Jim: Just to clarify, you aren’t saying that its harder for indie acts to break into overseas markets, are you?

The costs of doing business in this market are too high to give people three albums. When a major label is investing a million dollars in breaking an artist, and that artist’s product isn’t well received, the label is going to move on the the next project.”

This is a huge problem. What you’re saying is that the costs of breaking a new act have sky-rocketed out of control compared to 30 years ago. And yet, with all that money being spent, the product that is being delivered these days is decidedly inferior to what we were getting in years past. I think that there is very little hope for the future of real country music unless the incestuous relationship between the major labels and conglomerated radio can be somehow undermined. There’s plenty of good talent out there; it’s a shame that so little of it is getting widely heard.

An indie label cannot, just based on sales or chart success, become a “major.” Major labels are “major” because they have the ability to leverage three key components-promotion, publicity, and distribution–on a world-wide scale. These companies have hands in television, movies, print, web, billboards, etc., all of which contribute to the label’s success.

No matter how successful an indie label gets, it will ultimately still rely on third parties to achieve many of these same goals (related to PPD). That’s the difference, and that’s why the mobility you wrote about in your comment does not exist.

What we have seen in the past, however, is the indie label being consumed by the major.

As far as Reba–it’s hard to compare an artist in the digital era to an artist who broke in 1976.

Reba may not have had a mountain of commercial success, but she did give her label enough reason to lengthen her gestation period as an artist. Her second album produced five (I think) T40 singles, while her third produced three (I think) T20 singles. She managed to show a steady improvement over the course of those albums.

In today’s marketplace, radio doesn’t want a long introduction to an artist. It wants something that, as Ray Scott said, is going to blow up big out of the box.

The costs of doing business in this market are too high to give people three albums. When a major label is investing a million dollars in breaking an artist, and that artist’s product isn’t well received, the label is going to move on the the next project.

The thorny issue of major labels requiring instant success is disturbing on a number of levels. Some of the major stars would never have made it if instant success had been required in the old days. Reba McEntire’s first album flopped and her second didn’t do much better. In today’s environment, a major label would almost certainly drop an artist at that point, if not before. There were plenty of good female country singers around at that time as I pointed out in my Amazon review of Reba’s debut album, yet if Reba hadn’t been allowed a third album, she would, like Jacky Ward (with whom Reba recorded three duets early in her career) have faded back into the obscurity from which she came.

Short-termism isn’t limited to the music business; it can be found in all industries. Corporations become big by mostly getting things right but once they are big, it’s like they feel they’ve done it. The entrepeneurs who built the business are often replaced by managers of a different type, who prefer to “play it safe”. Sound familiar?

Back in the seventies, IBM ruled the computer world and seemed untouchable. But new developments occurred and IBM weren’t as quick as their much smaller rivals, so Microsoft ended up taking their place as the world’s computer giants. And no doubt, they’ll eventually lose out to some other yet-unknowm rival for much the same reason, but probly not while Bill Gates (the entrepeneur) is still there.

The same sort of change can happen in country music, at least in theory. Any major labels that can’t sell records won’t remain major, while small independents that do well could become the majors of the future. The precedents are not good, as anybody who remembers Ovation and MTM knows. Both were extremely successful for a few years before closing down. Maybe one day, another independent will avoid the problems that Ovation and MTM had, break through and become a major. Incidentally, one of MTM’s former artists, Judy Rodman, posted a comment on Joanna Cotten’s MySpace blog page, saying “Been there, done that”.

You hit so many points square on the nose, I don’t know where to begin. Instead I’ll just mention one of the problems with Nashville, and the music industry in general, is they are relying on an outdated system they should be moving away from EXCEPT in A&R.

The old fashioned art of finding unique and superstar talent has been handed to reality shows, American Idol, Nashville Star, social networks, publishing companies, and other factory testing grounds. A trend in crossing over pop artists to country or letting independent labels do the ground work is also prevalent.

Letting others define the talent for you is not a stellar way to run a company. A few labels in town are trying to do it right, but they are the exception.

I know there are incredibly talented and authentic artists out there who do not want to sell their soul to a TV show, who can’t dance, and can’t spend 24/7 marketing themselves on MySpace.

We can keep signing safe artists that appeal to the lowest common denominator or we can try to find phenomenal artists that will grow the format.

Where the heck is the image control with this guy!? From the song, I click on his myspace photos and expect to see rattlesnake wrangling or having a staring contest with a grizzly bear. But instead I have the displeasure of seeing a concert butt shot - sort of makes that song lose a bit of credibility in my mind. At least they took down the beach photos, thank goodness.

Archuleta, the AI kid… oh boy.

I think (all kidding aside) that Scott Borchetta could just about own the country industry if he wanted to. But I fail to see him signing any singers wearing hats. You all know my theory by now, country singers with hats are the superstars or AT LEAST are for a while. (Alan Jackson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Clint Black, Tracy Lawrence, John Anderson, so on and so forth!) Taylor Swift’s career had substantial financial backing when it was started and still continues to have an overload of press releases. I’m a fan, but it worries me when my friends that liked Taylor are done with her already. Hopefully she can hold on to the young tween demographic that fuels her career. Trisha’s career could get a new burst into it in my opinion.

If what Cotten says is true, WBR is really dropping the ball for their artists. How can a record label president not have any clue what the next move is? I can walk into a business as simplistic as a mom-and-pop pizza restaurant and they know what their next move is! We shouldn’t be mad at the label head, we should be mad at his college professor for not teaching him the finer points of business… namely a littls something called a business plan. Jeez, I’m starting a business and have pages of what to do in particular situations and I’m only 18. (business license is coming in the mail this week according to my secretary of state)

It scares me to think what WBR is doing from the standpoint of imagining myself in the shoes of their artists. Prime example, I went to a country festival and this new guy played (after being kicked off to a stage into a room to play for three people the night before because they had booked another band at the same time) named Jason Jones. He tells everybody he’s signed to WBR Nashville and is working on an album and nobody was impressed. People actually left to the concession stands. Being the nice guy he is, Neal McCoy later let Jason Jones play in the middle of his set so he could get some publicity and even his band borrowed their talents. Here I am, a guy that reads all the industry publications and I never even heard of his signing. The way I understand it, WBR dropped him now.

The point is, the music industry works on hype. You need to start making a big deal out of your artist (no matter how talented or untalented they are) the second that shaky hand signs that contract. Heck, get some press going beforehand “Nashville label plans to sign country’s future hitmaker/only hope/next superstar/etc.” WBR isn’t even doing it after the contracts are signed.

I pose this question, who do you believe is doing the best job right now? I’d have to hands down give it to Capitol Nashville.