One of the many reasons I like Spotify and MOG so much are that they present a legal alternative to piracy. Why bother to spend time seeking out and illegally downloading files of varying origin and quality when, for a monthly fee that’s less than the price of one beer at a bar, you can find anything you want in good quality in a matter of seconds, do it legally, and do so in a manner in which the artists actually get paid? Sure, I lauded the pulldown of Megaupload because those fuckers earned $110 million in ad revenue on the backs of pirated content, but only one mole has been whacked and the piracy problem still looms large: Spotify is a solution.

But so far it’s been hard for content owners to claim that Spotify is a legitimate source of revenue; until now.

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Spotify’s “freemium” model has been a boon to music fans but a bane to record companies. As well-chronicled on this site, certain record labels have had a problem with Spotify’s low payout rates to labels and artists, made necessary not because the head cats at Spotify are a bunch of penny-pinchers but because the vast majority of subscribers are signed up for the free version instead of the $5 or $10 per month models. That might be about to change, as a limitation on free Spotify accounts that’s been in Spotify’s Terms of Service from the get-go is about to kick in, hopefully pushing more customers towards a paid subscription.

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You may remember the name Bob Lefsetz from when “Run MetalSucks For a Day” contest winner Justin Gosnell interviewed him on MetalSucks in September. I’ve also linked and quoted him many times before because I respect his opinions so greatly. For those unaware, Lefsetz is an independent industry pundit who writes pseudo-daily email newsletters to thousands of subscribers including industry big-wigs (I’ll bet this guy reads Lefsetz) and regular dudes in bands; he’s not beholden to any industry interests so you always know his commentary is sincere. He makes a lot of folks uncomfortable, but that’s how it goes when you’re addressing the elephant in the room and spouting a truth that no one wants to hear. Unsurprisingly, he’s a big proponent of streaming services like Spotify.

Yesterday’s Lefsetz Letter totally hit the nail on the head with regards to today’s supposed evaporating CD revenues. Rather than summarize, I just want to let you read this section and come to your own conclusions:

… everybody forgot what came before. The aforementioned overpriced CD and unreasonably high ticket prices. It was as if the rights holders and acts believed they were entitled to inflated incomes. Instead of seeing MTV and CDs as an evanescent bonus, they became an entitlement. And try taking away an entitlement, isn’t that what the debate is all about in Washington?

All of this change was brought about by the public.

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Read this quote from Stu Pflaum, co-founder (with famous rapper Talib Kweli) of independent hip-hop label Element 9 [via the 10/25 Lefsetz Letter]:

Since [Talib Kweli's] release went live on Spotify we’ve streamed the album over 70K times. I know what skeptics will say; our revenue from those streams is about $7. Who cares? Our web traffic has more than tripled in terms of site visitors & discussion… we’re getting real-time feedback from listeners on which tracks they favor and are able to adjust our marketing accordingly with most of our budget still intact. The group & the album have a legitimate buzz now.

Totally nails it. It’s not about the dollars and cents, but everything else that comes along with Spotify that makes it such a great tool for artists, and for their labels too. This benefit is hard to measure in dollars, but as it turns out is the case with the Spotify/Facebook integration the value can now be approximated — and it’s staggering! So what’s behind Sumerian’s decision to leave?

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Katatonia are not on Spotify because their label, Century Media, doesn’t want them there. This is unfortunate. After I saw the band play a phenomenal opening set for Opeth a few weeks back I wanted nothing more the next morning than to dive into their back catalogue (of which my knowledge is limited), immerse myself in it, get to know the band better. I looked them up on Spotify, couldn’t find anything but one of their oldest albums, remembered they were on Century Media… and then gave up. I could’ve gotten really into their stuff, become a fan, bought t-shirts, gone to shows in the future… multiply that by the 800 or so folks at the show, multiply that by 20+ tour stops. But nope, Century Media apparently doesn’t want people to discover their bands and forge long-term fanships, only to buy CD so they can make money now.

