· the catalogue to the highest bidder (prob-ably universal), close down all remaining operations,...

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN 2009 …PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE

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Marrakesh Records LtdThe Media Village

131-151 Great Titchfield St.London W1W 5BB

Telephone 0203 178 2294www.marrakeshrecords.com

Email [email protected] enquiries [email protected]

(c) Marrakesh Records Ltd www.marrakeshrecords.com

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN 2009 …PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE

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Big hitters exclusively reveal how they see the year ahead

If 2008 put the V in volatility for the music industry, 2009 looks set to test powers of prediction to the limit. This mighty economic force - which generates £billions for Britain – finds itself again in turmoil just as the credit crunch starts to hit leisure spending.

What is the true state of the industry? We ask the people at the heart of the battle - people whose secrets are rarely revealed. We have designed the ten most pertinent questions and collated these insiders' telling and timely answers.

Is the music download about to consign the CD to extinction?

Can a radically revamped EMI regain traction, or do its investors and staff risk losing everything this year?

Against a backdrop of collapsing ad revenues and expanding online alternatives, what is the viability of print music magazines?

Meanwhile, web music sources like I-Tunes, Amazon, Nokia and Myspace battle for dominance … and face new rivals.

The implosion of key distribution channels – including Woolworths and Zavvi - has left the industry facing real challenges. Will consumers be able even to find music

on the High Street by the end of 2009?

Online launches could be the way ahead … or was Radiohead’s success a one-off?

The 360-degree deal, where labels control everything from touring income to merchandise, faces new scrutiny from artists and managers.

Will credit-crunched fans find their pockets too stretched to go to concerts? Will Britain’s legendary festival scene find itself against the wall?

New political debate is set to ignite about the BBC’s state-funded involvement in Radio 1 and Radio 2.

And finally … is there really a chance of a revival of dear old Top of The Pops?

All in all, the easiest prediction would be: expect the unexpected.

In this industry, perhaps more than most, successfully foreseeing the future is an inherent part of any job description. The biggest players in the business, executives who put millions of investors’ and their own money where their mouths are, reveal their fears and hopes for 2009. In this survey by Marrakesh Records the answers speak for themselves.

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THECONTRIBUTORS

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{ Mark CoLLEN }

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Mark spent 20 years in senior management roles at EMI where he was heavily involved in the development of a range of artists including Crowded House, Radiohead, Blur, Robbie Williams, Norah Jones and Coldplay. He is now an independent consultant and a Director of direct to consumer online platform, Mubito.com.

{ Ian DUTT }Ian is a Director of PIAS UK, the UK’s leading independent music distributor, and also runs Integral Marketing, its marketing services division.

{ Stephen GoDfRoy }Stephen is Director of Rough Trade Retail, the music-only independent retailer.

{ Will KINSMAN }Will is Associate Editor of Clash Magazine and was previously Editor of The fly Magazine.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ David MoGENDoRff }David is Digital Talent and Music Manager for MTV Networks UK. Career highlights include booking Gonzo on Tour and the Spanking New Sessions, including debut TV performances from Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Hot Chip, Adele, florence and the Machine, and many more.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Tim PARRy }Tim is one of the two co-founders of BigLife Management where he has been instrumental in the career success of The Verve, Richard Ashcroft, Snow Patrol, Klaxons and The futureheads.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Charlie MARSHALL }Charlie is Business Development Director at Ingenious Media Consult-ing. Ingenious Media is an investor in and adviser to multiple music and music-related companies and artists.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Dave GoLDBERG }Dave is entrepreneur-in-residence at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. He was previously worldwide head of yahoo! Music af-ter selling launch.com, the company which he co-founded, to yahoo! in 2001.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Dave McGEEHAN }Dave is Scotland’s leading music promoter including organising T in the Park and running King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.

{ Ben WINCHESTER }

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Ben is from Primary Talent International, is one of the UK’s most respect-ed live agents. His roster includes the bands oasis and Glasvegas.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Rob ANDREWS }Rob is Head of Entertainment and Live Events at Tiscali UK.

