Putting Appealing to the Hardcore Into Practice

Thea Gilmore's music isn't typical BBB subject matter but she's recently written a blog post about a subject near and dear to my heart: changing how artists make a living through practical application. What makes her decision even more interesting is that, unlike the Trent Reznors and Radioheads of the world, Thea has a much smaller following and by choosing this path, she's blazing a trail for the thousands of independent musicians with small, rabid fanbases who make up this new world music business order that's supposedly just over the horizon. Her plan:

For £52 a year (about $85 at current exchange rates), you get:

• A new, original and unreleased track download delivered to your inbox every month, amount[ing] to a full, exclusive album every 12 months which will not be available anywhere else.
• A lyric sheet, handwritten and signed by [her] to a song of your choice.
• An entry into a 'Thea Gilmore Song Lottery' - all members can suggest a song they want to hear [her] cover and once during the year [she]'ll pull one out of the hat and record it!
• A namecheck on [her] albums. For the duration of your membership you will recieve a special thankyou on my albums
• Opportunities for exclusive live shows and backstage passes to gigs.
• A set of 4 exclusive badges, unavailable elsewhere
• Access to a members only website [, F]eaturing: video diaries, an ‘ask Thea’ forum, previews of new releases, merch and generally getting the news before anyone else.

If Bob Lefsetz is right, if the only way to succeed in music (succeed being "have enough money not to starve to death while you do what you love") is to pander to the hardcore, Gilmore's business plan will not only succeed, but give her a much better sense of who her audience is and why they love her music. She may not make changes to fit their tastes, but she might get inspiration for her songs and in the process, find new ways to connect to her fans. I hope it works. Even more, I hope it scales.

LiveMetallica.com Download

I'm in the process of downloading the free copy of the concert recording from the show last night that Metallica provided with my ticket. In addition to demonstrating that Metallica - or Metallica management Q-Prime - "gets it" (where "it" equals the realization that the money in the 21st century music business is in ticket sales and merchandise and everything else is the taste to get the fans in the door), the download shows that someone had a sense of humor: the Java application that downloads the files for you is called "nugster."

The Most Metal Country

My buddy Seth just sent me a link to Finland's Top 40 chart, where reside a bunch of Finnish titles, some pop selections imported from the States and...most of Metallica's catalog? Confused, I asked him when the Finnish equivalent of Billboard released this chart. "It's current," he said. "I guess they don't use release dates - if Metallica is selling, put 'em up there!" We examined further and picked out at least four metal acts in the top 40, including six of the top ten. It is therefore my great pleasure, without any further ado (or additional research into say, the charts of Sweden and Norway) to name Finland the most metal country on Earth. They should really use this in promotional materials: "Come to Finland, see the lovely countryside and hear the power metal gracing the airwaves, because we're the Most Metal Country on Earth. Take that, Scandinavia."

I Can't Stop Listening to The Blackening

Prologue: My modus operandi for music is to download first, keep if I like it and buy later - on CD. I justify it because I get to listen to scores of music I wouldn't hear otherwise, avoid wasting money on CDs that I don't like and in the end reward the artists who entertain me for their efforts. I buy CDs because I like collecting them and because I like looking at the album artwork; I'm willing to pay the premium over buying mp3s (although not much more of a premium - $13.0 is my upper limit) because I want to be able to hold the music in my hands, look through the booklet and play the whole thing in my apartment's best stereo system. I feel the system works well and so far I'm guilt and lawsuit free.

Denouement: After seeing Machine Head debut tracks from The Blackening on stage a few weeks ago, I downloaded the complete album from my bittorrent service of choice and gave it a spin. An hour later I emerged, with the sense of something epic blowing through the back of my head, like a sonic double-tap to the temples. In other words, I was completely floored by Machine Head's continued progression; a line of development that, if you throw out every album between Burn My Eyes and Through the Ashes of Empires, describes an arc of awesome that climbs in geometric fashion to the heights of enjoyment.

Not only is The Blackening that good - I can't stop listening to it. It's become my fall back album when I don't know what to listen to, when I don't want to think about picking an album and I don't want to trust my ears to a computer's shuffling instincts. It's been a rare day in these past three weeks when I haven't listened to The Blackening at least once; feeding all eight glorious tracks through my headphones twice in a day isn't unheard of. If you have any interest whatsoever in this band, checking out The Blackening would be a very rewarding plan.