Recording - December 2010 - 55

Continued from page 52 deal. Down to the actual composition itself, it’s sort of a B-level song for me. But it’s interesting that he said it was Modern AC. Now, I don’t want to get too picky and say something about his voice or whatever, but it’s interesting for those of you going down that route musically. Just be aware that there is a very narrow market in the United States for music like that, but outside of the United States—particularly in the United Kingdom—there’s a beautiful market for that. Someone might want to look there. I don’t know if others agree, but… Ken: Absolutely. If anything, that hits it right on the head. Because the truth is, America is so narrowcast by radio and formatting that it’s virtually impossible unless an established artist cut the song and made it something even more special. But a great voice and a great song still lives and thrives in the U.K., and it’s really a powerful thing to think about. Monti: Yeah, like you could see an artist like Westlife—that song would have to be rewritten, but you could see an artist like Westlife, who sells oodles of music in the U.K., singing a song like that, because that’s what their albums sound like. I don’t know of an artist in America that makes a record like that today. Ken: The U.K. market is much more receptive to that kind of singer/songwriter-esque thing, where you can sell a voice, or you can sell a song. I think the Country market used to be like that, but I’m sure it’s a little bit more confined now, just due to the nature of the business itself and how difficult it is to get on radio. Monti: We have a few, if you will, sort of AC-oriented labels at Universal. Things like Decca or Verve have sort of morphed into that, but they struggle. I would like to think there are people out there—forget about radio format, because there are other ways to reach people—but I like to think there are people who want music like that. I know there are people who want music like that. It’s just a question of how… The industry puts out music that’s clearly for the 13- to 24-year-old demographic. They steal more music than 45-, 50-, and 60-year-olds. One of the calls I get from our members all the time is,“Why don’t the labels put out more music for the adult market?”It makes sense. If they steal less and they want it, and they’ve got disposable income, why does the industry seemingly ignore the adult market? Monti: Two reasons, Michael. It’s not for the lack of trying, because I think we do put out a lot of music for the adult market. You may not hear about it, maybe it’s not marketed to you, or maybe we’re just doing a bad job of marketing it. But frankly, there are a lot of artists that are signed. And also in

that market, what you have is a lot of people who might have been successful at a younger age doing something specifically musically, and to get them to record more adult-themed music, if you will, is very difficult, because everybody wants to be young, everybody wants to be hip, or whatever. And I’d also say that it’s even more fragmented because we’ve discovered that males steal more than females in the youth market. So that’s why you see companies like Hollywood doing so well at the moment, because a lot of their music is driven toward young females, who tend to not steal, for whatever reason. I’m happy about it—don’t get me wrong. That’s because they have their daddies’credit cards. Trust me—I say that from experience. [Laughter] Monti: But there is a fair amount of adult music

that’s coming out, whether on Verve or Lost Highway... I know that Starbucks lifestyle marketing hit the adult market; but it seems to have fizzled. Monti: No, Starbucks was a beautiful thing; they just screwed themselves, really, frankly … along with us. They got into the record business. They should have never done that; they should have left well enough alone and let us put records in their stores. We still do. Sting, one of our artists, came out with a new record recently. It’s our biggest retailer for that right now. And they’re still very important, but it’s now it’s just point-of-purchase. Before there was like a rack of records. People don’t want to buy records like that in Starbucks. They just got ahead of themselves, unfortunately.

Recording - December 2010

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