{ Dharmash MISTRy }

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Dharmash is a partner at venture capital firm Balderton Capital. He was previously Managing Director of EMAP Consumer Media and EMAP Performance, and part of the management team that sold the con-sumer magazine business to H.Bauer for £1.1bn. Balderton recently announced that it had completed raising a £282m fund that will focus on early stage investments in the media and technology sectors.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Robert REyNoLDS }Robert manages The Killers and is an attorney specialising in media and entertainment law at the Las Vegas law firm, Callister-Reynolds.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Nick BUBB }Nick is Retailing Analyst at stockbrokers Pali International and one of the most respected retail analysts in Britain.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{ Dominic HARDISTy }Dominic is founder and Managing Director of Marrakesh Records and first signed multi-platinum band, The Killers. His previous career was in senior general management with several media companies including the financial Times.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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{ Paul SToKES }Paul is news editor of NME and spent much of 2008 heavily involved in the launch of NME Radio and NME.com.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EMI IN 2009?

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» Mark Collen EMI will no longer be consid-ered a major player by the end of the year. Guy Hands will do his utmost to offload the recorded music side of the business. There will be further desertion of high-profile artists and staff and more cuts before March. With a bit of luck a consortium led by Roger Ames will buy it, or more likely, Warners. ‘EMI 2.0’ will go down as a very high-profile mistake.

» Dominic Hardisty EMI is living on borrowed time and borrowed money: not a healthy rec-ipe in a credit crunch. Guy Hands should sell the catalogue to the highest bidder (prob-ably Universal), close down all remaining operations, then license the company’s label brands to smart, VC-funded entrepreneurs in return for license fees and profit-shares. This would move EMI from a high-risk and low margin model into a low-risk and high-margin one.

» Will Kinsman I don’t think there can be any argument that EMI was a company that had been running out of control for too long, and as such many of the Guy Hands-directed cuts were necessary, if not always palatable. I’ve visited most of the majors recently and been quite astonished by the flagrant excess of their offices. Saving 20% by having an office that’s smaller and in a less-fashionable part of London - not to mention limiting people’s travel and entertainment budgets and all the other perks of major label life - would surely make it easier to operate profitably.

» David Mogendorff EMI seems to have made some bold steps in the recent restructure. There are a lot of smart people there and they still have some world-class artists on their ros-ter. for the sake of the UK industry let’s hope they have a strong year.

» Charlie Marshall No comment!!!

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» Tim Parry They have taken on good execs in Nick Gatfield and Rob Stevenson and are talking about doing different types of deals. It’s a question of how long will Terra firma be prepared to keep funding a company that is doing so badly. I hope it survives. But I worry that it won’t.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Robert Reynolds EMI’s new website was an interesting step in the right direction, but probably too little, too late. Until EMI delivers on the site and brings it out of beta mode, I’m not holding my breath. There are some good people over at EMI, but I’d be surprised if this leads to significantly-improved pricing of their music or any real connection with the average music consumer.

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//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////» Dave Goldberg Citibank will take the busi-ness from Terra firma and re-auction it.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The industry giant starts the New year with its boss Guy Hands unveiling his strategy for survival …

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WILL PEOPLE STILL READ MUSIC MAGAZINES AT THE END Of 2009?

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» Paul Stokes yes. Like the resurgence of vinyl you can’t over estimate people’s attachment to lovingly made, beautiful physical products. Music magazines can do pictures, longer articles and portability better than the web and I feel we’re going to have to play to those strengths more and more. I think the music press is going to have to accept that we are specialist interest publications, like aircraft magazines or gardening mags (don’t laugh). I think it means a return to real, exciting music journalism and great iconic rock’n’roll photog-raphy. We have to give people value for money.

» Dominic Hardisty Stop and chat with under-25s on the street and you will quickly discover that they read free newspapers, send dozens of texts/emails each day and surf mu-sic sites on the web when they have the time, but just are not interested in paid-for music magazines. Ad budgets will be extremely tight in 2009 and more effective CPMs can be achieved in other media, which doesn’t bode well for existing titles. That said, there is room in the market for a free music and entertain-ment weekly along the lines of ShortList Magazine. There are willing investors out there, despite ad market doldrums.

