State of the Music Industry 2006

THIS IS A SHORT ESSAY I WROTE ABOUT THE STATE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN THE FALL OF 2006.

Statistics really put everything into perspective. In this case particularly, these statistics quiet the public’s anxious cries that the music business is dying with the onset of music downloading. It’s important to realize that the consumer market is not decreasing, but that it’s shifting. Though RIAA’s 2005 Consumer Profile notes a 10% decrease for years 1996 to 2005, in record stores being the channel for consumers, it is important to realize that in the year 2005, the internet was 8% of the consumer music channel and music download was another 6%. Together, the internet and music download add up to 14%, making up for that 10% decline. The digital music market is the new, alternate avenue for purchasing music, though it still is not the dominant one; physical CDs (full-length) are still 87% of the market.

One way in which the market has not changed since I was a kid is the fact that singles are still highly in demand. I remember being about twelve years old and making my almost daily trip to Sam Goody to see what new singles came out. Not only was I attracted to that aisle because I wanted to buy that “it” song that had just been played over the radio 100 times, but because singles were cheap and affordable for a kid like me. I even remember buying my friends CD singles for their birthday, to the extent that everyone always looked forward to their birthdays, because I always found the coolest CD single for them. Because of these memories, it is not surprising to me to look at statistics for 1999 and see that 56 million CD singles were sold. This desire for acquiring CD singles is still very much present, though it has shifted to the digital download market, which sold 367 million singles in 2005. What’s interesting to see is that sales for downloaded albums are not nearly as much as the single downloads market, in fact they’re at a mere 13 million in 2005. Why are consumers more willing to buy their albums in a record store and buy singles online? Why hasn’t the trend gone through with digital album sales? It would be real interesting to me to find out what the numbers are for which age group is buying physical albums and which age group is downloading digital singles of if there really is a discernable difference. From my vantage point, I think real fans buy albums, while radio pop listeners turn to iTunes to grab a hold of the newest radio single. Speaking of age, it is incredibly interesting to see that the largest bulk (25% of the market) of consumers is adults 45+. That statistic alone reveals a lot. It seems that the average younger adult is too busy to actively listen to music, being tied up in either developing their career or in chasing after their kids in the house. It also explains why physical sales are still the major fraction of music sales, selling about 700 million albums in 2005; adults above 45 are less likely to log onto iTunes and download the latest album, even if it is one of their old favorites. In addition, one would think that the teenage age group consumes the most music, but they only buy about 12%. And the teenager/lower twenties group music consumption has decreased about 5% since 1996 and I’m convinced it has to do with the fact that most college students get most of their music illegally—either through whatever’s left of the P2P services or rTunes, a service that allows students to upload playlists from classmates in their network.

As music business people, we need to decide whether we want to adapt to this market or try developing ways to expand sales in places that are weaker. For example, is it smarter to target that 45 plus age group? Is it smarter to continue feeding into this singles-market because we see the success of the digital singles market? Or should the music industry develop music service sites that target teens, helping them draw away from illegal sites, and maybe encourage digital album sales (through bonuses like an additional music video.) I think the industry is doing a good job in balancing both acts. Obviously there is still an emphasis on physical goods, but there is also that innovation through digital websites to make downloading a more appealing process. For example, eMusic is an example of a website that operates for an indie audience, allowing members to discover new music, while buying music as well. There lies the hook—it is not just an alternate way to buy music, but a way to discover music, and find recordings you’ve never heard before.

On a different note, I sometimes think that with the new digital trends, consumers are actually more confused, and maybe that is why physical sales are still much greater than digital sales. iTunes is the only service that is simple and clear. You want music, you pay 99 cents or $9.99 for an album, and you got it. The subscription-based music sites, though being a great deal for great music fans, is complicated—allowing members to listen to as much music as they want, but obliging them to pay for each track if they want to transfer the music to a portable device (not an iPod of course) or a CD-R. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been flipping back and forth from service to service, not completely satisfied with any of them. I originally signed up to Rhapsody, not caring that it was not compatible with an iPod (figuring I would download tracks onto CDs), and then later found out that I needed to pay in addition to the $10 a month fee to actually obtain songs. I felt as if I was misled to thinking that the $10 covers everything because it was never explicitly said that each track would cost me money. I’m not sure if many people went through the same process, but I feel like that’s a definite drawback.

Since I am a college student and I have to be careful with the amount of music I spend on music, I will most likely buy an album that I really want from a store and only listen/stream music online through websites like AOL Music (that allows anyone to stream full albums for free), Pandora, Free Napster (which allows users to listen to any song 3 times in entirety), Free Rhapsody (users can listen to 25 songs each month for free.) (Even Facebook, the college networking website, allows certain members to get a free music sampler from iTunes.)

The Internet definitely allows me to discover more music than I possibly could have years ago. I am definitely more able to go back in time slightly and really appreciate music from earlier decades (whether its songs from the Beach Boys I had never heard before, or songs from the American band The Byrds, to whether it’s discovering that a song I thought was originally written by an artist of my time really was taken from a 60s artist.) But I don’t necessarily know if more music necessarily translates into better quality music or a better listening experience.

The Internet definitely makes the whole music listening/buying process a little more quick and less special. No longer is there that moment of suspense for that first note, the first breath of a voice, like there is when buying a new CD and placing it into a stereo. Wow, that’s quite a moment. I wonder if most people can say that about placing their cursor on a song title and clicking “purchase.”

