MUSE-SICK

15 years ago Prince made a dramatic statement about his relationship with his record company by painting the word “slave” on his face for public performances. His complaint was that he thought Warners was unable to keep up with his prolific output and he was unhappy with the relatively poor reaction to his “Love Symbol” album. Prince changed his name to “Love Symbol” and was generally referred to as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. He’d removed himself from the “system” and ultimately his career went off the rails, perhaps because of his actions, perhaps because somewhere inside of all that he also lost his “mojo”.

Looking back however Prince’s “Slave” episode might have been the signpost of what was to come. Record companies and musicians are no longer working to the same songbook.

I’ve reported on OK Go’s dissatisfaction with their record company EMI sabotaging their relationship with YouTubers. Earlier this month Warners decided they were withdrawing permission for their artists’ songs to be used by sites including Spotify, We7 and Last.fm – which offer free access to millions of tracks. Warners is throwing their support behind paid download sites such as iTunes, and streaming services which charge for content. Now it’s Muse who are unhappy and bassist Chris Wolstenholme has said “It’s like taking your song off the radio, isn’t it? You’re instantly taking your song away from a group of potential listeners.”  This at a moment in Muse’s career when their popularity worldwide  is at its greatest. Warners have everything to gain. Muse have everything to lose.

Elsewhere, Iceland’s Sigur Ros is complaining about the way British television can get away with using their music – particularly the song ‘Hoppípolla’ – as background music in various programs without permission.

Who’s looking after the music? Who’s taking care of artists’ interests on the corporate level? If the record companies and music publishers can’t be trusted with that responsibility where does that leave the artists? As slaves?

The landscape is changing but the fundamentals are as they always were –  music’s there, the audience is there, and yet wherever they go to find each other they’re being thwarted by other interests.

That’s why artists are facing an immediate future of making their living out of selling t-shirts.

What I’m listening to: Besnard Lakes (Are The Roaring Night), Grinderman (Grinderman), The Move (Shazam)

Tags: Besnard Lakes, Grinderman, Muse, OK Go, Prince, Sigur Ros, The Move