» Will Kinsman I am confident that there is still a demand for the printed word. The challenge is for magazines to adapt to the changing climate. The publishers who prosper will be those that fully embrace and integrate their print, online and mobile platforms.

» David Mogendorff yes, people will still read mu-sic magazines, but 2009 will see further accelera-tion in the popularity of reading this type of material online and a decline in the economic feasibility of publishing specialist music writing on paper.

» Charlie Marshall Sales haven’t been that bad and there are some signs of growth. Most mu-sic magazines will remain profitable but keep trying to stretch their brands (cf. NME Radio and more-successfully NME tours). The trick is to pick your tribes - we still think that NME and Kerrang have a future as they have evergreen younger tribes. Q, we’d be less positive about.

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//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////» Dharmash Mistry yes, but less frequently. There will always be a need for a lean-back, photography-rich read with longer features, which the web is less able to deliver. However, there will be further consolidation in the sec-tor due to lower circulations and significantly less endemic music advertising. So fewer, smaller music magazines with less staffing.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Rob Andrews The standard quality ones - NME, Q, etc- will still be around but advertising money is increasingly going online. obviously online users can actually hear the music which gives a massive advantage.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Print magazines, already under pressure from falling ad revenues in the recession, face a second challenge: the growth in online alternatives.


WILL CDS STILL BE fOR SALE AT RETAIL IN 2009?

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CDs killed-off large-scale vinyl. Now music downloading could mean it’s CDs’ turn for extinction.

» Stephen Godfroy of course CDs will sur-vive, as physical formats have a clear value (as an artifact, sense of ownership) that cannot be replaced by digital formats. The decline in CD sales is a natural result of the commoditisa-tion of music since the arrival of e-commerce. Relevant and exciting retail experiences will result in increased CD/vinyl sales, as Rough Trade East has proven.

» Dave Goldberg CDs will die slowly over the next five to seven years but will become increasingly irrelevant to themusic business.

» Mark Collen People still overwhelmingly buy CDs. Labels need to become more aware of who is buying their music and focus on those audiences. for instance Take That’s and AC/DC’s fans are most definitely physical purchasers. Smart labels understand that people can and do buy CDs and download tracks and bundles, often of the same tracks, depending on where they want to consume their music. Tracks are easy and disposable - CDs make better gifts.

» Rob Andrews yes. CDs will continue to be on sale, but retail space available will decrease. Even HMV, I noticed over Xmas, has less space for CDs than it does for DVDs and games. The fight for remaining sales space could spell the end for niche genres/bands on the High Street.

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» Dominic Hardisty CDs will continue to offer a cheap, portable and well-packaged second-ary medium even in a world dominated by downloads. Much of The Top 200 will remain available in retail multiples for as long as its contribution can justify the floor space; full catalogues will remain available from Amazon and from HMV. The challenge for music companies is to make album packages as at-tractive as possible so as to encourage people to buy them rather than just download the occasional single.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Robert Reynolds of course. The CD is dying fast, but everyone will still be driving cars with CD players this year.

» Nick Bubb HMV is just about the last man left standing in the High Street selling music, and even there you have to battle past all the DVDs and gaming racks to get at the CDs. But yes they will still be part of the mix at HMV next Xmas and no, not everybody will buy them at Amazon and Play.com

» Ian Dutt They will, but I’m not sure I’d give you the same answer for 2011. Singles will prob-ably disappear entirely from the High Street in 2009. But with physical products continuing to make up 90% of the albums market they will be around for a bit longer.


WHO WILL WIN IN 2009: iTUNES, AMAZON, NOKIA, MYSPACE, OR SOMEBODY ELSE?

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» Mark Collen iTunes will start to feel the heat. Amazon and Nokia will do well. Play and Amazon will continue to dominate online sales. And Amazon’s digital offering will find favour. Myspace will struggle as labels continue to wrangle with artists over royalties and artists realise they can make more money with their own direct to consumer offerings.

