continued from Part 3.....
Richard Young: I really have to dig it though cause when I get into it, I'm into it with all force, you know. I like Stitch Rivet. I like Jay (Booth) alot. He's a great guy, the manager guy, you know. He should be in the band. He's a salesman and a half. I checked them out man and the way I figure it is like, if I don't help some of these bands, they're gonna be like me. It's gonna take them 20 years to get somewhere.
SplatterTribe:
That's awesome actually.
Richard Young: If it's something I dig personally and I'll be the first one to tell you that it might be the greatest thing in the world, but if I don't get it, I can't sale it. I got to be able to love it.
SplatterTribe:
OK, I ask some of those I interview if they have a good random question to ask a future interviewee. This next question is from Fish Scales of the Hip Hop group Nappy Roots. His question was do you feel as an artist that you are indeed role models?
Richard Young: Here's the deal with that. It's like, Yes, absolutely we are because we influence the way young people think. There's absolutely no doubt about it. The answer to that question is what kind of role model do you choose to be? Do you choose to be the guy that makes it better for those people that pay attention to you? Don't think they're not paying attention. I did. You did. We all did. I used to stand in front of the stage and watch Jimmy Page play till my mouth went dry back in the day. The same thing with Bad Company and FREE and Black Oak Arkansas and Trapeze and all those bands. I've set and watched them live. Rory Gallagher (is another). I was very fortunate to see all those people, but they had as much to do with my success as I did. You know, that's where it came from. It doesn't make any difference really whether those people that you're affecting become musicians or not. It's that they read something into your soul. That you're doing something where you feel successful. That message comes off, it spins off to them as, "Hey, I got to do something in life that I believe in."
That's the magic thing right there. As a musicians, I think the thing that we transmit is getting it across to people is, "Have a good life and do something that you believe in. That you want to do."
SplatterTribe:
Do you have a good random question to ask a future interviewee?
Richard Young: .....Well, let's see. What would be a good question?....... I don't know. I've never thought of it. No one's asked that question before because I always had all the answers to everything. I'm a know-it-all (laughs). Naw.
I think, probably, a question that would be a good question that the public would like is....How do you feel about how the industry has changed in the past 25 years? Just ask them that and see what they say because I think it's something the public needs to know. I mean I could ramble on and tell you why things are the way they are, but ask them that question. You'll have to ask someone who's been around long enough. I don't know who you got coming up but you know, 25 to 30 years things have changed so much. To be honest with you, if you really want to get down to it, ask them how they feel about the way things have changed in the industry the past five years. That would probably be a much better question.
SplatterTribe:
Do you think that the era of the big record label is over? I mean they are definitely suffering. Are they wise enough to get past it?
Richard Young: Well, they're wise enough to create something called the 360 deal and what that amounts to is record companies are not selling enough records to just be a record company anymore. They want to be a management company. They want to be a booking agent. They want to sell T-shirts. Nowadays all bands, I'm not saying Black Stone Cherry is has one yet, but I'm sure we will at one point......They (record labels) want to do this thing called a 360 deal which actually encompasses all forms of income that a band makes. Back in the day, you know, I mean up until Madonna whopped her big butt up and signed a 360 deal, there was no such thing. It's ok for somebody that's really done extremely well, like a U2 or Madonna because people can afford to spend a whole lot of money and they can afford to get them a whole lot of money because they know it's a sure deal.
But when you're dealing with baby bands and new bands, I think that the record companies are doing something that is very, very dangerous right now. I don't think that the new regime of the 360 deal is gonna pan out in the long run. It might. What's gonna happen, I'm afraid Luie, is......back in the day record companies had a record deal. So many of these record companies are built on, it's a structure of points. Every point is a penny. So a dollar, there's a 100 points. A normal Rock band would get 13 to 15 points, if they're lucky they get 15. So that means that out of every dollar that the record company clears, the band got 15 cents. Now what happened was, that's not alot of money when you think, "Wow, I've been buying albums all my life and think I'm giving the band 5 bucks. They're only getting like 85 cents out of $16.99 or whatever?" But, that's the way it's always been and now it's gotten worse because the record companies are going, "Well, we can't sale enough records to make it worth our while." It never was worth the bands while to sale records. It was all about touring and merch, selling T-shirts and selling tickets and that sort of thing or whatever, souvenirs.