Branding Dallin

IN THE SPRING OF MY SOPHOMORE YEAR, I TOOK A CLASS WHICH FOCUSED ON ARTIST BRANDING. FOR OUR FINAL ASSIGNMENT, WE HAD TO WORK WITH AN ARTIST AND CREATE A VIABLE AND ENGAGING BRANDING PLAN AND STRATEGY FOR THE ARTIST. HERE'S THE BRANDING REPORT WE CREATED:

I. Personal Brand Statement
Dallin is a powerful singer/songwriter, who can sit behind her piano, yet still fully reach out to her audience at the same time. Her music is filled with lyrical intricacies, which cry through her soulful yet gritty voice.

II. Brand Essence- Approachable

III. Brand Essence Rationale- On stage, Dallin
is one with her audience. She is not singing to them, but singing with them. Her strong value of the audience is what propels the audience to her. Offstage, Dallin is certainly a more subdued character than her passionately rocking artist persona, yet that same element of warmth and approachability is present. Dallin’s inviting aura—through both her music and her personality—is what sets her apart.

IV. Similar Artists- Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Joss Stone, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brandeis, and Madi Diaz.

V. Dallin's Selling Points

* APPROACHABILITY- Incorporation of the audience
* COMPLEX & MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER: MULTI-LAYERED
* WELL-PRODUCED AND SELF-PRODUCED MUSICIAN
* ORGANIC
* FUSION
* STRONG VISUAL ELEMENT
* MATURE APPEAL
* POP SENSIBILITY, MAINSTREAM APPEAL

VI. "Model" Obituary

Icon known for relationship with fans

ANDREW NUSCA
BRANDING NEWS SERVICE

Dallin Applebaum, the innovative singer and pianist whose combinations of soul and electronica changed the face of pop music, has died. She was 78.

Applebaum died Sunday morning in her home in New York City, her publicist said. The cause was complications from a long bout with lung cancer.

Known for inviting audiences on stage with her, Applebaum first rose to national fame with her 2009 recording of “Chelsea Morning,” which gained traction after significant airplay on Philadelphia public radio station WXPN.

Singer Seth Kallen said in a written statement that Applebaum was a “true original.”

“She was a wonderful girl, full of honesty and compassion,” he said. “She will be missed.”

Applebaum was born in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, on January 21, 1986 to a lawyer and a marketing executive. Applebaum began studying classical piano at age five, and despite being born with cysts on her vocal chords, Applebaum began singing to her music. She graduated Upper Dublin High School in 2004 and moved to New York the following summer to attend New York University for music technology. There, she started playing solo shows at local venues in Greenwich Village and Philadelphia, including The Bitter End and World Café Live. She also joined lounge fusion band Funky Butter in December 2006 with classmates and had a minor radio hit with the single, “Hard Day in the Rain.”

Applebaum toured regularly as a solo artist and with the band until her graduation from NYU in 2008, when she was hired by Avatar Studios as a studio assistant. Overheard singing one night by Avatar engineer Fred Kevorkian, Applebaum was given the chance to record her first full-length, Polaroid Memory, after her shifts. Applebaum peddled the album to record labels, and based off the strength of her live show and the single “Chelsea Morning,” Columbia Records signed her to a contract.

After playing a series of local shows in New York and Philadelphia, Applebaum recorded the album “Keys” in 2011 in a one week homecoming session in Philadelphia. Off the strength of the hit single “Deeds Done,” Applebaum eventually sold 300,000 copies and claimed major airplay on internet radio. She embarked on an 18-date sold-out tour the following year with Rufus Wainwright, and won the Grammy award for best new artist of that year.

Columbia released Live at the World Café Live in 2012, which featured a cover of Radiohead’s, “No Surprises.”

Applebaum was taken under the wing of pop multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion in late 2014 to record the album Worn Weary. The album was met with critical and commercial success and Applebaum went on to win 3 Grammy awards, including best female vocal for the title track of the album, in 2015.

The following year, her version of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” with Silverchair’s Daniel Johns was used for the “Save a Child” HIV/AIDS awareness effort.

She married Funky Butter guitarist Daniel Tirer in May 2016.

In late 2017, Applebaum struck an unprecedented dual distribution deal with Columbia and Caribou Coffee to distribute her EP, Indre Sessions Vol. 1, and went on a 32-date theater tour across the nation, co-headlining with Fiona Apple.

In 2018, Applebaum released Ink Blots, which broke the Top 10 with the hits “At Peace” and “The Hours.” A 60-date world tour followed.

Following the tour, Applebaum made appearances on albums by John Mayer, Amos Lee and Muse and contributed to the soundtrack of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2019 film Figari.

In 2020, Applebaum decided to record an album of experimental electronica, Modern Sounds in Life, which was received with critical acclaim but failed to make a big splash commercially. That same year, Applebaum published a book of her poems entitled, “Scrawl Searching,” and had a minor role in the film “Deserted.” She also started her own record label, Alchemany, which signed keyboard prodigy Jack Samuels.

Through the years, Applebaum continued to experiment with different kinds of music and had minor hits, including “Speakeasy” and “Cop Out.” She also continued to work with new artists, including jazz artist Brock Daniels and R&B songstress Leona Gardner, and was integral in using her label to spearhead the creation of a new Philly “scene.” She continued to play club dates well into her sixties.

Applebaum had her struggles. In 2024, she was arrested in St. Louis for playing a show without a permit and in 2025 she was charged with a DUI in Fresno, California. She was also in a near-fatal bus accident after playing a date in Kansas during her 2017 tour.