» Dharmash Mistry iTunes will remain dominant but may lose share given increased competition, digital music lockers, loss-leader pricing and segment-based offerings with bet-ter range and recommendation engines.

» Rob Andrews I don’t see many massive win-ners in 2009. Nokia will find that their proposi-tion isn’t as attractive or profitable as they think it is. for most people it’s not enough of a reason to swap mobile phones and there are cheaper ways of getting music anyway. for me it’s more a question of who will lose in 2009 and I’d say that I wouldn’t like to be a major record label right now.

» Ian Dutt Why on earth does there have to be a winner?”

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» Ben Winchester P2P and pirate bay, obviously.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» David Mogendorff The savvy music fan will win – by continuing to discover and access the music that they want for free, from wherever they want to get it.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Will Kinsman iTunes’ current dominance of the download market means they are able to wield a disproportionate influence - in partic-ular, their standardised pricing policy, I think, hinders smaller bands and labels. There’s a chance that the range of music people have access to will be dictated by what mobile handset they own, and that can’t be healthy. If there has to be a winner, I hope it is whoever puts the most money back into music in terms of supporting new bands and artists.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Robert Reynolds iTunes will win. They remain one of the few innovators in the music business that actually listens to the consumer. Going DRM-free and offering variable pricing are both smart steps in the right direction.

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The music download sector is evolving at rocket pace …

» Tim Parry None of these companies are “music” companies - they use music to sell hardware or encourage website visits. They and many other companies are building huge businesses on the back of music without pay-ing an acceptable price for the privilege. They will all win - it is the ARTISTS who will lose!

» Dominic Hardisty There are some global big guns bearing down on music retail, yet none of these is really interested in making money from music: Apple and Nokia want to sell phones, Myspace wants to sell advertising and Amazon wants to sell pretty much anything it can (the contribution from an American-style fridge/freezer is somewhat higher than on a CD).

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» Dharmash Mistry It will increase the bargaining power of the grocers. Worst case scenario would be the US model of distribu-tion and the power held by Walmart, where every album is sold at a loss but you cannot get into the top end of the charts.

» Dominic Hardisty The crazy thing about EUK is that the industry allowed itself to sleep-walk into a situation in which one supplier basi-cally controlled the entire industry’s access to Sainsbury, Asda, Morrisons, Woolies, Smiths and Zavvi. We need to play our cards better going forward.

» David Mogendorff Unfortunately it’s just part of the relentless march away from the old model of physical product driving the business. The knock-on effects on the labels are massive, but those who have a well-developed, solid digital proposition should be ok.

» Ian Dutt Devastating for the really good people that worked at both companies, but the industry will cope. We made a point not to go “ambulance chasing” after the demise of Pin-nacle and it was scary how quickly their roster found new homes.

WHAT DO THE BANKRUPTCY Of EUK AND PINNACLE MEAN fOR THE UK MUSIC BUSINESS?

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» Ben Winchester The chickens have finally come home to roost.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Tim Parry Pinnacle hadn’t been massively important for music for a while and one of the distributors was always going to fail as physical sales declined. As for EUK, it was a middleman - everybody will sell direct now which makes much more sense.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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The collapse of Woolworths’ CD distribution arm EUK, then independent distributor Pinnacle and now Zavvi present huge challenges for the industry in getting music to its customers.

» Nick Bubb The problem for EUK was always that it was reliant for half its volume on as flaky a business as Woolworths and that the other half came from ruthless supermarkets who would sell their own grandmother to get a bit more margin.

» Paul Stokes In the long term probably the only way you'll get nice physical-released music from acts on indie labels will be through mail order, directly through the band or label. It will be a shame not to see these acts in the shops, but it probably means the bonus material and packaging will be better as they'll know how exactly how many they need to make before making them.

» Robert Reynolds The fact that a mainstream distributor's death helped cause the demise of one of the top independent distributors reminds us that it's not just the major labels that are hurting right now. In the short term, the indies are going to feel the blow and some will fold, but in the end the indies will rise up smarter and more innovative.


