The evolution of the drummer kind of goes like a wave, between a very tight, intricate approach to a very loose, creative, melodic approach... Right now, I think we're at the tail end of the tight. | | | | Kassa Overall at London's Royal Festival Hall, Nov 15, 2014.
(Andy Sheppard/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “The evolution of the drummer kind of goes like a wave, between a very tight, intricate approach to a very loose, creative, melodic approach... Right now, I think we're at the tail end of the tight.”
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| | rantnrave:// Is there a worse time to sign a record deal than when artists seemingly need it the most—when they're just starting out, when their future is unknown, when they have no money and not a lot of leverage, and when they may find themselves signing away ownership of their work for the better part of their productive lives? But what if you could have your advance cake and eat your masters, too, so to speak? That's the premise behind SCALE, a new service from innovative Los Angeles startup STEM, which is offering cash advances to artists and indie labels without asking for an ownership interest in return. The money is a revolving credit line, with a flat fee rather than interest, that gives artists flexibility in setting the terms of the loan—the amount, how long they want to take to pay it back and what percentage of their earnings they want to use to do so. And it lets them keep their music. Rapper LIL DONALD, for example, borrowed $100,000, partly to finance a TIKTOK marketing campaign, and will give Scale 75% of his streaming revenue until the loan is paid off. "We want to completely change the way artists can access capital," Stem CEO MILANA RABKIN LEWIS tells BLOOMBERG. The service is backed by an investment from COVENTURE and expects to offer more than $100 million worth of advances. A related service, STEM CHECK, uses data to help artists forecast the economics of any proposed deal. This would seem to be a different approach than the tried-and-true one of basically throwing a million deals against the wall and seeing what sticks. Scale, whose name appears to be a triple entendre, could be seen as a direct challenge to that model and the labels that offer them. But you might also look at it as a complementary offering that could benefit everyone in the long run, including the labels Scale is now presumably competing with. When an artist like TAYLOR SWIFT complains about not owning her masters even after serving as a profit center for her label for years, the response, either explicit or implied, is that most artists don't stick to the proverbial wall and don't earn their money back. For the labels, therefore, it's a high-risk, high-reward business, and the Taylor Swifts of the world are their reward. But if an artist approaches a label after doing one or more deals with Scale, everyone would potentially arrive at the negotiating table with a concrete track record and lots of data. The artist would have leverage. And the label wouldn't have to guess. High-prisk investments might now become prudent ones—and form the basis of a new kind of a business you just might be able to, you know, scale... Music publishers have settled out of court with PELOTON, which they accused of not paying for much of the music that fuels the exercise company's workouts... PLÁCIDO DOMINGO is not quite as sorry for his behavior as he was a few days ago... "Friendagers" is a terrible word for the phenomenon of artists putting their affairs in the hands of their friends rather than seasoned managers. May a suggest fanager?... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from LIL BABY, KASSA OVERALL, BEST COAST, SOCCER MOMMY, CARIBOU, REAL ESTATE, ANGELICA GARCIA, WASTED SHIRT (TY SEGALL and BRIAN CHIPPENDALE), CHARLES LLOYD, JAMES TAYLOR, the SECRET SISTERS, G HERBO, JADAKISS, PRINCESS NOKIA (two albums released Wednesday), DISCLOSURE, TYCHO, WAJATTA, TERRACE MARTIN, RATBOYS, the JACKA, SMOKE DZA, the ORIELLES, FLUISTERAARS, TOMBS, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, JUICEBOXXX, MONDO GENERATOR, JOHN DOLMAYAN, SERGIO MENDES, WARREN WOLF, WOLFGANG HAFFNER, LISA LOEB, SIERRA HULL, KYSHONA, GORD SINCLAIR, ROBERT CRAY BAND, DANIEL DAVIES and LI YILEI... Plus: That LADY GAGA single... That TAYLOR SWIFT video. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | | | Kassa Overall ft. J Hoard & Angela Davis |
| | From "I Think I'm Good," out today on Brownswood Recordings. |
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