In a statement on her website, singer Neveah Robinson said Applebaum was “an inspiration.”

“Her impact on the relationship between an artist and her fans was enormous,” Robinson said. “A true friend to every one of her fans. My only regret is that I never got to know her.”

Applebaum is survived by her son, Nicholas. A public memorial service will be held next week at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.

VII. Brand Keywords

• Approachable
• Complex & Multi-layered
• Soulful, heartfelt realness
• Creative thinker, desire to experiment
• Passion
• Serene & Calm
• Natural & Organic
• Honest & True to Herself

VII. Target Market: Identifying a Persona & Psychographics

Dallin’s market is firstly, a local market. Though she attends NYU, she’s originally from Philadelphia, PA, and the downtown Philadelphia music scene typifies her target audience. The music scene has a reputation for being more accepting of various genres of music, mainly because of the diverse ethnic and racial makeup of the city itself. Additionally, Philadelphia venues like World Café Live embrace local artists, offering both Downstairs Live—for more established artists—as well as Upstairs Live, which holds about 100 people and frequently books local artists. One regular performer at World Café Live says in a USA Today article, “Here is where I find my market—other musicians and people who are going to listen to music for music.” Dallin’s market is the serious music listener, the kind of person who is constantly and actively looking for the newest and fulfilling music. One place Dallin’s market finds new music, as well as listens to their old favorites, is through WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania’s non-commercial radio service. WXPN’s playlist varies from indie rock to classic rock to jazz and R&B. The station plays music fairly continuously, and in between songs, talks music news among other typical radio requirement like local traffic and weather. The station’s programming and music selection could easily appeal to UPenn’s college crowd, as well as an older, post-college listener.

The World Café and XPN market is appropriate for Dallin not only because it is a local market of devoted, loyal, and serious music listeners, but because it also includes college students as well as adults in their thirties and forties. Dallin’s music can easily appeal to an older demographic because of her skilled musicianship and the mature content of her songs. Additionally, Dallin’s talent as a live performer is her ability to connect with her audience through feeding off of the audience’s energy. Dallin is an artist, who instead of talking to her audience, is talking with her audience. This approach to performance is what her World Café/XPN audience is looking for, meaning, depth, and ability to connect to music.

The persona for a typical Dallin fan could be either male or female, but surely either an upperclassman in college, a graduate student, or a post-graduate. This fan has varied musical tastes, spends time searching the internet for music, reads the reviews in the Village Voice, and isn’t afraid to walk into a used CD store and browse through the selection. This is the type of fan who enjoys going to the Philharmonic, but was also nostalgically upset when CBGB, on the Lower East Side, shut its doors for good. This fan would prefer to listen to his music through his best speakers, rather than compressed files on his iPod. This fan also seriously listens to the lyrics of a song and admires them for their poetic form or wit. Besides music, this fan likes to read a book or two per month on the commute home from school or work, in addition to reading their daily New York Times or Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dallin had difficulty characterizing a persona for her market. To Dallin, the type of fans she has garnered seems random. When asking her who the first 10 people to buy her EP would be, she answered, her family and friends. Yet, she also described her fan base being men older than thirty, who caught her performance, liked what they heard, and who simply had the money to spend on music they liked. Even though she is a female singer/songwriter, she described her audience to be a mix of males and females. She explained that different aspects of her personality attracted an eclectic mix of people to her music; some of her male fans were drawn to the fact that she was a music technology student at school and some of her female fans related to her music’s telling of relationship frustrations. She did feel that her audience was also a Starbucks-like audience, people who liked to listen to good music while they sipped their second cup of coffee.

Her target audience widens from an older college undergrad to a graduate student to a post-graduate working person. Yet, her actual current market, for the most part, is college students in the Philadelphia and New York City area. The reason for this disparity is the fact that she is playing in venues like World Café Live and the Bitter End in New York City, which generally garners a younger crowd. The audience that she is capable of reaching out to is more the Starbucks-like, world-conscious, sophisticated crowd of, for example, New York’s Joe’s Pub. In order to reach this older demographic, yet still appeal to the older college student, attention needs to be paid to booking the right type of venues—Joe’s Pub being a great example because it draws both an older and college student crowd who both seriously care about music. Another reason for this gap between target and actual audience is the type of publications Dallin is being written up in. Dallin was covered, along with other young female singer-songwriters, in the Philly Edge, a magazine with a younger readership. Dallin could really use a sizeable feature in the daily newspaper Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer could be very interested in Dallin, especially for the maturity that exudes in her music and lyrics, despite her young age of twenty-one.

IX. Branded Bio for Press Kit

When her family sat down together after hearing the news that her grandmother had died, Dallin left the room…to play piano.

“My father got so angry at me because it was such an inappropriate time to play,” Dallin says. “But that's how I was dealing with the pain. That was my natural reaction to the tragedy and that's what I remember being comforted by.”

So when people ask Dallin what her first word was, she’s usually at a loss to explain. “I’d like to think that music is my first language because I’ve always heard it and spoken it,” she says, toying with a set of faders on a mixing board in a studio in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “Notes were my first words. That’s how I’ve always felt. I think being wired that way helps us all connect with one another.”

Like free-flowing verse, Dallin’s introspection proves to be the jump-off point into the lives of her listeners. Having already held her own on stage co-fronting the funk-fusion band Funky Butter, Dallin is rediscovering her way of translating the notes of life: as a solo artist. Her latest EP, King’s Highway, is an inviting blend of pensive soul and irresistible harmonic pop.