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Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Sorry for the delay. Been extra busy writing books, covering film festivals for Bloody Disgusting, and watching zee American football. Also, my listening tally practically doubled with the introduction of Spotify in my home.

Here are the August 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

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There seems to be a firestorm in the metal world regarding the state of the industry, Spotify, illegal downloading, and the philosophical struggle between capitalism and artistic integrity. Lines have been drawn in the sand and it’s getting fucking personal. I have remained rather silent on the sidelines but all of this action has inspired me to enter the fray.

But I’d like to approach this discussion from a different angle than the one that has been taken thus far – one which deals with some issues that are beyond music. Perhaps you could call it a political discussion, or a cultural discussion, or even a philosophical discussion. I want to talk about the idea of ownership, and what exactly that means in our modern, western paradigm, which is one rooted in competition-based capitalism.

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… so we put a Spotify on your Facebook, so you can Spotify while you Facebook!

If you’ve logged onto Facebook over the past couple of days you’ve no doubt noticed the LOL-inducing new sidebar feed, so poignantly repped by our good friend Xzibit. You’ve also probably noticed that Facebook now allows Spotify users to directly integrate a music feed of what they’re listening to in real time into their status updates, similar to the way Last.fm users can automatically post their live playlists to Twitter (and FB too if I’m not mistaken). It all happens automatically once you link your FB and Spotify accounts; you don’t have to manually enter each song you’re listening to. The Facebook/Spotify integration goes one step further, too, by allowing Spotify members to click “play” and listen to the same songs as their friends from within their Facebook feeds:

Even if you’re anti-Spotify, it’s incredibly hard to deny how valuable this integration will be for bands and their record labels. Let’s break it down:

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Well, we’ve arrived at my last post I’ll be making here during my 24 hour take over of Metalsucks.net and this one’s gonna be a doozy.

Before I get started I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to Vince and Axl for allowing me to come into their home and ruin it A.C. Slater style. I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope I didn’t do too shitty of a job.

The contest rules said I could post any-fucking-thing I want but I’m really wondering if this last post will be the “exception” to that rule?!  I will say this, if this is posted in full I will have the utmost respect for Ben Umanov (a.k.a. Vince Neilstein) because he’s gonna have to swallow some pride by allowing it to happen.

Just to be clear I mean no disrespect by anything that follows, it’s just something I personally feel needs to be addressed.

On July 25th, Ash Avildsen-the owner of Sumerian Records-posted a blog expressing his opinion on the whole Spotify/Metalsucks situation that’s been brewing on this site as of late while also taking some pretty strong shots at Metalsucks.net’s owner, Vince Neilstein.  Readers of this site have continually asked for a response from Vince, yet he’s remained silent; something that’s completely unlike him to do.  I strongly feel that Ash’s opinion should be made available to as many people as possible though.  Why?  Because we’re in a time where label after label is failing along with hundreds of thousands of bands and management companies.  Not Sumerian though.  They continue to grow at a pretty alarming rate and I think there is something to be said for that; they must be doing something right.

As an avid reader/loyal fan of Metalsucks I used to dig how Vince would post on a certain topic and give his well thought-out opinion in a calm and collected manor.  A great example of this was when Ash created a video sharing his opinion on music piracy.  Metalsucks featured it in a story along with a very fair analysis of it by Vince where he shared his opinion on what he agreed with along with what he didn’t-all while maintaining a certain level of respect.  That’s what get’s my respect and is a HUGE reason why I love Bob Lefsetz.  He’ll voice his opinion on a topic then when he does his follow up “Mailbag” newsletter he is pretty 50/50 in including ones from readers fully on his side all the way to ones totally tearing him apart; even ones where they say he’s an asshole that doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