HAvE WE LEARNED ANYTHING fROM ‘IN RAINBOWS’ AND WAS IT A GOOD IDEA?

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» Ian Dutt What intrigued me the most was that plenty of people still paid full price for the album at iTunes after the official release date. It shows that no matter how much of a good idea something may be, people will always consume in the same way. It’s a bit mental really!

» Dominic Hardisty from an industry point-of-view, they turned the supply curve on its head so that supply and demand matched one another exactly. The result? Most people chose not to pay and the average amongst those who did was about £4.50. The industry needs to do some serious PR to explain to its customers why the current typical download price for an album of £7.99 (from which the label typically re-ceives about £5.00 as it happens) can be justified.

» Will Kinsman In Rainbows showed that creative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking can work. That said, it’s not a model that would work for all bands; a number of factors – the band’s loyal fan base, the fact that they were out of contract with EMI and thus free to record and release an album on their own, the fact that they’re a clued-up band backed by a highly resourceful management team – meant Ra-diohead were able to make a unique business model work.

» Dave McGeehan It was a good, refreshing idea but needs to stay as a one-off. If it hap-pened on a regular basis it would have a major negative effect on most strands of the music industry.

» David Mogendorff It was a genius idea for Radiohead, and proved that music fans respect the work of their favourite artists and are prepared to pay for it. I think it could work again in the right circumstances but is in no way a model for all. younger consumers especially are used to getting music free, will continue to take it for free and will access it in the way that they want to access it, as shown by the torrent activity around the In Rainbows release.

» Ben Winchester It was all about the public-ity. Ideas like that can only be used once. Ultimately, you have to ask whether it changed their career path.

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» Stephen Godfroy It proved that if artist and audience can connect efficiently then physical music formats will always deliver greater value (to both artist and audience) than the value derived from selling/owning digital music files. It remains a great ‘circumnavigating’ moment, one that continues to give confidence and inspiration to anyone with the freedom to think for themselves.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Paul Stokes Big established bands don’t need record labels, fair play to them. What we didn’t learn, though, is who will take a risk and pay for new talent in the future.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Radiohead’s launch of In Rainbows online with consumers able to pay what they liked was a major innovation. But the formula may not work for others.


WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE LIvE SECTOR IN 2009?

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» Dave McGeehan Hopefully people will still be attracted by the whole live experi-ence – looking forward to going to the gig, meeting up with friends and obviously see-ing the show. We have six stadium shows booked for next summer as well as T in the Park, a projected 330 shows in King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and approximately 850 gigs across various venues throughout the year. overall ticket sales are good, but as promoters we have to keep an overview of how many shows we put into the market, especially in the current financial climate. People are maybe being a bit more particu-lar about what they choose. As a company we put on more shows in 2008 than ever before.

» Dominic Hardisty Punters’ wallets are re-ally feeling the pinch from the credit crunch and historical evidence suggests that people will spend more time at home than out and about.

» Rob Andrews Kids now want to play in a band rather than become a DJ. The increase in bands has led to an increase in venues for live music. Social networking sites have proved invaluable in getting band awareness out there which has meant that gigs are better attended. I think we reached saturation point with the number of festivals last year and predict that only the really big ones will survive in the long term.

» Stephen Godfroy Alas, the live show sector will continue to serve audiences with terrible beer.

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» Charlie Marshall Things will get tougher for the medium size acts but remain robust for the stadium fillers, festivals and the grassroots mass (very low margin, make your money from the beer). Maybe the recession will bring more vibrancy to live music - it has in the past. Sponsorship and advertising needs to get smarter – expect more corporate cash to flow towards live music but with more strings attached.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Robert Reynolds Ticket prices will decrease. Some venues will try the “season ticket” model where one fee lets you see multiple acts. We ought to see some innovation here – I’m looking forward to it.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Will Kinsman After a few years of unprec-edented growth, I fear the live sector may suffer in 2009. At the top end that shouldn’t be so much of a problem; it will simply mean bands playing smaller venues, or fewer nights at the biggest venues. My hope is that the bottom rungs of the ladder aren’t too badly affected, as this might make it unviable for smaller bands to tour, at a time when fewer bands can rely on the deep pockets of a major label to provide tour support.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In a recession, promoters are likely to find fans’ wallets are squeezed when it comes to buying live show tickets …


» Dharmash Mistry The BBC’s public sector objectives can be met in other ways. There is sufficient supply of music radio via traditional channels, digital radio, internet jukeboxes and access to global stations on the net. With con-sumer choice being so abundantly available, the BBC no longer needs to meet this need, hence R1 and R2 should not be tax-payer funded. Privatisation seems a credible next step.