But her love for music wasn’t always mutual. Trained as a classical pianist and blessed with perfect pitch, Dallin began her understanding of music with a top-down approach, practicing the rigid compositions of Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven endlessly, playing until her fingers ached from the repetition. But discovering her parents’ love for classic rock such as The Eagles, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin and others turned music into a two-way street of communication.

“Music like that, you know, it just reverberated within me,” Dallin says. “That’s what I’m trying to do – put passion into it.”

By the age of thirteen, Dallin gravitated toward the conscious, universal pop of Sting and The Beatles, and composed her very first songs. By high school, and with the support of family and friends, she gained a strong following playing to receptive audiences in neighborhood venues. Critical acclaim in local papers followed, and by graduation, Dallin was on the first train to New York City.

Dallin introduced her warm, communal shows to a new audience while attending New York University for Music Technology. Almost immediately, she gained popular reception in the Greenwich Village venues she frequented, including favorite neighborhood spot The Bitter End. With the professional sheen of her “behind-the-glass” know-how and the cozy intimacy of her live show, Dallin united her original hometown of Philadelphia and her adopted home of New York, connecting them with the same notes and words that connected her in her infancy. She hasn’t looked back – and she’s excited to bring everyone along with her for the trip.

“I’m really psyched to come out and play for people again,” Dallin says. “That’s what I love best – rocking out in a basement with everyone around me.”

While she completes her as-yet-untitled, forthcoming EP, Dallin is bridging the gap with her Kings Highway EP. You’ll identify with the road-ready, alt-country of the album’s title track, “King’s Highway,” and you’ll soul-search in the rollicking cinematic rock of “Save Me.” The Kings Highway EP also showcases Dallin’s diverse musical influences, from the lilting jazz-pop of “Send ‘Em Away” to the brooding, spiritual “Prelude.”

Wrought, honest confessions like those in “The Minefield” might just open up windows into celebrating the joys and triumphs that life brings each one of us every day. “Of course, I want to write a great pop song,” Dallin says. “But I want to use that song as a starting point for something bigger.”

In between touring this summer with jazz sensation Funky Butter, Dallin will be promoting her record by performing exclusive live shows in New York and Philadelphia, backed by local musicians.

Like other vivid pop storytellers (Tori Amos and Leslie Feist, for example), the affable Dallin wants to exchange stories with her audience. And they don’t mind one bit.

You could say she’s music to their ears.

The Kings Highway EP is available on iTunes and CDbaby now.

X. Brand Gap Evaluation: Summary

Dallin’s brand essence is approachability and she truly typifies the word. To further flesh out this essence, she needs to make an effort to stick around after her shows to sell CDs and any other material, as well as sign CDs. Even if her personality naturally shies away from selling her own music, it is important for her to realize that her “zag” is this ability to connect with her friends; she does it during her shows, and she would be extremely effective if she did it after shows as well. In addition, Dallin’s approachability would be best magnified if she carefully chooses her venues to be smaller and also with stages closer to the audience. She should also take advantage of this stage set up by inviting audience members on stage.

In addition, Dallin needs to separate her solo music artist persona with her Funky Butter persona. Though Dallin enjoys playing with the band because their musical future seems incredibly open, reap with opportunities to experiment, she still needs to realize that her solo music and the band’s music—as well as both of their brand essences—are completely different. To separate the two images, Dallin needs to make sure the same tracks are not being played on both her solo Myspace page and Funky Butter’s Myspace page. In addition, Dallin should not send out Funky Butter news through her solo artist mailing list.

Dallin contains a strong visual element while performing because of the passionate delivery of her songs. Yet, the brand gap here is that this strong visual element is lacking a specific style of attire. Even if Dallin feels that the music defines her, and not her clothing, it is important to realize that a clothing style is an opportunity to further portray her down-to-earth personality, her brand essence of approachability. We are suggesting a certain “hippie-chic” look that would basically make the statement of devaluing the clothing as the central focus of the music, yet at the same time representing Dallin in a polished way which is suitable with what her brand stands for.

Unrelated, but still important, Dallin should stick to her first name as her performing name, instead of her born name, Dallin Applebaum. The name Dallin is unique enough. Interestingly enough, after a look at thinkbabynames.com, it seems that Dallin is actually a “rare boy’s name.” Apparently, the name has Old English roots, and generally means “from the valley.” We knew the brand keywords of organic and natural were coming from somewhere inborn!

Check out Dallin's music here.

Above biography and obituary written by teammate Andrew Nusca.

Live Nation Vs. Ticketmaster

THIS IS A PAPER I WROTE IN MY SOPHOMORE YEAR ABOUT THE STATE OF THE TICKETING INDUSTRY IN LATE 2006. SINCE THEN, LOTS HAS CHANGED. LIVENATION DID NOT RENEW ITS CONTRACT WITH TICKETMASTER; INSTEAD LIVENATION HAS DECIDED TO DO THEIR OWN TICKETING.

Music fans have been complaining about high concert ticket prices for what seems like forever. Specifically, nationwide computerized ticket distribution service Ticketmaster has been targeted as the root of the problem, due to their additional service charges and order processing fees. In fact, in 1994, alternative rock band Pearl Jam publicly testified before a House subcommittee that Ticketmaster’s service fees had made it virtually impossible for them to keep their tickets under $20. Now, in 2006, talk of increasing ticket prices is being reignited, but this time emanating from Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino. In a recent LA Times interview, Rapino states, “Seventy percent of people didn’t go to a concert last year, and even the average concert fan only attends about two shows a year.” The only way to enhance the industry, he says, is “by lowering prices.”

