From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V7 #54 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Sunday, March 10 2002 Volume 07 : Number 054 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Tori marketing [echoes@atlantic.devin.com] toriamos.com updated! ["Becka" ] Re: toriamos.com updated! [badly drawn woj ] Re: toriamos.com updated! [badly drawn woj ] More on the record industry [echoes@atlantic.devin.com] Re: Tori marketing [Richard Handal ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 22:33:14 -0800 From: echoes@atlantic.devin.com Subject: Re: Tori marketing Actually I think there are quite a lot of opportunities for Tori to reach a wider audience, once she gets heard, and playing her in record stores and on the radio is one good way to do it. I used to work in a Wherehouse store and every time I played a used copy of one of Tori's CDs on our stereo system, I would hardly get through half the CD before someone would buy it. Every time I played her, this happened. And I played her because I knew people would like her. (This would even happen with Boys for Pele, which is, to my ears, her least enjoyable album on first listen, in terms of pure musicality). Very few people complained when I played Tori, unlike when I played, oh, Days of the New (which were very popular at the time) or any other hard rock act I happened to like. I don't think Tori has to change a thing: I just think there needs to be a bigger push for more airplay. I know this is done with money, and there's gotta be money backing this new deal. That's probably the best way to go. Also, bringing back the limited edition singles with b-sides and actually putting them in stores couldn't hurt. :) Beth - -- "This country has a deep fear and mistrust of strong, smart, accomplished, outspoken women unless they are sexy 22-year-olds killing vampires on television." -- Dennis Miller _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ music reviews + stories + poetry + photography + collage + Watchers selkies + froud-faeries + esoterica + links = http://echoes.devin.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 11:21:31 -0500 From: "Becka" Subject: toriamos.com updated! Tori Amos.com has recieved a facelift! It's very subtle and welldone! Shades of blue and dark red. So far there is only a "news" and "message board" link, there are two pictures that fade in and out on the left side.. with one being shared with a bird(?) diagram like what you would see in a biology textbook.. the opening sequence was full of beautiful "forest" with what looked to be a "lyric" overlay but the writing is so faint and goes by so quick.. you cannot see what it is.. or at least I can't*L* Perhaps these are some insights to what she may be bringing us in the fall? Anyhoos! It's worth the checking out.. by far it's my favourite layout they've done so far! ~~cheers~ becka ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 13:03:28 -0500 From: badly drawn woj Subject: Re: toriamos.com updated! when we last left our heroes, Becka exclaimed: >Tori Amos.com has recieved a facelift! It's very subtle and welldone! and all flash. ugh. looks like they are going to abandon the html version of the site -- all that's left of it is the news page which doesn't have the march 8th update. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 13:30:07 -0500 From: badly drawn woj Subject: Re: toriamos.com updated! when we last left our heroes, badly drawn woj exclaimed: >looks like they are going to abandon the html version of the site -- all >that's left of it is the news page which doesn't have the march 8th update. no wait, that's gone too. it was just still in my browser cache. fortunately, there is a non-flash alternative: . i missed it at first since their flash detection script doesn't work with lynx. heh. glad to see they didn't neglect us luddites. :) woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 14:48:12 -0800 From: echoes@atlantic.devin.com Subject: More on the record industry In light of the discussion on Tori's move from Atlantic to Epic and the possibility of marketing her music, I thought Richard (and the rest of you) might be interested in this article in this week's Newsweek discussing the problems inherent in pop music at the moment: http://www.msnbc.com/news/718662.asp?cp1=1 Some excerpts: 'Musicians and listeners bonded over "O Brother," an album with nothing going for it but authenticity: no hype, no radio, no MTV. That people within the music industry itself - professionals with "creative or technical credits on at least six commercially released tracks" - voted it the year's best album was either a statement of the abiding values that got them into this business, or a gesture of self-loathing. This disc was about as far from industry product as you could get.' (I don't personally agree with that -- especially given that it was not only associated with a big-name motion picture, but that there WAS MTV rotation with a video for "Man of Constant Sorrow" with outtakes from the film. I'd say it has a long way to go before you could call it 'as far from industry product as you could get,' but within the context it's okay I guess.) 