Ask 411 Music 04.27.09: Depeche Mode, A-List Musicians, and The Pirate Bay

Posted by Joshua George on 04.27.2009

How long has it been since you listened to Depeche Mode? Do you think they cap musician salaries paid out by the labels? What's a guy gotta do to be heard around the music industry? Find out this and more inside!

What's up men and wimmenz? Your favorite columnist here one more time to bring you some of the best in the music entertainment industry. Read through this puppy while I answer questions. If you want to have your questions answered or your reader mail published in the column, all you have to do is SEND THEM IN NOW!

Here come the...

Ask 411 Music Reader Questions

From Eric Whitesides,

With many of the radio stations creating play lists and only playing certain bands and songs. What do new bands have to do to get their music heard?

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It's an interesting concept as to what bands have to do these days. It used to be that a lot of bands would make demo tapes and you had to send them out to as many people as you could. Radio stations, Agents, Venues, etc. Now, radio stations won't take "unsolicited material" and it's damn near impossible to find an agent that can get you where you need to be since most agents offices are SWARMED with calls of bands that are "trying to make it".

Honestly these days, if you ask me, your best bet is to do everything yourself and to make sure you're in the right place at the right time. You have to do your own marketing because most bands that are trying to make it can't afford someone to do it for them. You have to be able to be a people person, and you have to learn the difference between playing just to play, playing with a handle on your corporate sponsors, and selling out. You have to sell your CDs out of the trunk of your car and go to open mic nights and open auditions and casting calls and hope that somehow, someway you will make it to put your foot in the door of the industry. You might even have to intern somewhere to get yourself schmoozing with some very important connections that will eventually open you up to the ever-so-awkward segue of "so I'd like you to hear my demo..."

You have to have the verbal acuity to be able to talk yourself into bed with the people that are the most important, and then once you're in bed with them, you have to find a way to sleep with everyone else without them controlling everything or else you run the risk of being completely obsolete and non-marketable. You have to have the talent to wow someone with a unique sound (unless you're trying to get into the rock music industry) within about fifteen seconds, or else you're not going to have anyone that's willing to invest any time in you. You have to have jobs that can support you prior because "being in a band" isn't everything you thought it was going to be back in high school. The road to success is paved with hell, dirt, mud, and blood (I went with that instead of blood, sweat, and tears). You have to be willing to get your hands dirty, but look crystal clean to everyone that matters. That's what you have to do these days to get on the radio/get your music heard.

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From Eric Whitesides,

In hearing that the orginal promoters of woodstock are planning a Woodstock 09, has this concert series lost it luster and become just a cash cow for corporate executives, or does it still hold the same magic that it had back in 69?

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Eric, I would say that you knew the answer to this question before you even asked me. I think if you really consider where the rock industry is (I guess you can consider this Part 3 of The Death of Rock) you'll come up with that answer on your own. We all know that everything these days is about merchandising and capital. If you can't make money off of it, you don't do it. If you can't make A LOT of money off of it in the entertainment industry, then you don't do it. Everyone knows these facts, and things have changed. Kids are being made more and more aware of AIDS and HIV and other STDs, they're being warned farther and farther away from drugs, and they're being cracked down on when it comes to under-age consumption of alcoholic beverages. Free love is over, my friends. There is no "luster" in that department. Drugs are being surpressed more and more... there's no "luster" there either. The music is NOTHING like it was when Hendrix was shredding -- good luck finding the "luster" in a Finger Elever performance only to be followed by Papa Roach. Wow... there's some "luster" for you.

The thing is that everything was so carefree in '69 that there's no way we could ever even fucking PRETEND to compare to that. There's no chance that we could add up to all that fun stuff that they were doing to make their quality of life better. They were following bands around without a care in the world, and not knowing how they were going to eat. Single mothers or families with children just roaming the country to follow their favorite band because the music spoke to them and was more important than anything else. This was the one place the hippies could be themselves with no judgement and professional businessmen could be hippies for a time and they would be welcomed as if they were family. How could we ever match up to that in a world of $5 20oz bottles of water, and $4 12oz Sodas? We can't... so my answer is that it has become a cash cow. Wanna challenge me? Send me something then. End of discussion!

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If you want to have your questions answered, it's easy. The best way to do it is to SEND YOUR QUESTIONS IN NOW!

From Eric Whitesides,

Do singers/bands lose A list status due to the amount they are getting paid? Do record companies look more at sales or how much they are paying a certain act to perform? Is there any cap on how much a record company will pay an artist/band?

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I don't think that singers and bands lose A list status based on the amount that they're getting paid. I think it's based on the attitude and how they handle the fame. You can be an A list artist and end up being one of the least liked people VERY quickly. Obviously, you're not still A list once that happens, but if you consider that you can start that way and the fall from grace is MUCH faster than the uphill climb it took you to get there.