With this pronounced platform, Live Nation must wrestle some power from Ticketmaster, which has built a massive empire through developing exclusive contracts with numerous venues and promoters. Actually, Live Nation’s own contract with Ticketmaster expires in 2008. Therefore, two courses of action are possible. Either Live Nation will use its leverage to put pressure on Ticketmaster to reduce its service fees, while it renegotiates its terms with the ticketing agency or perhaps Live Nation will strip itself of Ticketmaster and rely solely on its own ticketing service, which is already well established and user-friendly. The short term consequences of either course of action will be a change in ticket prices, while the long term effect will be a shift in the entire structure of the concert industry.

A change in pricing is very necessary, with the average face-value ticket for a popular act summing to $57 per ticket, according to Rapino. For example, two American Idol concert tickets were selling for 35 dollars each, but after Ticketmaster fees, the cost amounted to nearly $100. Additionally, one rock fan bought six tickets to the Killers’ concert and paid $210 for tickets and an additional $90 of service charges. These numbers are alarming, especially when year after year, Ticketmaster alters its justification for its service charges. In 1994, in response to the Pearl Jam testimony, then-Chief Executive, Fred Rosen, insisted that Ticketmaster made an average profit of only 14 cents a ticket, and added that Ticketmaster was also an information service and that customers were being charged for this information. In 2001, Larry Solters, a spokesperson for Ticketmaster at the time, claimed service charges went towards research and development of new technology, specifically technology towards the web site, bar-code scanners in the buildings, and anti-counterfeiting measures. More recently, the money garnered is said to go to the venues; in an NPR podcast a representative for Ticketmaster reiterates that the only way for Ticketmaster to make money is through these fees. The dubiousness of these fees in uncomforting, especially considering that Ticketmaster reaped nearly $1 billion in fees in 2005.

If Live Nation extends its contract with Ticketmaster, under the conditions that service charges be lowered, there will be a change in the quantity of tickets sold, but there will not be an extreme structural change within the industry; Live Nation will continue its hold over the concert industry and Ticketmaster will persist its control over the ticketing distribution sector of the industry. Though, it does seem strange for Rapino to put pressure on Ticketmaster to lower its service charges, if in fact some of the fees are distributed back to the venues—of which Live Nation owns, operates, or has booking rights for 153 worldwide. Industry insiders note that Live Nation pockets 50% of the fees Ticketmaster collects, and if Rapino really wanted to lower ticketing costs, he could rebate those funds back to concertgoers.

If in fact, Live Nation decides to break relations from Ticketmaster after 2008 and rely on its own ticketing service, there will be tremendous changes within the industry. Analysts say, “Ticketmaster would lose more than $130 million a year—or about 14% of its revenue—if it doesn’t sign a new deal.” In previous years, consumers have bought from Ticketmaster because of the convenience; promoters have opted for Ticketmaster because of their reliability and the network they’ve established. Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovani comments, “As a tour you have to play Ticketmaster buildings, especially if you want to play the arenas.” That entire landscape will change if Live Nation puts its own ticketing agency into full force. Though, Rapino is promising for lower prices, it is not too far-reaching to suspect that once Live Nation has the ownership of both venues and ticketing, the consumer market is vulnerable to any whim of a ticket price. And it is evident from Live Nation’s recent history that Monopoly is not only its favorite board game. Live Nation’s purchase of the majority of venues makes it extremely challenging for the indie venues to convince acts to work with them, not being able to compete with Live Nation’s glorious offerings. Additionally, the acquiring of venues hasn’t stopped in the slightest; House of Blues Entertainment, Live Nation’s biggest rival, was bought for $350 million in July of 2006. One top executive close to the deal explains that the move was more than the expansion of venues, but that it was “also a major play towards Ticketmaster.” House of Blues has been a leader in incorporating online business in its concert operations; last year, more than 50% of its tickets were through Hob.com. As if that weren’t enough, Live Nation also moved into the music merchandising sector, purchasing a majority stake in Trunk LTD, a high-end licensing and merchandise firm. Though concern over Ticketmaster’s contract with Live Nation ending in two years may seem like a minor issue, in actuality its consequences affect the entire landscape of the concert industry. While Live Nation continues this vertical integration approach, what’s at stake is the survival of the remaining indie chuck of the concert industry. But it’s not only the industry people that this affects. Live Nation’s potential takeover of the ticketing sector of the concert industry is a threat to concertgoers—the music fans—who might be subjected to even higher ticket prices once Live Nation has full control over both ticketing and venues nationwide. For all we know, a decade from now, we may look back at 2006 ticket prices and nostalgically speculate, “Whatever happened to the good ol’ days?”

Concert Review- Regina Spektor

HERE'S MY REVIEW OF REGINA SPEKTOR'S PERFORMANCE AT TOWN HALL ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 FOR MY CONCERT MANAGEMENT COURSE.

Regina Spektor adopts the exact stage personality you imagined she would when listening to her music on CD. Piano playing with attitude, coupled with pure and light vocals, and a demure execution of clever lyrics. As she entered the stage of the theater-size venue, she moved through the dim lighting towards the microphone, without speaking a word of introduction, and began singing a cappella, her vocals soaring and reverberating throughout the theater. The packed, sold-out audience was captivated and hanging on every word. Before we knew it, she began tapping rhythmically on the microphone, creating a dramatic echo to go along with her lyrics. After completing the song, it took a moment for the audience to recover from the intense first performance and give a thunderous applause.