Now the record companies are going, "We're going to go under if we don't create a way to make more revenue." So what they're doing is they created this thing called the 360 deal and it encompasses all forms of income that a band would generate and they want a percentage of that. If you're, like I said, Madonna or U2 and they have to pay you an advance of about 200 million dollars to sign one.....Well I could figure out how to live off of 200 million. There's no guarantee that those people are going to live long enough to get that money paid back, much less, work that much. That's ok for something like that, but for a baby band what's gonna happen I'm afraid, and I'm gonna make this prediction, is there's going to be a lot of great bands that have great music that are going to be bankrupt because the record companies are going to take so much from them. If they don't pop and sale a million or two million records they won't make any money. You would have to sale 2 million records. 99.9% of the bands that have great music are never gonna sale 2 million records. They're just not gonna do it. I mean, great bands, root bands, cool bands, if they sale 100,000 records, they're like kicking their heels together.
So what's gonna happen, I'm afraid, is the record companies are forcing these acts to sign these deals and they are going to bankrupt the band and cause them to go get a job somewhere.
SplatterTribe:
And the band won't own anything.
Richard Young: Yeah, and it's sad. We'll see how it goes, you know. If you're not signed to a record company and you're a band out there, it's not what it used to be. Don't think that it's cut out to be the greatest thing in the world because it's not. Unfortunately record companies were a great tool to market your records, in the day. Now-a-days they're in as much trouble as the band that doesn't have a deal. They're gonna take whatever it is necessary that they need to take to survive. They really could give a damn less about the band. That's unfortunate. I hate this, but it's a game. If you want to play that game, it's a very dangerous game, then go ahead, but if you can build up a following and get on the internet and sale 100,000 records over a period of 2 or 3 years, you're gonna make 7 bucks a record. That's $700,000. It's more money than you're ever gonna see from a record deal, I can tell you right now.
You know, because it's like, that day is over, the heyday of the record business. To answer your question, Yes, absolutely. Record companies are.....The only way they are going to survive is to be able to cut a deal with some act and get lucky that that act blows up and sales 100 million records like Mariah Carey or something. Then they're going to make a bunch of money and that way they survive, but if that doesn't happen then more than likely.......You never know. I'm not gonna say never. It's not gonna happen as much as it used to.
I mean, just look at it Luie, what was it 10 years ago we were looking at the #1 debut on Billboard every week was 3-500,000 albums. Now we're looking at 50-60,000 records, or 80,000 and it's the #1 debut of the week.
SplatterTribe:
And the biggest sellers after a couple of weeks are off the charts.
Richard Young: Absolutely, and you know, my son's band is very lucrative. They're doing quite well, but I mean, they came on the charts and then where are they? Well, they're selling alot of records but anymore you don't have those monster sale's because people are just not going to the record stores and buying records. I wish we were, you know. I can't fuss about it because I don't buy 5 new records a year. Back in the day we all went to the record store when a great band came out. Now-a-days.....It almost reminds me of when I was a kid, they didn't sale albums. I'm talking about in the early 60's. You went to a record store and they had a record player and they'd put a 45 on and you bought this 45 and got 2 songs for $1.32 or $.99. Now you can get one song for $.99 (laughs).
I guess the mentality of or society today is I want Crazy Bitch, but I don't want the rest of the album.
SplatterTribe:
Exactly, I mean everything is so single based or individual song based that it is hard to sale an entire album now.
Richard Young: You got to realize that where that hurts artistry is....My philosophy always has been if you're going to do an album, don't just do a bunch of songs and stick them together. Make it read like a book. A great album needs to read like a good book. You put it on and listen to it from start to finish. You should be able to hear the whole thing and see something through the whole thing. Let there be a story. It's unfortunate that the record companies got that vibe of give us 3 good singles and you can do whatever you want to do.
SplatterTribe:
Yeah, they can sale a single. They can sale a ringtone or whatever.
Richard Young: Yeah and that's kind of where it is now. Jeez man, we may get to the point before it's over with where we won't make albums at all anymore. We'll just make singles.
SplatterTribe:
Yeah, I hadn't really thought that deep about it, but the album is really lost.
Richard Young: Pretty much, man and that's why I love underground music. There's always gonna be some cool band out there that's gonna record their own album in their basement. It's gonna be better than anything else on the Top 40. You're gonna love it and those guys are going to put it on the internet. We're all gonna buy a copy and hooray, those guys make a little money or they at least get some notoriety and go out and tour the rest of their life.
That's what I live for is the entrepreneurism of our business. I don't look at what's going on as a real derogatory thing, even though I may sound that way at times because I have been dealing with the 360 deals myself for different acts. I feel like it's a very exciting time in the music business to me, because, you know, when things are going good you can't get your foot in the door. When thing are shaky everybody wants to hear what you've got to say or (wants to know) what kind of band do you got? So I find it a very exciting time for the industry, as far as that goes.
To answer your question once again about record companies, I don't think it's ever gonna be like it used to be.
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