Finding the Rhythm

I posted the latest update to my dance chart the other day. For the second week in a row, Danny Saucedo is in the #1 position with All On You.

For those not following closely, Saucedo’s a former Swedish Idol contestant, signed to Sony, who is apparently enjoying a fair amount of success in his homeland and nearby Poland. In his early 20s, his voice belies his age, with a strength and emotion that works well with a song like All On You.

The problem? Go try and buy the song. If you’re in the U.S., you can’t. No doubt, you can get a Torrent, or use a P2P network and snag copies of it all day long. But you want to take a buck out of your wallet and get it the right way, good luck. I’ve been asked repeatedly by people who’ve heard this track in my mixshows, “Where can I get that track?” I don’t know; fly to Europe and use iTunes there?

I got my copy of the track through legitimate promotional channels. Sony, why are you asking me to play this song when your staff can’t seem to be bothered to take the 30 minutes or so required to make it available to consumers in the U.S. on iTunes?

And while I’ve certainly not read Saucedo’s recording contract, don’t give me some B.S. about territories and rights and what-not. Come on; new, young artist. Major worldwide label. Tell me they didn’t option the entire globe with this kid.

But whether we’re talking about this artist, or any other, this is one of the things that continues to blow my mind about the music industry, in dance and well beyond, and mostly with major labels, but minor ones too:

• Getting hooked-up with iTunes is hardly difficult or burdensome. It takes time, but most of that time is waiting for iTunes staff to process things—not the actual mechanics of posting content. So why so many indie artists don’t seem to think this is important is beyond me.
• To the major labels, if you own the rights, post the content. These days of timing releases to special moments? Making sure music goes out only on Tuesdays? Making sure releases coincide with some sort of press release or marketing effort? It’s history. Nobody gives a crap. There’s a lot of product, and not putting it out for some stupid reason that might have made sense 20 years ago is just insanity. Post it now, and figure out if and when you’re going to promote it later. You can always “re-release it” anyway… This happens all the time with indie dance music. Consumers do not care if it’s new to them now, or (again) six months from now. Release dates mean nothing.

This is really quite simple. The music business is hard. There’s lots of product. Consumers are fickle and have short attention spans. If you hope to make any money at all from your music, and you want to reduce piracy, how about actually offering said music for sale?

Such a novel concept for the 21st century.

So, Sony. Here’s a thought. Get around to having that intern in the digital department click a few web links and make Danny Saucedo’s track magically appear in iTunes, won’t you? I have a few fans who’d love to buy a copy. If they only could.