'So what can the industry learn from "O Brother"? Probably nothing. For one thing, authenticity can't be cloned without turning it into "authenticity," and smart listeners can hear quotation marks a mile away. For another, record executives must be among the slowest learners on the planet. Only 5 percent of major-label releases make a profit; a big company needs to sell 500,000 copies of a CD just to break even. Hmm: could any of this have to do with dumb decisions? Virgin Records bought Mariah Carey for $80 million in 2001, only to give her an extra $28 million last month to go away. Meanwhile, Sheryl Crow and Don Henley have felt compelled to found the new Recording Artists' Coalition, an organization of high-profile performers hoping to protect musicians from their own labels. No wonder Michael Nathanson, a media analyst specializing in the music business at the finanical firm of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., advises his clients not to invest in the recording industry. "I never thought it would get this bad this fast," Nathanson says, "but it has."' - -- "This country has a deep fear and mistrust of strong, smart, accomplished, outspoken women unless they are sexy 22-year-olds killing vampires on television." -- Dennis Miller _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ music reviews + stories + poetry + photography + collage + Watchers selkies + froud-faeries + esoterica + links = http://echoes.devin.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 00:26:05 -0500 (EST) From: Richard Handal Subject: Re: Tori marketing Beth Winegarner said: > Actually I think there are quite a lot of opportunities for Tori to > reach a wider audience, once she gets heard, and playing her in record > stores and on the radio is one good way to do it. But my question acknowledged that. The crux of my question was HOW can her record be caused to end up on many playlists of commercial radio stations? You said: "I know this is done with money, and there's gotta be money backing this new deal." HOW is it done with money? I want someone to explain this to me. Payola remains illegal, I believe. (I'm not *trying* to be sarcastic.) HOW does money for promotion get translated into airplay for an artist from whom radio stations have shied away in the past? I want details. I want to see a game plan. Anyone else have any ideas? Who else here has or has had openly acknowledged connections with the record business? Mr. Haverman? Mike Gray seemed fairly on-the-money, but I believe most of what he suggested would be done as a matter of course. What, that's innovative and specifically attuned to Tori Amos's music and persona, can be done to get her on the radio much more than it has been in the past (a situation with which she has been clearly frustrated for a long time)? Speaking from the stage in Boulder at the final DDI Tour show on 11 Nov 1996 about the success of Pele being due strictly to the EWF, Tori said: "Record companies, radio, had absolutely fuck-all to do with any of this whole year. And that's the truth." (And I swear to you, we were all she had at the end of the DDI Tour, and she FELT that in her soul. This is one reason she is so committed to us. We have yet to let her down. We've been there for her when she needed it. I realize some people don't appreciate how strongly she truly feels for us but I know better. It's real. It's heartfelt.) > I used to work in a Wherehouse store and every time I played a used copy > of one of Tori's CDs on our stereo system, I would hardly get through > half the CD before someone would buy it. Every time I played her, this > happened. That's encouraging to hear. My understanding is that record stores are already pressured by record companies to play their records, though. I don't know how *much* it happened during the Atlantic era, but here's hoping it happens with great success during the Epic era. I absolutely agree with you Beth, and with what Mike Gray said. If you cause people to hear the music, many of them are going to like it. This seems to me to be the best short-term hope for promoting the music-- getting it played where folks are going to hear it. > Also, bringing back the limited edition singles with b-sides and > actually putting them in stores couldn't hurt. :) I know Atlantic had big plans in this regard for SLG, but seemed to lose all interest in her when the contract issue hit the fan. As for the "O Brother" phenomenon, I was just talking about this with someone the other day. I think the success of "O Brother" with almost zero airplay speaks specifically to the state of "country" radio formats (which are doctrinaire to an even larger extent than rock stations), combined with the exposure the music had in a big film starring a major actor of the day. Hey--you get Tori to do an entire soundtrack for a big Julia Roberts film and I'd bet you it would sell a lot of records, too. So, yeah; I don't think there's much that's usefully transferable from the "O Brother" scenario. It seems the classic case of the exception that proves the rule. Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. --Henry Miller ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V7 #54 ************************************