With that said I think the whole Spotify debate that’s been raging on this site as of late has gotten really out of hand.  Vince almost seems to become enraged if someone doesn’t agree with his opinion on Spotify.  As the whole has progressed it’s seemed to be getting worse and I’ve started to think that he’s only posting interviews/opinions of others that are inline with his.  Yes, he’s posted responses from parties that disagree with him on the matter but they always seem to be ones that are really weak and easy for him to pick apart which of course makes it easy for him to come out looking completely right in the matter. With that said I think Ash’s blog was VERY well written and really provided some great insights into why it is important for labels to get revenue off of their bands music sales.  It was strong, concise, to the point, and was presented in a very easy to understand manor and I have a feeling that’s why Vince didn’t respond-it really called him out. Keep in mind they had no problem posting Ash’s response when it was attacking The Gauntlet.  Personally, I was anxiously awaiting what he’d have to say and was pretty bummed out when a response never came.

I do realize this is Vince’s site and he can do whatever the fuck he pleases but I also feel like there’s a certain responsibility that should be carried so you don’t come out looking like Fox News.  For many readers this is the ONLY site where they’re getting information on this whole Spotify thing and I strongly feel that they should be able to hear both sides perspectives so they can fairly form their own opinion on the matter.  After all, when a jury’s deciding which side to take in a trial wouldn’t it be a little unfair to the defense if the prosecution were the only ones allowed to make their case?

So first check out Ash’s entire blog which I’ve reposted below and after that you’ll find an interview I conducted with the man himself this week.  I had so many things I wanted to get his in-depth opinion on and he was kind enough to answer everything in full!

As for me, as I said in the beginning it’s my last post-I hope you enjoy it as well as everything else I posted today!  As for this post you may be asking yourself: is this the ultimate troll, a statement on unbiasedness, or a loving attempt at putting out the fire on those bridges?  I’ll let you decide…

Love your favorite guest writer in Metalsucks history,

Justin Gosnell

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Century Media and Metal Blade now have more company in the room: Prosthetic Records is pulling out Spotify, according to an article at L.A. Weekly that includes quotes from Prosthetic owner E.J. Johantgen.

Before you all get uppity on me, I actually think Johantgen has some good reasons for deciding to pull his artists from Spotify, certainly the most well-reasoned I’ve seen yet. That doesn’t mean I agree with his final decision, but they’re good reasons nonetheless and should be discussed. So:

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It would appear as if Century Media has company: Metal Blade has pulled all of its artists off Spotify. At first I thought they were employing the strategy of pulling newer albums while leaving catalogue, until I realized that the older albums I was seeing on Spotify from Unearth, Behemoth, etc were actually released on other record labels.

Look, I’ve spent enough time arguing Spotify’s virtues (read by the folks at Metal Blade, I’m sure) and I don’t feel the need to re-hash those arguments. If Metal Blade and Century Media feel they can get better payout rates from Spotify by withholding their goods, hey, great for them, and I sincerely hope they DO get better rates. But I can’t imagine said rate increases would be enough under any imaginable scenario that they’d make up for losses in sales of music ownership (CDs, MP3s) that have been increasing over the past decade.

What this is really about is looking at the future and facing it head-on: will sales of recorded music increase, or even stay where they are now? I can’t see any sane person answering “yes” to that question. Pulling out of Spotify is almost like delaying the inevitable… key word “delaying,” not “stopping.” You can’t stop progress, and you can’t stop the 20+ million people (last I checked, probably more now) that have signed up for Spotify in the U.S. who all believe that it’s worth $10/month or free with ads and low quality audio. Unless every label pulls out of Spotify all at once, which is not gonna happen.

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After Tesseract bassist Amos Williams and I finished chatting about the band’s new singer Elliot Coleman, I couldn’t resist: I asked him about Spotify and his record label’s decision to leave the service. From there the conversation evolved into a friendly debate about the future of the music industry: do streaming services play a role? how do they alter the landscape? how can record companies adapt? Amos is obviously a lot more than just the bass player of a metal band; he’s a smart businessman with a good head on his shoulders, even if we don’t see eye-to-eye on everything. And he’s incredibly thoughtful and polite to boot.

