A fortnight ago, respected underground imprint Ninja Tune posted a firm statement on its home page about the alleged leaking of upcoming material from watermarked promo CDs sent to journalist Benjamin Jager at German magazine Backspin. One of the CDs was Todda T’s new album Watch Me Dance, whose sudden widespread access online forced Ninja Tune to rapidly advance the official digital release date and strike Backspin from its database.
“The availability of these records online,” Ninja’s management commented, “has meant a rush release of the digital version of Toddla’s record, which, after the years of work put in, will seriously affect the ability to make any kind of financial return from commercial release. It’s very hard for young, up and coming artists to make a living from their music. People uploading their music months before it is commercial available are not doing them any favours.”
The magazine in question denied having leaked the material to which Ninja Tune in turn replied reaffirming their initial assertions; who exactly is to believe is up for debate, but it raises an interesting question, namely why, in this digital day and age, would any journalist look to ‘tout’ something ahead of release?
A few years ago reviewers could, in theory, try and sneakily sell the physical promo singles and albums they were being sent. The ‘tangible’ had value; a physical product had some sort of price. But today, when most releases are computer files made almost anonymous because of their sheer volume and velocity, one wonders where the financial incentive is.
“It’s not about cash these days” stresses Thomas H Green, music writer for the Guardian, Telegraph and Mixmag. “It’s all about the status and being seen as edgy and hip. In a digital world where news is digestible 24-7 and readily shared, there’s a real incentive for some of these younger writers to post their scoop and earn some kudos.”
It’s a short-sighted, short-term game according to Lee Tyler, Editor of bluesandsoul.com – the evolution of long-running music mag Blues & Soul: “Times have massively changed. Our journalists are old-guard and understand the rules of when, and when not to write. We will always do whatever we can to work with record labels and their various timings. Of course, now that everything is digital and there are so many new music sites and news portals, you’re getting a younger breed of reviewer who is generally more reckless. A lot of these young kids don’t write full-time; they have a number of different jobs, they don’t have so much heart in it.”
Music writing has never paid hugely well but many dedicated journalists will readily attest to the ‘personal’ value of receiving physical music. Where downloads are now steadily replacing CDs, so the journalist’s mindset is changing. “Receiving physical music from labels is a payment that shouldn’t be underestimated” Tyler says. “Old-guard writers have always been happy to have good music in their hands in exchange for sharing some of their wisdom on it. It used to be fair game. In their attempts to prevent piracy, a lot of labels today won’t even let you get the music; you get a link to tracks with a limited shelf-life and the older writers are no longer interested. That’s when magazines are forced to recruit younger part-timers and the real problems kick in.”
The environment in which 21st century journalists review music has, it seems, become less than ideal. More often than not digital promos insist that their recipient access them at one particular IP address (laptop or computer) between a fixed number of days - geography and timing that might not best suit the interests of the music, artist and label.
“A lot of music isn’t instant; it doesn’t immediately bowl you over as one thing or other… as a masterpiece even” Tyler suggests. “You need to be in the right frame of mind to consume it, and in the right place – in the car, in your lounge, on the street…. Some of the label security that is coming in is taking a huge amount of soul out of the review process.”
And sometimes, according to Tyler, it prevents the beats getting reviewed in the first place: “One label sent a CD in recently and we needed to get it covered quickly for it to make this month’s special hard copy issue. I uploaded and emailed it to my writer, but the label indirectly found out through the same guy and called me up on distributing it as if Blues & Soul wasn’t to be trusted. We were trying to help them out. Ultimately, I think the music industry needs to see the bigger picture; we need to be pushing everyone from BT to Soundcloud to better police their networks.”
One might reasonably argue that the Internet Service Providers have a major part to play in helping police the illegal sharing and downloading of music. Tighter control should, in theory, ease the sometimes fractious interaction between label and writer. “I don’t believe Soundcloud has a dedicated monitor either” Tyler adds. “The employment of someone like that would really help; I’m staggered on a daily basis by how much current music gets put on there with free access. That surely hurts the labels too?”
Leon Oakey, manager for labels including Crosstown Rebels, Visionquest and Hot Creations, uses web monitoring services such as Ripblock to help control the way in which his various releases are disseminated digitally. “Put it this way, if I didn’t use them it’d be hell on earth” he confides. “Last year was a really bad year in terms of leaks; it’s a situation that’s been building over three or four years. But the monitoring kit does help. You won’t catch everything; for that you need to be able to spend big money and that’s totally unrealistic for a lot of the smaller underground set-ups. It’s such a shame; all of this is affecting hard-working, creative artists and an industry with much to offer in the current downturn.”
Oakey echoes earlier comments in pointing the finger at younger, status-seeking journalists and bloggers but also references “gangsters” hard at ill-spent work within the clubbing community: “They exist. There are a number of fakes sites out there, for example, promising punters upfront music, luring them in but then taking them nowhere; you wonder what information is being illegally scraped from their machines. I’ve also heard about groups of people buying up new music from Beatport every week with dodgy credit cards and then pushing it on through their own shady sites.
“Sometimes you don’t know who to trust in the digital space but as for press, we can’t ignore them. A lot of them do a good, honest job and despite the potential downside of issuing promos out early, we need the publicity to help drive our overall business. It’s a bit Catch 22 but we struggle on…”
So is there any definitive answer to the question of pirated music? “As has been the case for years and years now… no” Tyler laughs ruefully. “If I knew the answer everyone would be knocking on my door, from all sides of the story. Perhaps labels – particularly the majors – need to consider releasing new music on one single, heavily promoted day. When they try and drip feed material over weeks and months, the opportunity for leaks is too great. But I’m not sure how practical a revenue-raising model the one ‘big bang’ approach would be.”
Oakey, meanwhile, makes passing reference to a more radical scenario: “Some of the other labels I speak to have told me before now that when they spend less on advance promotion for certain records, those records often generate bigger sales. It’s to do with the mystique of a tune apparently; it attracts more people in a saturated market. That’s how topsy-turvy this business has become but, truly, I’m not sure that a no-PR approach works in the long-term.”
Green has the final bold word: “Jagger [Sir Mick] put it best when he talked about being lucky to develop as an artist in an era when you could make serious money from tying music into physical objects. Today, it’s all about fast-flowing data and this revolution-spirited culture of sharing. We’re sticking it to ‘the man’... to the established order, for sure, but we’re also sticking to the artists and to a lot of people working within the music industry. We’re properly fucked up!”
Words: Ben Lovett
