Terry McBride: Crazy Music Marketer or Just Plain Crazy?

Want to read something that will give you faith that the music business may be slowly turning in the right direction? Then head over to Wired magazine and read this article on Terry McBride and his Nettwerk management company.

The article's subhead says it all: "Terry McBride has a maverick approach to music management: Take care of the fans and the bands, and the business will take care of itself."

Here's an excerpt:

To all appearances, Nettwerk is just a midsize music management company with an indie record label on the side. Many of the artists on its client roster -- which includes Avril Lavigne, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, and Stereophonics -- are mainstream acts. But McBride, the company's cofounder and creative force, is quietly carrying out a plan to reinvent the music industry, including legalizing file-sharing and giving artists control over their own intellectual property.

The article then points out the many flaws of the traditional record business. (If you're not aware of these flaws, you REALLY need to read this.) It continues ...

Industry insiders like McBride think the old model is as antiquated as the 8-track. "The future of the business isn't selling records," McBride says. "It's in selling music, in every form imaginable."

McBride's first real test is the new release from Barenaked Ladies, the popular Canadian band that, on McBride's advice, left the Warner Music Group imprint Reprise Records three years ago to create its own label, Desperation Records.

BNL's new album, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, debuted this week at #17 in the U.S. and #7 in Canada. In a news release, McBride had this to say:

"Nettwerk and BNL are trying to get people to see beyond the physical number. Generating revenue, especially in the artist-run model, is about selling music in various mediums, selling concert tickets, licensing music to TV, ring tones, packed USB drives, etc. That is how success is measured, not by the physical album sales.

"The artist-run model is the future. If we can break bands using this model, the industry will be forever changed," McBride says. "We are making a music company, not a record label."

Again, read the entire Wired story here:
www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/nettwerk_pr.html

And the Barenaked Ladies news release at
www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=93582

-Bob