When Spektor arrived at “The Flower Song” off her “Soviet Kitsch” album, lights were projected onto the back wall of the stage in flower form, really setting the mood for the song. In addition, pink and yellow lights flashed vertically as Spektor reached the higher points in her songs, almost lifting the notes of the music off the page. One last touch was the blue lights moving in wave-like motion when “Sailor Song” was played.

One of Spektor’s strong points is her ability to transition from musician, to comedian, to rock star throughout the show. She takes a very theatrical approach to singing, with incredible timing, knowing where to place her words most effectively. The performance of her comic storytelling lyrics made the audience chuckle just as much as hum. At certain points she would be intensely playing a complicated piano composition, and then she would stop for dramatic effect, and lightly whisper “Someone next door’s fucking to my song” or something random and provocative like that. The audience cracked up and at certain points it was obvious that Spektor let out a laugh in response to the audience’s amusement.

Midpoint into the concert, she walked from the piano to the back of the stage to shyly put on her electric guitar. And then she transitioned into rock star, singing about stars OD’ing and such. Her band later joined her to add an extra element to the concert.

Review of Hip Hop Documentary, "Beyond Beats and Rhymes"

HERE IS A REVIEW OF A DOCUMENTARY BY BYRON HURT THAT ADDRESSES THE STATE OF HIP HOP TODAY. HE TACKLES THE SUBJECTS OF MACHISMO IN HIP HOP MUSIC, AND EVEN ADDRESSES THE HOMOPHOBIA PRESENT IN HIP HOP CULTURE. CHECK OUT A CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY HERE.

Byron Hurt, producer and director of “Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” calls himself an “ex-jock.” To introduce his critique of the current state of hip hop, Hurt tells his personal story. He explains how he was formerly a football player at Northeastern University and how his life fit perfectly with the hip hop lifestyle. Only later in life, after being offered a position as a gender violence prevention educator, did he begin to realize that the messages hip hop was sending—one being violence against women—was unacceptable. Only then did he begin digging deep into hip hop culture and what it meant to be man. This personal context keeps the documentary heartfelt and fresh, as it also gives Hurt credibility—after all, he isn’t just an outsider commenting on hip hop.

Before focusing on machisma—an exaggerated masculinity—within hip hop, Hurt points out that the violent man is a fragment of the American mindset; he shows clips of Western movies, depicting the American obsession with the courageous, but violent male hero. With this paradigm of manhood within American culture, plus the added pressures within the black community, black men are expected to be tough and hide their frailty at all times. This means that it’s unimaginable to cry in front of others, but it also means, according to Hurt, that black men must somehow be “ready to die,” just like Notorious B.I.G’s album cover suggests. When being interviewed by Hurt, Fat Joe explains that this toughness that must be carried is just “part of the flaws of being from the hood.” Paul Gilroy, in his book Against Race, takes notice of this as well, when analyzing R. Kelly’s “Bump and Grind”; he says Kelly’s “cool pose [in the music video] was entirely complicit with what bell hooks identified as the ‘life threatening choke hold (that) patriarchal masculinity imposes on black men (Gilroy 183)’”. Along the same line, Gilroy finds the rapper Snoop Dogg choosing a dog to personify himself, very intriguing. He explains that it represents the historical “infrahumanity” (not quite human, but not quite subhuman either) of black people, as it is also a sign for Snoop’s victim status or his sexual habits (201- 203). However, perhaps, the dog represents this harsh and frightening persona that black men feel they need to act out—because, truthfully, Snoop Dogg couldn’t possibly call himself Snoop Bunny. One interviewee in the documentary explains that, “Every black man [who] goes into the studio, [he] always has two people in his head; him in terms of who he really is, and the thug he feels like he has to be…it’s a prison we’re in.”

Rapper Mos Def talks about this identity crisis in the documentary, “You couldn’t be a punk, you couldn’t be a pussy, and trust me, they tested you.” The way this male stereotype persisted—even magnified—within black communities, was through the structure of gangs. One rapper in Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn’s Yes Yes Y’All, explains the hip hop scene in these terms; “You had to be a part of something to get respect, to survive…Gangs were so tense that even if you said the wrong word, looked the wrong way, you were gone” (Frike & Ahearn, 35). Conformity was inherent in gang culture; one couldn’t exist by himself, he was obliged to be part of some gang.

Hip hop grew enveloped in gang culture, whose prime values were rivalry and competition. David Toop in Rap Attack 3 directly states, “Competition is at the heart of hip hop” (Toop 15). Toop goes on to explain that hip hop culture was all about my sneakers are nicer than yours, my records are more obscure than yours, and so on. In the documentary, Talib Kweli uses the word “ego-driven” to explain hip hop. Though Kweli is describing the current hip hop scene, hip hop in the late 70s and early 80s was all about battling; to be a hip hop performer, one had to exhibit this tough attitude, this confidence that they were a better MC or a better b-boy than their competitors. One example of this gang influence on hip hop is the b-boy’s Outlaw Dance, where one b-boy would come out and perform and the next b-boy would come out and try to out-dance the other.

