More Rick Rubin – Not Quite The Guy To Save The Music Biz After All

Damn, we’ve read more and now he’s gone and suggested that the answer to music is the subscription model; that the iPod will die and that we’ll want to buy the music of Paul Potts. Was he sponsored by Rhapsody for this piece?

In addition to his “never wearing a suit, never traveling, never going to an office” demands, Rubin also suggested (strongly) that Columbia become the first major record company to go green and abolish plastic jewel boxes for all its CDs. “They thought about it and agreed,” Rubin said.

…At Rubin’s suggestion, he has also set up a “word of mouth” department, which will probably employ some members of the Big Red focus group along with dozens of other 20-somethings. The “word of mouth” department will function as a publicity-promotional arm of the company, spreading commissioned buzz through chat rooms across the planet and through old-fashioned human interaction. “They tell all their friends about a band,” Barnett explained. “Their job is to create interest.”

Rubin has a bigger idea. To combat the devastating impact of file sharing, he, like others in the music business (Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine at Universal as well as Hedyeh Parsia at Sanctuary Records, for instance), says that the future of the industry is a subscription model, much like paid cable on a television set. “You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to … Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”

The subscription model is the only way to save the music business. If music is easily available at a price of five or six dollars a month, then nobody will steal it.

“This is insane,” Rubin said enthusiastically as the clip began. In the video, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man waited nervously backstage. When he faced the judges, he told them he worked at a mobile-phone store and wanted to sing opera. The studio audience looked annoyed — they clearly wanted to hear a pop song — and the judges were cold and dismissive. No one expected anything remarkable from this dull-looking, forgettable guy.

Skip to next paragraph But then Paul Potts sang — “Nessun dorma” from “Turandot.” He had an improbably beautiful voice. “Where does that come from?” Rubin said as he watched. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. “I can’t look at this without crying,” he said. “His voice is so beautiful.” When Potts finished his song, Cowell said, “I thought you were absolutely fantastic.” The studio audience roared with approval, and Potts beamed.

“It’s August now — that show was eight weeks ago,” Rubin said. “In England, Paul Potts is already gigantic, but we are going to launch him in America. This just blew my mind.”

No one could have predicted that one of the first new Columbia artists to excite Rick Rubin would have been a would-be opera singer from a televised talent contest. “I certainly didn’t expect his response to be so positive,” said Steve Barnett, who originally brought Paul Potts to Rubin’s attention. “I was surprised and pleased that he wanted to jump on it.”

Rubin has an immediate plan for Potts — he wants to test the powers of his “word of mouth” department. “I want to see if we can create interest without there being a record to buy,” he said. “I’ve told our whole staff to send it to everyone, to tell everyone, to mention it everywhere. I want to get Paul Potts out to the world.” Rubin stopped for a moment. “Although, if someone tells you how great this is, it’s not as moving. It’s the element of surprise that makes you interested in Paul Potts: he looks so bland, and then he sings so well. If you expect him to be great, will the clip still be great?”

The question cannot be answered. A word-of-mouth campaign, like so many possible remedies for the ills of the record business, feels forced. “I just don’t know how else people will see Paul Potts,” Rubin said.

Is that a little desperate? Paul Potts’ clip was huge because it talked to something within us – about hope and winning against the odds – not because he was a great singer. Why the heck would be buy his records.

Bob Lefsetz responds in his newsletter:

Oh, Rick’s made some great records. Brought some acts back from the
dead. Made a second-rate act, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, into a front
liner. But if being a producer qualifies you to run a label, fine arts
majors would run America’s biggest corporations. Steve Jobs doesn’t
hand the reins of Apple to Jonathan Ive, and if he did, his board would
go fucking NUTS! But who is the Sony board? Who DO these guys report
to? Or is it just brother to brother, Stringer to Stringer.

Rubin ends up looking like a spoiled kid, frustrated that he can’t
effect change. Shouldn’t that have been part of the deal? That he
wouldn’t take the gig without monetized P2P?

But that’s just the point. That WAS in the article. The labels are
afraid that although licensed P2P might SAVE them, it might KILL them
too. That they might give away the store, kill the recorded music
business. They don’t want that blood on their hands, so they won’t
change, or will do so slowly. It would be like Microsoft not creating
Explorer, not competing with Netscape, saying the Internet is a
newfangled fad.

There IS a crisis. The major labels ARE making music free. They WILL
be sold to the highest bidder for a pittance if they don’t solve their
problems. But the way out isn’t hiring an iconoclastic, bearded guru,
but by changing the INFRASTRUCTURE! Changing how they distribute and
CHARGE!

But change can’t happen. Because instead of having student interns,
young people have got to WORK at the label. And the labels have fired
not only the youth, but everybody who does the day to day work. All
they’ve got is executives. So, Columbia has brought in someone hipper.
This is like Apple bringing in Gil Amelio. It’s not ENOUGH!

And maybe you don’t know who Mr. Amelio IS. That proves the point. The
old business is dead. Mourn no more. The new will be built not by old
farts, but young ‘uns fully familiar with tech. Oh, they’re not like
their parents, they don’t think everything in life should be free.
They’re CAPITALISTS! But, if you don’t respect them, they’ll rob you
blind.

The youth come up with Facebook. Columbia comes up with Rick Rubin.
Where would YOU put your money?

New York Times