I'm SURE beyond a shadow of a doubt that record companies look at sales AND how much they're paying an act. I don't think that they can look at just one or the other and I'm certain that especially in today's economy, they're capping exactly how much they'll pay the artists. You've heard the term "starving artist" right? There's a reason for that. The music industry is not one of the best industries for the artists to make money. It's the best industry for the labels to make money, but not the artists. Just remember that. Do the artists make great money? Sure. Do they make enough to be able to just do whatever they want? Potentially. But there's always a ceiling and I'm sure the labels make sure that that ceiling is relatively low with the economy being the way it is.

Let's get some more questions from you, the readers. I like to have reader mail and things to post, so all you have to do is SEND YOUR QUESTIONS IN NOW!

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It's time for...


Joshua's Rant of the Week

I wanted to take a second to talk about The Pirate Bay. The guys were convicted in a trial that has now been deemed to have to be re-opened. You wanna know WHY it's been re-opened? Because the fucking JUDGE of the case was IN BED with the prosecution. Read on 411mania.com in ,a href="http://www.411mania.com/music/news/102801/Pirate-Bay-Owners-Want-Retrial.htm" target="_blank">this news piece that The Swedish judge that was presiding over the case is a member of the same copyright protection bodies as representatives from the entertainment industry. He was a member of The Swedish Copyright Association, which connected him directly to the lawyers that represented the entertainment industry in the case.

Here's the part that kills me. The judge claims that this is NOT a conflict of interest. Let me give you a second on that...

NOT A FUCKING CONFLICT OF INTEREST?!?!?! How the fuck is this NOT a conflict of interest. Let's take a situation. "Hi, my name is John and I'd like to talk to you today about how the defendant here has cheated the Krispy Kreme Donut Company out of $1,000,000 in assets. Your honor, when you were managing the Krispy Kreme at the time, you ran a tight ship, and today I'm here to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of sinking that ship."

Seriously. I know that Swedes and Pollacks are often the butt of stupid joke after lame joke by Americans, but can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me how this does NOT equate to a conflict of interest? "Hi, I'm in charge of passing judgement on this case... oh, hey Bob, Jim, Harry... I didn't know YOU GUYS were prosecuting. We still on for darts tonight? Ok... see you in the board meeting on Tuesday." What the fuck is the question here. This case should not only be re-opened, it should be fucking dismissed right off the bat. Not only does this guy fine the 4 Pirate Bay founders guilty of a crime that they didn't fucking commit (they were charged with some bullshit copyright infringement case similar to the one that Napster was slapped with a ways back) but he also tries to make an example out of them with their sentence which was unprecedentedly harsh. The Pirate Bay simply runs a search engine. There's no material stored anywhere on hard discs or on servers. This also doesn't take into account that they wanted to charge them for organized crime when they don't even have a business model. There's no heirarchy, so how can they be organized? Everyone does their own thing, but they're an "organized crime unit." PLEASE! If you really want to just reach for something to charge people with, at least make sure it has some merit.

Anyway, we'll see what happens with this. Everyone please keep your eyes on this if it re-opens because it's going to change the industry (pirates and entertainment) as we know it.

Would you like to share a rant with me and all of our readers? Want me to post what YOU think about a certain music related topic? All you have to do is Send me your rant NOW!

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Who wants to hear something new???


Things You Should Hear

What do you people WANT from me?

1. This is a song that I've been listening to quite a bit lately and coincidentally this isn't the official video, but it's great. It's Rehab - "Bump":


2. I love this group. Listen to 3OH!3 - "Starstrukk"


3. Here's a great a cappella arrangement of Katy Perry's - "I Kissed A Girl":


4. Keeping the comedy train running at number 4, here's Richard Cheese with "Smells Like Teen Spirit":


5. Let's roll with The Jackson 5 - "ABC":


6. I really loved this song when I heard it. This is one of those songs that you can really rock behind. Depeche Mode - "Wrong":


If you'd like me to post your band or a band that you particularly love, all you have to do is Send me the YouTube link NOW! I'd like to start including some of your personal bands clips, or other bands that you think people should be hearing.

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So who wants to get pimped? If you have a website that your band hosts, or something that you think the general public would enjoy checking out, please send me a link and a SHORT description and I may include it in the pimping section of next week's column!

The StumbleUpon Link of the Week is Man, I Love Google Maps! and it is SFW.

Make sure you check out my reviews. You can see my profile with my blog and all of my reviews/columns here.

Also I'm a co-host and co-founder of a professional wrestling podcast. My friend and I have been running this show and our website for a little over three years now, and we'd love to have more listeners and since I get my own column now, I feel good about pimping it out. If you want to listen to the most recent show, you can usually find it (along with the most recent news which we get from a variety of other sites MOST NOTABLY the amazing 411Mania Wrestling News Section) at www.pinfallrecall.com. If you'd like to spend your days on our forums talking about how this might be one of the most ridiculous and boring Wrestlemanias of all time, like all of us, you can do that on The Pinfall Recall Forums.

Don't forget, if you want to have YOUR questions answered in this column, all you have to do is SEND THEM IN NOW!

Peace!