After interviewing some of the major rappers, Hurt makes a trip to some kind of hip hop American Idol. He meets young people, aspiring to be rappers, and he asks them why they’re rapping about guns and violence. The aspirants don’t have much of an answer for Hurt and brush him off with a this-is-what-people-want-to-hear answer. It seems again here that the perpetual obstacle is the black man equating toughness and violence to manhood.

Further enhancing this male stereotype is television and media. One interviewee calls Black Entertainment Television (BET) the “cancer of the black man,” because it turns all black men into one image. Though the gang culture of the 70s and 80s imposed conformity, perhaps television has subtly replaced the gangs as the enforcer of conformity. Maybe aspiring rappers rap about violence and mistreatment of women because that’s what television makes them conform to; maybe in their eyes, there is no other alternate character for man. Ayana Byrd, in article “Claiming Jezebel,” explains that there were tons of misogynistic songs in the past, but that “the visualization of music has far-reaching effects on musical culture” (Byrd 9).

Hurt delves deeper towards the end of the documentary. He addresses homophobia within the current hip hop scene. In a revealing moment, Hurt asks Busta Rhymes how he feels about gay people. Busta lets out a nervous laugh and says, “I can’t even comment on it…what I represent culturally doesn’t condone it.” At this point, Hurt has hit a sensitive chord within the hip hop community, and it is obvious from the interviews, the insecurity and discomfort surrounding the issue. Hurt’s ability to capture this emotion of nervousness is quite laudable and representative of an even larger problem within hip hop.

Works Cited:
Ahearn, Charlie; Fricke, Jim. Yes Yes Y’All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press, 2002.
Byrd, Ayana. “Claiming Jezebel: Black Female Subjectivity and Sexual Expression in Hiphop” Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism.
Toop, David. Rap Attack 3: African Rap to Global Hip Hop. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2000.

Music Journalism and its Coverage of Women Musicians and Hip Hop Artists

THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST ESSAYS I WROTE AS A MUSIC BUSINESS STUDENT. AS A FRESHMAN, I WAS REALLY INTERESTED IN EXPLORING THE ROLE JOURNALISTS PLAY WITHIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. THIS ESSAY DEALS WITH THE CHICKEN-AND-EGG TYPE QUESTION OF WHETHER JOURNALISTS CREATE STEREOTYPES ABOUT MUSIC OR WHETHER SOCIETY CREATE THE STEREOTYPES THAT INFILTRATE INTO JOURNALISTS' REPORTING.

The challenges of the music journalism industry are countless—determining the credibility of sources, deciding what news stories are most important, conveying news in an unbiased manner are just among the few—yet the issue of whether the coverage of music creates and/or fosters stereotypes of musicians is one necessary of further attention. Specifically, news coverage of woman musicians and hip hop artists, by way of tone and omission, creates a negative portrait of these artists, as well as attaches a stigma to their race/gender. This journalistic behavior not only affects music journalism, but it also impacts the greater music industry by influencing record sales, as it also shapes the attitudes of the greater public by amplifying existent prejudice. This trend is evident through the precedence of news coverage of jazz music in the early 20th century.

It’s fairly easy to understand why the issue is of controversy, since it’s not easily determined whether music journalism itself, in fact, creates the general stereotype or rather current societal stereotypes create the journalism. The impact of music journalism on the public’s perception of black and women artists is debatable because of the dominant role of entertainment television and the strength of predetermined racial and gender prejudices. Therefore, I believe the existent stereotypes create the negative journalism. However, I believe that music journalists, just as much as other journalists, still have the responsibility to counter prejudice with balanced news coverage and ideally, attempt to expose injustices occurring in the industry.

British music coverage of women musicians sets up this question of whether journalism is creating stereotypes or rather reflecting the stereotypes of music journalists. The British music press employs a range of tactics to obscure and denigrate the work of female artists. Omission of female artists’ impact on rock is particularly noticeable in retrospective writing on rock history, which often obliterates any trace of all but a few women. In addition, female artists’ sexuality is often the emphasis of feature articles; a Kylie Minogue article titled “In Bed with Kylie” included questions about Minogue’s “teenage sexual experiences.” At the same time, British music media adopts a condescending tone when writing of female artists; an interview of Natalie Imbruglia, featured in the Independent, opened with “You might have though that after Alanis Morissette and Joan Osborne and Fiona Apple and Meredith Brooks the attraction of wailing troubled beauty would have worn ultra-slim. It seems not.”

While these writing styles most definitely contribute to British sexism, this is a good example of the stereotype—specifically the journalists’ own stereotypes—creating the journalism. Men dominate the British music press, and those few women working in the industry commonly accept prejudices of the sphere, due to the surrounding pressure. For example, men outnumber women more than two to one at British publication MM (Melody Maker.) This imbalanced demographic is dangerous since rock critics are responsible for determining who’s credible, therefore who’s music is good and valuable, therefore influencing the monetary success of artists.

Similar trends are present in coverage of hip hop music, especially in the mid-90s. The controversial subject of censorship of hip hop music spewed an array of articles in The New York Times about “gangsta rap” and its detrimental effect on children. Again, articles use omission and a specific patronizing tone to create a negative image of hip hop music and its artists. “Gangsta rap” is penned as “a wildly successful music made of misogyny, hypermaterialism and open celebration of murder.” One New York Times article about censorship was headlined as, “Lyrics From the Gutter.” Journalist condemnation extends to rappers themselves, best personified in the tactic of using quotation marks around the word “artist” when writing of rap artists, as if to relegate their artistic merit. Journalists loved connecting rap’s violent lyrics to local spurts of violence, such as a story where a 15-year old was killed by the gunshot of a Brooklyn bodega storeowner, after the boy and four other teenagers attempted to rob the bodega. This article not only relates two disparate concepts, but it also presents young African American boys as helplessly dangerous, described them as “swagger[ing] around the joint, playing the only role they knew.”

