Friday 18 April 2008

Hater like Star and Buck

I'm thinking of renaming my blog. Something along the lines of "Marvin reads Guardian articles, BBC.co.uk news stories and watches Youtube" what do you think? If you didn't know me from Adam and came to this site you'd think that's all I do...it's not I promise you. I was at Example's Nando's gig last night, I will blog the night at some point. I'm so far off topic right now it's actually pretty impressive. I will pull the topic back in by saying "Cafe Nero" there we go. Back on topic. This is a pretty interesting article that appears to be about a guy who's on a promo tour playing at Cafe Neros throughout the country, but actually it's about a few of the new ideas being thrown around that will "Save the industry". It's interesting because as much as I would love to think people are going to run out to the shops and buy 'Devil In The Distance' just because I tell them it's great, that's pretty much not going to happen, especially when the Megaupload link is right in front of them. Which means that I am personally engaged with the plight of the industry as things stand. My career, my rent, my potential wealth, my potential happiness would appear to be intertwined with the state of record sales. This article is suggesting a corporate tie in of some kind, which I find to be a very dark concept. Jermain Dupri just launched a label with Def Jam and Tag which I'm told is a kind of body spray in America. Kriss Kross, Lil Bow Wow and Dem Franchize Boyz selling deodorant under the guise of credible music fills me with such dread in the pit of my very soul. What the article did get me thinking about though was the concept of the promo tour in 2008. We do live tours, I've supported Akala, Yes Boss, Goldie Lookin Chain, Lethal Bizzle, Skinnyman and Example now. But I always feel like there could be more gained from a tour of the UK. We talked about it around the 'Superhero' release, going around Student Unions and engaging the people I feel would take the most from my music, giving them something, having a good time and actually getting a feel for every city I touch down in. We're talking about setting something up at the moment along those lines and I'd love to do it. I think if everybody outside of the major label system is trying to be as flexible as possible with non-traditional promo and income then everybody inside the system (for however long they may be within it) needs to do the same. Not that a promo tour is revolutionary, far from it, but I think it's a basic tool that we seem to have ignored over the last few years. The people buy the records, the people buy the tickets, why are they ignored? I don't want to tour Cafe Neros though. Maybe a Nandos tour, or a Woolworths tour, me and Jackie Chan could work out some rap/ Hong Kong John Wu choreography would go down well in the gardening isle.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Word.

I been wanting to do a school tour since forever, like back in the day when the mobile library would come to town. Like that, but I'd do a gig, and give an hour long lesson on Fruity Loops before bopping off to the next.

Hang on.

Why'd I forget about that? That would rule!