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Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

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Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#51

Post by thomnottom »

yolesaber wrote: post #30
bantunes wrote: post #4

Miles Davis on Steve Miller: “Steve Miller didn’t have his shit going for him, so I’m pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then when we got there, we smoked the motherfucking place, and everybody dug it.” http://www.openculture.com/2015/05/miles-davis-opens-for-nei...

I mean, to be fair, Steve Miller is like the blandest of bland dad rock. And Miles Davis is literally the coolest person who ever lived.

To be fair, Miles Davis regularly beat his wives...

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#53

Post by mathattack »

One anecdote [0] that show his financial astuteness is that he once split a song so that he could get double the royalties.

I'm a huge Steve Miller fan - his career spanned pop, blues, psychedelic and folk, and his bands have included great talent. But the recording game moved on. The money in music is now in performance. And he's still touring [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Miller_(musician)

[1] http://www.stevemillerband.com/tour.html

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#54

Post by a_thro_away »

Steve Miller's success came when I was a teen. No matter how hard I worked, I could afford only a little piece of our shared culture as albums were monopoly priced; someone was getting rich. To add, where I lived we could not pick up much rock music on the radio, and only later were very rare concerts (but they were good and inexpensive; Styx for example). I hear echoes of all this in his statements.

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#55

Post by rorykoehler »

earlz wrote: post #43
k-mcgrady wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Also Skrillex - his label had no interest in his bleep-blonk-screech-BASS DROP tunes and he set it free online and got that avenue going - now he's got his own label and millions in the bank." Financially I think artists like Skrillex (EDM producers in general) are incredibly lucky. Production costs are practically zero. You buy a DAW and some monitors and you can do everything at home on your laptop. You don't n…

Realistically, this is also true of most modern music. Sure it requires a bit more equipment, but with software amp simulation and the plethora of VST plugins you can get, you can almost always get a tone similar to your target for just a couple hundred dollars, at most. Combine with equipment and you're looking at maybe $600 in instruments/equipment and a basic mic for vocals. The only sticking point right now it se…

>you can almost always get a tone similar to your target

Therein lies the rub. You can't beat real circuits and valves especially when you're cranking it loud for a gig. The difference between the (admittedly pretty amazing) VST's and the real deal is the difference between sounding good and sounding great.

Touring a band is still expensive. So much so that it was the difference between going on extensive global touring as a duo or not touring at all (4 piece) for someone I know.

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#56

Post by mathattack »

yolesaber wrote: post #30
bantunes wrote: post #4

Miles Davis on Steve Miller: “Steve Miller didn’t have his shit going for him, so I’m pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then when we got there, we smoked the motherfucking place, and everybody dug it.” http://www.openculture.com/2015/05/miles-davis-opens-for-nei...

I mean, to be fair, Steve Miller is like the blandest of bland dad rock. And Miles Davis is literally the coolest person who ever lived.

If you say this, you've only listened to early 80s Steve Miller. Check out his blues and folk. Lots are up on Youtube. (Which, to the point of the original article, probably doesn't pay him much)

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#57

Post by 6stringmerc »

dworin wrote: post #26

From the article: "If the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame wants to be taken seriously, they need to put their books out in the public. They need to fucking become transparent" Am I missing some deeper story? They have an 82 page form 990 on their own website. Most non-profits don't disclose anywhere near as much, and few post it on their own site. https://rockhall.com/media/assets/files/form990.pdf

Interesting. I took a quick look and can't say I'm qualified to render any real insight. It is interesting to see they claim $11M of expenses on $6M of revenue for the primary operation.

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#58

Post by uptownfunk »

marincounty wrote: post #41
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #20

Some people write songs about the music industry sucking. Hotel California is one (I bet). It would be fun to study this idea. Oh, another one could be Don't Download this Song by Weird Al. Edit: I wonder if Mr. Miller ever tried something like that.

When I was in college, I took my girlfriend on a summer vacation. We were both broke, so we decided to camp out along the CA coast. My car was on its last days, and the transmission didn't feel right, but we wanted that vacation. She was a great sport, as I tried to make it work. It seemed like nothing was working as I planned, except the sight of her in that bikini. I had a bunch of camping equipment, and thought, "…

You've lived a good life, mate.

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#59

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

marincounty wrote: post #41
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #20

Some people write songs about the music industry sucking. Hotel California is one (I bet). It would be fun to study this idea. Oh, another one could be Don't Download this Song by Weird Al. Edit: I wonder if Mr. Miller ever tried something like that.

When I was in college, I took my girlfriend on a summer vacation. We were both broke, so we decided to camp out along the CA coast. My car was on its last days, and the transmission didn't feel right, but we wanted that vacation. She was a great sport, as I tried to make it work. It seemed like nothing was working as I planned, except the sight of her in that bikini. I had a bunch of camping equipment, and thought, "…

Dude, you left her at the Hotel California so you could escape?

I can see the conversation now in that Hotel in Santa Barbara:

Clerk: Sorry. You can never leave.

You: Can't you take the blond?

Clerk: Only if you buy her a one piece.

You: Which piece? She already has two.

Clerk: A one piece, it's the style around here.

You: Ok ok...

Apropos of nothing, another song about the music industry sucking is Man of Constant Sorrow by the Soggy Bottom Boys.

Edit: The people modding you down are just jealous.

Re: Steve Miller: The Whole Music Industry Is Fuckin' Gangsters and Crooks

#60

Post by atom-morgan »

vlunkr wrote: post #25
6stringmerc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've done a strong job of describing what I felt years and years ago, and have come to learn is the lay of the land still in the music business. Labels have done a fantastic job of maintaining their gate-keeper status and of being able to break new artists into the mainstream. What didn't change with the internet is, partially kidding here, that 14 year old girls decide what's going to be popular. Outside of that,…

So, you might say the musicians who are more business savvy (they release independently in one way or another) can do well for themselves. The ones who let someone else take care of that stuff get screwed.

That's what I've thought all along. Artists think they can be artists and make money without learning business. As your parent mentioned with someone like Grimes, I think we're starting to see this change.
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