Why Your Band Can't Get Tour Support: The Label Spent It All On Lobbying

The Music Industry Report tells us that Universal Music Group spent $790,000 in the 3rd quarter to lobby the federal government to vote for a bill that would pay labels for songs played over the radio.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with Los Lobos' new A&R guy at Hollywood Records. The band had just signed to the label after being on Slash/WB.   There were great marketing plans on the table.  The problem I was told about a month before album release, was that the label spent all it's money marketing a flop by Jesse Camp.  There wasn't a budget for Los Lobos.  I'm betting no one even remembers the lanky VJ on MTV who tried to have a music career.  Can you imagine your band has already done all the social networking,  is about to release an album and go on the road, but all the marketing behind it has to be halted because there is no left? The label spent it all on lobbying a cause that would never put a dime in your pockets.  I hope no one has met that fate.

YouTube and Universal Deal

According to the Wall St Journal, Google Inc.'s YouTube and Universal Music Group are discussing a partnership under which YouTube would build a new hub for music videos.

YouTube would also provide technology and advertising-sales support to help distribute Universal's video content to other Web sites, people familiar with the matter say.

Is creating a new YouTube hub worth the time and effort? Does it justify jobs at Universal to work on this with YouTube? If there was an announcement that YouTube was setting up a hub for indie artists and they would promote and develop new acts, that would be worthy of a news story. Somehow a major label trying to eek out a few more dollars sounds like tired old news.