It seemed for a while that every day there was another story of a famous aging rock star selling his or her music catalog to some music publishing conglomerate for millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, of dollars. Dylan, Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, Neil Young, the list goes on. The explanation for this flurry of selling activity is that this is a way for these musicians to get their estates in order for their heirs. Sounds more like a Fidelity commercial than The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but there it is. I think there are perhaps other reasons for the recent selling of song catalogs.
The first reason is Spotify. I was an early adopter of this market-leading streaming service. Most of the songs ever recorded are at your fingertips for $10 a month. It is a great deal for the music lover not so much for the music maker. I’ve seen the Spotify musician royalty math and it is not good. Though Spotify pays out a huge chunk of its revenues to the music companies very little makes it to the recording artist. Basically, making money off your recorded work has been cut off by streaming. All that was left for the recording artists and bands to make money was touring. Then came the pandemic and that avenue was shut down for over a year and counting.[1]How was a musician going to make any money? For the younger artists this was, and remains, a hug problem. For the long-established artists, icons of the classic rock era, there was one more way to make some money: their song catalog. We got a glimpse of the worth of song catalogs by watching the kerfuffle between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun when he bought her publishing company Big Machine in 2019 (and then subsequently sold it to PE firm Shamrock Group). Her masters were trading hands for $300 million. The aging rock stars were watching as were the publishing companies When times get tough you hock the jewelry – in this case the crown jewels. And so it began and continues.
This is depressing on a number of levels. Selling out was always the ultimate uncool thing to do in rock and roll. Selling all your songs to huge corporations? What could be more uncool? And what about new songs that get written? Are they also the property of the new owners? Talk about working for the man! Then there is the underlying issue that these heroes of our youth have reached the end not only of their productive lives but soon the end of their actual lives. We’ve lost so many in the past few years. It’s like watching one of the last links to your youth fading away. As to the selling of their catalogs (Paul Simon announced that he sold his to Sony as I am writing this) I don’t blame the artists but it is a shame it had to come to this.
ARTS ROUNDUP
Books
Chris Knopf, “Deep Dive”. The latest entry in the Sam Acquillo Hampton’s mysteries. This time Sam’s good friend Burton Lewis is the suspect in a local murder. One of my favorite series.
Joan Didion, “The Year of Magical Thinking”. Didion’s account of the year after her husband’s sudden death days before New Year’s in 2003.
Michael Connelly, “Law of Innocence”. Latest in the Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer). Mickey is jailed on murder charges just before the pandemic hits.
Don DeLillo, “Underworld”. I wanted to read something by DeLillo. This is a sprawling epic novel covering the last half of the 20th century.
Music
Julien Baker, “Little Oblivions”. Third album from Baker. Solid songs and the production shimmers.
Lydia Loveless, “Daughter” – Loveless has been off the radar since 2016. Nice comeback effort. Stream “Dead Writers.”
Sweater Curse, “Close” (single). Super infectious single. Catch it on YouTube.
Kings of Leon, “When You See Yourself”. Despite the mostly negative reviews I like this album. Less anthemic rock than past albums and a more atmospheric sound. Decide for yourself.
Keith Jarrett, “The Sun Bear Concerts”. Back in 1976 everyone seems to own “The Koln Concert”. Meanwhile Jarrett was in Japan performing a series of shows that would become this 8-disc box set. All improv as always. Amazing.
Film/Television/Streaming
“The Dig”. Starring Carrie Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James. An archeological excavation in 1938 on a widow’s English farm uncovers an ancient sailing ship. I’ll watch anything with Carrie Mulligan.
“The Bookshop”. Starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson. A woman (Mortimer) opens a bookshop in a small English town against the opposition of the local power structure led by Clarkson. Nighy plays the town recluse who comes to her aid.
“Justified” (season 2). The backwoods mayhem of Harlan County, Kentucky continues. Margo Martingale guest stars as the manipulative matriarch of the Bennett crime family.
Podcasts
I’ve been hitting the Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin “Broken Record” podcast hard lately. Interviews included Bruce Springsteen, Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Nick Lowe, Lisa Robinson (rock journalist) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco). I think this is the best music podcast.
[1] In a recent podcast interview Bruce Springsteen said he thought it would be mid-2022 before he would be able to tour again.