our attention this week; that’s the
percentage of IMPALA’s board members (14 out of 25) who backed their co-president’s maverick concession plan over Universal/EMI. Was this a thawing to the idea of the takeover? IMPALA says
not, claiming it is firmly united against the deal from top to tail. But if its powerful ranks didn’t quite snog or marry Mr. Zelnik’s
convincing arguments, they clearly didn’t avoid them, either. Tim Ingham, Editor
Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
tim.ingham@
intentmedia.co.uk
Modern life is Twitter? Blur perform their streamed rooftop gig
DIGITAL BY TIM INGHAM
T
witter has called on older artists not to be scared of premiering material on
the social networking site. Blur successfully became the
first act to the ever debut a live performance on Twitter as it happened at the beginning of July - streaming a gig played atop a London rooftop, where they played new tracks Under The Westway and The Puritan. “Live performance of a new
single is a newer arena and we look forward to more experiences like these,” Tatiana Grace, head of music for Twitter, told Music Week. “Twitter is where fans go first to talk about new music so it only makes sense that artists would go there first.” She added: “It’s important to
keep in mind that bands like Blur have not embraced Twitter in the same way pop stars like Rihanna have until recently. “Now that these great acts are
coming on board and participating in next-level content plays such as this, you can be certain that their follower counts and engagement are going to spike.” Blur’s live Twitter performance
was filmed in the London rain in front of a group of 50 invited guests. The band also took part in a live Q&A. The event spawned 1.3million @blurofficial tweet impressions during the hour of the stream. 167 news sites covered the event, whilst phrases ‘Under The Westway’, ‘The Puritan’ and ‘Blur’ all trended globally during and after the event. “There’s a learning curve:
younger artists get that you have to engage with your fans on social media,” added Grace. “Artists who have been around longer, are used to phoners and interviews with journalists and are still getting used to Twitter. “The great thing is, when I sit
down with an artist and explain how it can help them and let them know that it’s more than just ‘what you had for lunch’ - you see the light go on and they realise that they can make their Twitter profile as unique as they want. “You can answer fan questions
all day – like Gavin Rossdale and Amanda Palmer do. You could choose to just post photos – as the Edge did on U2’s tour. Or you create diaries from the studio detailing your progress. The possibilities are endless. “Many huge pop stars debut
new tracks on Twitter on a regular basis: Kanye West and Katy Perry are great examples. “Artists these days are savvy to
the fact that Twitter is the best market research. As opposed to sitting at a table with four label guys wondering what song would be best suited to be your single, artists know they can post it on Twitter and find out instantly from fans.” Under The Westway charted
at No.34 on the Official Singles Chart when released. “I don’t think the chart is the
only measure for success – it does not take into account all the different ways fans can consume music, well not yet,” commented Blur manager Niamh Byrne. “I think you have to look at
things quite holistically. In this case, we are doing two things – putting new music out for the forthcoming live shows and reflecting on 21 years of making music together.” She added: “We’ll always
consider new ways of doing things – it’s a constantly changing landscape and we have to move with the times. “I think you also have to have
a global outlook even if you are doing campaigns focused in the UK.”
ARE D2F RELEASES BETTER THAN ‘FOUR LABEL GUYS’?
Twitter encourages older artists to premiere music
www.musicweek.com
Photo: Mark Allan
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52