Journalism’s focus on equating all rappers with criminals creates an imbalance of representation, an omission of other respectable hip hop artists, as well as other aspects of black culture. It may be noted that no aspect of black fine arts is represented in the newspapers of the time. In addition, rap artists are rarely humanized or portrayed sympathetically, even in the murder stories of Tupac Shakur. Here, journalists have the power to control and limit thinking by complementing a stereotype or they can seize the opportunity and investigate beneath the surface.

It’s difficult to determine whether hip hop coverage in the mid-90s is creating a narrow stereotype or whether the existent stereotypes are shaping the article content. On one hand, rappers are a distant concept to the average American, therefore a reader could very possibly absorb the negative image presented in the article. At the same time, readers do have preconceived notions of African Americans and that general societal prejudice has an impact on the climate in which journalists are writing, the audience for which they are writing for.

Jazz music experienced similar negative coverage, but in a more explicit manner. In this situation, the racist tendencies of the population impacted the journalism of the day. Journalists’ commentary merely reflected the already distrustful and disapproving view of African Americans in the early 20th century. Racism was evident in verbal comments by important leaders like Henry Ford—calling jazz “the drivel of morons”—to comments from an average white musician like Tom Brown, who belittled black musicians by saying; “them thick blubbery lips can’t make no decent tone…they ain’t smart enough to tell where the harmony is, neither.” This foundation of prejudice is illustrated in an article in the Musical Courier, “A wave of vulgar, filthy and suggestive music has inundated the land…with its obscene posturings, its lewd gestures. It is artistically and morally depressing and should be suppressed by press and pulpit.” Despite the bad press, jazz music became a grand success, especially lifting the spirits of a population who was deeply ridden in the economic depression of the early 1890s. Until the stock market crashed in 1929, record companies were selling more than 100 million jazz records a year. It is not completely illogical to imagine that the controversy expressed over jazz music influenced its popularity.

Hip hop record sale success was enormous in the 90s, surprising the industry with its chart success; hip hop labels Death Row Records and Interscope captured the top four places of the Billboard 200, “a feat not seen in 20 years.” While articles like the 10-page story on Death Row’s chief executive, Suge Knight, were featured in the New York Times, portraying him as a heavy, forbidding gangsta figure, concurrently his label was selling millions of records. Just a mere four years following the label’s 1992 inception, Death Row had “sold more than 15 million records and grossed more than $100 million.” Today’s hip hop is no different in that the most popular rap artist, 50 Cent, is the one most displayed as controversial and dangerous by music journalism of the day. In a Billboard interview with 50 Cent, the first paragraph does not fail to mention that 50 Cent is from Queens, NY and that he was shot nine times. In addition, in an online interview of 50 Cent, the headline reads, “I know I scare people. That’s actually my job.”

It is difficult to blame journalists for this one-sided representation of music in a practical manner because one knows that the industry is not only a reputable source of information, but also a business. However, even in this climate, responsible journalism is possible. Instead of creating or reinforcing stereotypes, journalists should be exposing the prejudices in the music industry. Just as journalism had the power to create or reinforce stereotypes by creating a storm of articles about hip hop or jazz music, it has the potential to be a platform for positive change. For example, Billboard reported on the exclusion of Black musicians in the classical world of music and how specific symphonies are trying to rectify the racist trend. More recently, Billboard journalist Gail Mitchell investigated why African Americans aren’t holding as many executive positions in the industry as white people are. Even more noteworthy, journalist Timothy White addressed how the media itself creates stereotypes; he quoted University of California associate professor John H. McWhorter, by saying “ [Tupac] Shakur's violent street demise as a gangsta ‘was a choice, not a destiny.’”

The ultimate journalist rut is deciding whether to feed into accepted stereotypes and the general public vulnerability, creating controversial and loud journalism, or whether to take the time and commitment to work to change the mentalities of the public, somehow cultivating a greater norm. Journalism does, in fact, take a back seat to television in creating and reinforcing stereotypes of today’s music—as seen from the successes of 50 Cent and the like—but journalists still have the opportunity and responsibility to provide a balanced portrait of today’s top artists. Through the study of the British music press’s coverage of female artists, the New York Times coverage of hip hop in the 90s, and jazz news in the early 20th century, it is apparent that journalism—using the devices of tone and omission—is reflective of racial and gender perceptions. The journalism does not create the stereotype, rather recycles and reshapes it into print format, so it can be discreetly reintroduced into societal norm.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“African-Americans Striving To Break Classical Barriers.” Billboard 24 Oct 1992.

Carroll, Brian. “I was so Excited that I Would Just Be at Home Listening to My Record.” Billboard. 16 Aug 2003.

Collier, James Lincoln. Jazz: an American Saga. Henry Holt and Inc., 1997.

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Gangel, Jamie. “I know I scare people. That’s actually my job.” Today Entertainment. 9 Nov 2005. < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9970672/>

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Mitchell, Gail. “Black Execs Downsized.” Billboard. 30 Jul 2005.

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White, Timothy. “Futile Decisions: the Art of Industry Decadence.” Billboard. 12 Aug
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