The remainder of our chat after the jump.

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Charts are a dime a dozen and often don’t tell you much you already didn’t know. But every now and then one comes along that really puts things into perspective. This animated .gif shows the sales of various formats of music by year. You can see the shift from the LP era to tape cassettes to CD and so on and so forth. The narrative here is of course very familiar already, but it’s the way it’s presented that makes the difference. Commentary from Fastcodesign.com:

… somehow, just the simple fact of stringing all these pie charts together tells you about the nature of music-format innovation. Here, the industry’s change appears inevitable, and the only surprising thing about it is how long the CD enjoyed a period of utter and total dominance. The CD ruled for far longer than most formats — and with extremely high margins, due to cheap production costs — but it was always doomed to be overturned.

Put another way: If you were a music executive sitting in a presentation 10 years ago and you’d been presented this chart, would you have any doubt that your CD business was going to die? Moreover, wouldn’t you have seen that in a historical context, the invention of the CD was an effervescent bit of luck? This ugly, animated gif carries a force that you can’t summon in a static line chart.

You can’t look at this chart without thinking, “What next?” This chart doesn’t take into account that the very idea that all people need to own music to consume it is quickly becoming outdated. MP3s as a dominant format have been around for a decade now (more if you start counting years when Napster first emerged), so perhaps the next shift is right around the corner: all-you-can-eat streaming services like Spotify, MOG, Rdio. If you’re a record exec right now, do you see it coming? Whether you see it or not… it’s definitely coming.

-VN

Thanks: Justin Reich

I’ve left this blog alone for a while because I feel like artistry and punditry shouldn’t come from the same place, but I’d like to chime in here as someone who is actually affected by this whole Spotify issue.

First off, I am a paid premium subscriber to their service and absolutely love it. This is definitely the beginning of the end for tangible musical product. Once they have literally everything ever legally recorded on there, what use will your iTunes library, CDs, etc have? I think it’s the next logical step to find middle ground between the consumers who want everything to be immediate and for little or no money, and for the people who provide the product (music), who need consumer support in order to be sustainable. Of course, there is still some evolving and adapting to do. I’m sure that as this method of consumption grows in popularity, there will be more services like Spotify who make it even more simple to use, add more features and integrate more social networking, and as that grows, I’m sure there will be more money to split up to the people who actually provide the content (a single stream currently earns you something like three thousandths of a cent).

Having said that, I’m going to stand up for Century Media in this case.

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Before we get started here, let’s set the record straight: MetalSucks is not receiving any compensation — advertising or otherwise — from Spotify or any affiliated third parties hired by Spotify (marketers, publicists, etc). I, Vince Neilstein, independent of any other writers for MetalSucks, have been writing about Spotify over the past few months — and especially the past week — for the same reason I write multiple posts about a new band I really like, namely that I think it’s awesome and I want to spread the word.

Now that the dust has settled from Century Media’s decision to withdraw from Spotify, we’re starting to hear a few artists voice their opinions on the metal label’s decision to abstain from the future. Last week Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick revealed he accepts that record sales won’t be a major money-maker for him and supports Spotify as a tool for spreading awareness about his band’s music. Today it’s Jens Ryland of Borknagar, a band on Century Media, sounding off in his own blog (actually published last week).

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Yes, we know we didn’t get to make our big announcement this week. Don’t worry — we’re just ironing out a few final details. It’s still happening. And we’re confident we’ll get to tell you next week.