» Dominic Hardisty It is only a matter of time before politicians realise that R1 and R2 don’t offer any public service benefits that couldn’t just as easily be provided by commercial franchisees. further, BBC Radio - with a 55% share of listenership - significantly distorts an already troubled commercial market that now faces life-threatening competition from myspace, youtube and last.fm. Privatising R1 and R2 would yield a windfall that could provide years of financial and editorial independence for other BBC services such as R3 and R4 which could not survive in the commercial sector.

» David Mogendorff The BBC is a unique and incredibly valuable piece of British culture and should be protected at all costs. Having said that, I do believe that their remit should be reviewed to ensure that they are provid-ing a service that a commercial broadcaster couldn’t (or wouldn’t) deliver in both their daytime and specialist slots. Given the amount of influence that rests with their music team, it’s important that they are not open to allegations of favoritism to any major labels.

» Dave Goldberg I don’t think that the govern-ment should be in the broadcasting business. We do fine in the US without government broadcasters.

SHOULD RADIO 1 AND RADIO 2 BE PRIvATISED?

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» Charlie Marshall from the BBC’s point of view, losing R1 would be disastrous for many reasons, primarily its reach into 14-21 year olds - the only other BBC brands which consistently cut through for this age group are Match of the Day and Eastenders. So the theory of a lost generation comes one step closer. R2’s appeal is broader, so demographics are less of an is-sue. However, the reach and cross-promotion-al might of R2 is clearly key to the BBC’s entire portfolio.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Dave McGeehan Without the BBC stations, there would be no real mouthpiece for new music. Both also manage to cross a variety of genres and present the latest offerings on the new music scene, challenging people’s tastes. R1’s new music programming is also the most effective way for independent artists to reach a substantial and new audience.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Paul Stokes We need a public service broad-caster that is prepared to shine light on new or minority talent and we have to accept that in order to gain that audience in the first place they have to compete with commercial chan-nels part of the time. I just wish they would stop staging concerts and events that would exist in the private sector. The Killers at Royal Albert Hall would take place anyway. It would be good to see these resources used on artists who couldn’t do that themselves.

Political debate raises key issues about the wisdom of taxpayer-funded radio.

» Will Kinsman for all the BBC’s faults, I think it’s important to maintain a broadcasting service that is independent of commercial considerations. I would like to see wholesale changes to both stations, not least the playlists and DJs, but in general I support the concept of licence fee-funded mainstream broadcasting.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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WILL 2009 BE THE YEAR IN WHICH THE INDUSTRY CALLS TIME ON 360-DEGREE DEALS?

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Many question the wisdom of bundling deals for record sales, touring, merchandising and music publishing into one package.

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» Tim Parry I think that 360-deals will still be around but the way they are initiated will change. Management companies and smaller labels are best positioned to develop new artists, then working in tandem with majors to accelerate later-stage growth. The majors will expect a part of other income without trying to move directly into other areas of the business. The deals will be centred around management companies and smaller labels.

» Dave Goldberg They clearly don’t make any sense for major labels. The only thing labels should focus on is recording and publishing rights. Ironically, most 360-deals exclude publishing.

» David Mogendorff The “360” label itself is very clichéd, but the basic principle of doing deals encompassing more than one part of the mix will remain. It is down to the artist and their management to choose a strong team for every aspect of their business; if more than one function can be served best by the record label then it would make sense to take advantage of it.

» Dave McGeehan I would like to see them dis-appear, but it’s not very likely given the current financial climate. Most of the time I think they do very little to help the majority of artists.

