I'm goin in !!!!!!!!!!!

What up everyone, my name is Leslie Brathwaite.

i mix records
i snowboard
i play madden, halo 3, and grand theft auto
i'm about to be a father.

Jeremy invited me to contribute every now and then to the bloggernomics, so here i am......

I'M GOIN IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ............................
.............the other day i got all pissed off at the MUSIC INDUSTRY and went on a rant.... here it its:


First of all, the internet DID NOT ruin the MUSIC industry. That would be like saying ATM machines ruined the banking industry. ATM machines make accessing your money easier and more convenient. Instead of making a trip to the bank to withdraw or deposit money, you can do it from a grocery store (where you can instantly use it). Same concept can be applied to music. The internet is simply a tool thru which you can access, distribute, audition, discover, and conveniently purchase music.

THE PROBLEM is, the music industry was (and in some cases still is) so focused on doing things the old way and destroying internet-music activity, that they didn’t focus any resources on harnessing the power of the internet to ENHANCE music sales. Instead of spending time trying to destroy the kid that came up with NAPSTER, record labels should have found that kid, put him on a payroll and charge him with figuring out a way to come up with a workable, and hacker-free solution to embrace the internet and its power of connectivity to effectively sell music.

APPLE beat them to the punch. They figured out what the record labels should have – if you come up with the coolest gadget to play music on (iPOD), then you come up with a cool interface for the gadget where you can arrange playlists, and PURCHASE your content (iTUNES), you can corner the market. SONY had the same relative game plan in the 80s when they gave us cassettes, but also gave us the cool gadget (the walkman) in which to play the cassettes.

Simply put, the music industry has not evolved enough to keep up with technology and the changes in the world. So…….of course not only do I present the PROBLEM, but here are some ideas for thought that could lead to a SOLUTION.

1. MAKE BETTER MUSIC
Seems like this would be obvious, but for some reason the music keeps getting worse. Now let me clarify something – good music does not ONLY mean live instruments and “taking it back” to live instrumentation with bands, etc. the problem with that is people who want live music or instruments usually tend to sound too old school or dated, especially in the R&B. They tend to focus to much on how things “sounded” before, instead of being PROGRESSIVE and visionary. I think alternative and electronic music is probably best representation of good, progressive, music these days. Hip-Hop is horrible. R&B is boring, Dancehall is pretty stagnant, everyone is either getting lazy, doing the same thing or trying to re-create an era that isn’t coming back.

2. REWORK THE MODEL FOR SELLING MUSIC
Sell the artist not the music. Give away the music and sell everything else. Rick Rubin had an extremely brilliant concept by suggesting iTUNES and other major internet retailers adopt a subscription based service. Pay a fixed amount monthly and download at your convenience. When people aren’t buying what you’re selling, change what you’re selling. When everyone stops buying music, sell the convenience – and everything else you can think of – merchandise, special edition artist based iPods, shows, etc. I touched on this in one of my previous notes when I described how Apple and AT&T re-shaped the wireless cell phone industry by focusing on offering the best PHONE instead of focusing on the SERVICE and the PLANS like everyone else who are all still struggling to catch up.


3. RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB
If you took a door, cut it in half, and retro-fit it to be used in a window opening, it would do a horrible job of being a window. Same concept applies to certain people and their jobs in the music industry. Too often, people in this industry want to do too much. Producers and writers want to be artists, A&Rs want to be producers and mixers, Artists want to be writers and producers. Its really f*ckin things up!!!!!!!!! Now I’m not saying that people can’t expand and broaden their horizons, BUT it is becoming ridiculous. I constantly have A&Rs calling me telling me to make a mix sound like an AWFUL ruff mix they’ve been listening to for 4 months. (which is the equivalent of hiring a professional photographer and asking them to use a disposable camera) I’M A PROFESSIONAL MIX ENGINEER, when I mix a record, its going to come out sounding “CLEAN” and professional - if you want your record to sound like a trashy ruff mix, call someone else to do it. Let the MIXERS mix. The fact that you would choose an awful mix (because its what you are accustomed to) over a clean sound means that you are NOT the right person for that job. Same applies to writers who have NO star power but want to be artists. When you have a really great song performed by a terrible artist, you are destroying the industry as a whole. The true stars can’t SHINE because all the very good writers are keeping the hits for themselves. They do the REAL stars, the song, and the music industry a horrible dis-service. USHER would’ve had an awesome album last time around if he'd gotten real hit records from the writers. Instead everyone was just looking out for themselves and not giving him the real hits he deserved. Imagine how much bigger of a record “BED” would have been if that was Usher’s record. (no disrespect intended to J. Holiday, just stating the facts) ............Lets put all the windows back in the window openings PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!

4. ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE
The best way to promote healthy growth of the music industry, is to promote its stars in a positive light. Usher and Beyonce’, two of our brightest stars, are often the targets of negative feedback. The urban stations, DJ’s, and websites tend to always promote all the NEGATIVITY, COONERY and BEEF that makes Hip Hop and R&B in particular look stupid. When CNN and other networks spend years promoting bad news, violence, and controversy – it ultimately lead many people to support the now currently ignorant war, which is largely responsible for our financial demise. Negativity promotes more negativity. Urban DJ’s and Gossip sites should realize this. BET should be cancelled. Its awful. The NFL and NBA have been so successful because they promote their BEST players constantly. The WNBA and the Music Industry could learn a lesson from that. IN THE SAME LIGHT, we should NOT continue to “celebrate” people who continue to use drugs, or make poor decisions. Whitney Houston at this year's GRAMMYs was pitiful, embarrassing, and hard to watch.

5. QUINCY JONES HAS A POINT
The story of music is important. The history, the craft, the passion. Most young artists coming into the game right now have no idea who Rick Rubin is, or how a rock producer was responsible for a huge portion of today’s hip hop. They have no respect for the game, or for those that paved the way. As a result, they don’t give it their heart and soul. They want fame and money and they think the game owes them something. I think it was very important for P. Diddy to make the season one crew of “Making The Band” walk to JUNIOR’S to get him some cheesecake, or when he made them learn all the lyrics to “Juicy” by Notorious B.I.G. – he wanted them to respect the come up, the grind, and all that came before them to pave the way. VERY IMPORTANT.

6. CHANGE YOUR VIEW OF SUCCESS
There’s a really annoying trend that breeds negativity in the industry. When an artist doesn’t go gold or platinum…OR if they don’t sell a million copies in their first week, they automatically feel like a failure. The labels help this ignorance by putting so much focus on record breaking sales. The math is simple. If you spend $300,000.00 making an album, and you sell 200,000 copies@ $8 per copy, then you just grossed $1,600,000.00 – That’s a success. You spent 300k and made 1.6 million! If the money were spent better, distributed more fairly, and accounted for more accurately, everyone would be happy. The greed by the labels cause them to try to spend less to make the album, which results in poor product, which results in poor sales. Its not complicated.

7. STOP OVERTHINKING
I sit in sessions all the time where label execs, artists, and producers spend too much time overthinking everything. They sit there trying to make records for the CLUB or for the GIRLS or for the STREETS!!!!!!!!!! JUST MAKE GOOD RECORDS. The records will find their own way to the appropriate place. Everyone rushes to do a record with someone just based on if they are hot at the moment and totally forgetting about chemistry and vibe. I’ve seen people destroy their careers because they were overthinking what single should be first and founding their decision on all the wrong things.

yep, ......... i'm mad.