In the meantime, here’s how we occupied ourselves these past five days:

• We debuted new music by Ghost Brigade.
• We spoke to Chris Reifert from Autopsy and producer Jay Ruston.
• We checked out the latest releases from Harm’s Way and Skin Like Iron.
• Vince went several rounds with Century Media over their decision to drop out of Spotify.
• We made fun of Dream Theater’s use of clip art on their new album cover.
• Sammy O’Hagar, Satan Rosenbloom, and Grim Kim counted down their favorite releases of the year thus far.
• Sergeant D. searched for the best neo-nu-metal band.
• We asked what you think of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.
• We continued to celebrate 31 Days of Faith No More.
• ‘Merica.

(photo from old_skool_metal_head’s Flickr)

Axl and I went to Summer Slaughter in NYC yesterday. That second bottle of whiskey was a really bad idea. But before said second bottle we got to see Darkest Hour… and any time I see Darkest Hour I have an incredible urge to listen to nothing but Darkest Hour the following day. Thanks to Spotify I have their entire discography instantly at my disposal and I’m letting Undoin Ruin rock away my hangover at this very moment. If anyone else at the show had the same urge they could do the very same thing instead of being driven to piracy (because we all know people are cheap-asses and ain’t gonna shell out for DH’s ENTIRE discography at once), so at least Darkest Hour gets paid something instead of nothing at all.

What kind of ass-backwards world do we live in where Victory Records is doing something right and Century Media isn’t? Can I get an “AMEN”???

ANYWAY, the metalnets have been surprisingly quiet when it comes to bands voicing their opinions on Spotify, especially if those bands are on Century. Maybe they’re afraid to speak up, maybe they’re against Spotify and don’t wanna look like this generation’s Lars Ulrich, maybe they just aren’t sure yet; I don’t know. But Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick (whose band and label are on Spotify, btw) has broken the silence and come out in support of Spotify in a guest blog for Metal Insider, specifically with regards to the whole Century situation. What I like about Paulick’s rant is that it seems very representative of the new, young generation of musicians that understand and accept music is not going to be a huge source of income in their lives. Here’s the money quote:

I am not depending on selling music for my income. In fact, I have two jobs when I’m not touring to help with my income. I’ll take a page from a good friend of mine Buz McGrath of Unearth. On one of our first tours he told me that he wasn’t in the music business, but that he was in the ticket and t-shirt business, and there is nothing closer to the truth than that.

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And the feud continues! “The Suits” at Century Media have responded directly to MetalSucks about Spotify once again! This time they are responding to what I wrote yesterday. But it’s going to end here… this will be the end, until the next chapter. We’re going on indefinite hiatus, as industry lingo dictates.

CM has requested I publish their letter all in one fell swoop then shred it to pieces afterwards instead of going line by line, so that’s exactly what I’ll do. Here we go:

WOW!

Today it’s the “white collar criminals” from Century Media (not sure how we got there) coming back to “Vince the MAN”.

I must admit, we are all very excited here about the attention and flak we are getting for taking the liberty of saying “NO” to something we disagree with.

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When I first started critiquing Earache president Digby Pearson’s Ask Earache blog over a year ago I pegged Digyby / Earache as an out-of-touch label with all its eggs in one basket. My, how things have changed over the course of a year-plus. The Internet is a funny thing; it encourages discussion, and in some cases can actually produce change. I’m not patting myself on the back for turning Earache into a Fortune 500 company, but I am saying that the discourse I generated may have contributed in some small way to Digby taking a long hard look at the current music industry landscape and tweaking his approach. I know for a fact that Digby reads these blogs.

Dig’s latest move: capitalizing on the Century Media / Spotify backlash by issuing a press release essentially stating, “We love Spotify! All of our artists are on it!”

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Yesterday’s post decrying Century Media’s decision to pull out of Spotify seemed to ruffle a few feathers at Century, so much so that today they’ve decided not only to issue an official response but to write me a personal email! Since this is MetalSucks and we delight in this sort of back-and-forth (and we always like to give the targets of our ire an open forum to respond), I’m going to go through Century’s email and dismantle their arguments one-by-one. Here we go:
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