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» Ian Dutt Every band needs a different type of deal. Those who heralded the 360 deal as the saviour of record companies and scourge of management were simply headline-seeking, since neither are true.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Stephen Godfroy There will always be a force for ‘catch all’ agreements out of simplicity, efficiency and greed. But as Harry Callahan said in Magnum force after he dispatched his self-deluded boss, ‘A man’s gotta know his limitations’.

» Dominic Hardisty 360-degree deals repre-sent a triumph of spin over substance: there are few if any circumstances in which a 360-degree deal makes sense for either artist or investor. Then again, since when did the music industry behave rationally? Instead we favour creating a ‘360-degree web’ to help the artist attract the best label, manager, publisher and live agent, then have these work together whilst each concentrates individually on what they already do best. Which … erm … looks rather like the “old” way of doing business!

» Robert Reynolds No, but it damned well should be! We need to find ways to profit from the creation of music, not just taking money from an artist’s right pocket to fill his left. This practice also shifts the focus of labels from signing good music and finding a way to monetize it towards signing bands that make money touring. 360-deals are not a solution to our struggling business – this is surrender.


AND NOW GUYS AND GALS … SHOULD BBC1 BRING BACK TOP Of THE POPS?

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» David Mogendorff It is still a very strong brand, there’s nothing else like it out there at the moment and it still has the potential to sell records. However, if they do bring it back they need to get it right – make it for the audience and not the producers, pundits or industry. Ensure the music featured on it is exciting, relevant and occasionally surpris-ing (not just another place to see the same bunch of artists who are currently doing promo). Leave out the patronising interviews and concentrate on quality live performanc-es. Get the time slot right and give it time to bed in. And back it up with strong interactive elements to engage the audience.

» Paul Stokes Not if it’s going to be like that yawn-fest on Christmas day this year, no. If they’re up for revitalising it and making it exciting and relevant to 2009 then yes. It seems ridiculous that music doesn’t have a platform on primetime television. They can start by getting rid of the presenters!

» Mark Collen only if they can give it a slot that will give it a guaranteed 3-4 million prime time audience and a strong production team. I would vote for a 7.30 Thursday night slot. Back to basics. oh – and it’s way beyond time Jools was retired from Later. I’d love to see Dermot o Leary host it - his Radio 2 show sessions are excellent and he has a great manner with both artists and audience.

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» Dave Goldberg Sure.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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» Dominic Hardisty A viewer interested in Girls Aloud is unlikely to then want to watch the Kings of Leon. However, ToTP remains a heritage brand (think Dr. Who) that could easily be leveraged into several, more tar-geted music television shows at different times and on different channels. The BBC could perhaps hold a beauty parade for independent producers to make different, genre-based shows, letting the most successful rise to the top of the pile.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

» Charlie Marshall Definitely! Just before it was canned we tried to explain to the BBC that ToTP is not primarily a music show but an entertainment show for the family. It could be a solid success if it stops trying to be CD:UK and tries to be what it always was - a show which mum, dad and the kids could watch and comment on. The mag and the press around the Christmas show demon-strate the power of the brand. It needs some careful planning though – which we’d love to have a crack at!//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Seen as a dinosaur of a show, ToTP, the programme that gave us Jimmy Savile and Pan’s People, seemed long defunct … until Christmas specials hinted at revival.

» Stephen Godfroy No. It would be like dating an old girlfriend! Life moves on, even if you don’t.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Marrakesh Records / Clash 1/4 page / 135x95mm / Due: 12.12.08

Marrakesh Records LtdThe Media Village

131-151 Great Titchfield St.London W1W 5BB

Telephone 0203 178 2294www.marrakeshrecords.com

Email [email protected] enquiries [email protected]

Editorial Justin Stoneman, Nigel Griffiths, Richard Addis, Dominic HardistyDesign Studio Barette | www.studiobarette.comPhotos of Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Borrell, Supergrass and Glastonbury (c) Andy Willsher.Photo of Iggy Pop (c) Ami Barwell.Operahouse artwork by Paul Agar.With special thanks to all the contributors

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