Re: The "Septenber" Release Date

[bucklind17]

I feel like a broken record, but the man needs to release the album independently. Far less successful and celebrated artists have released albums independently and done well with their endeavors. At this point, the priority should be getting the music OUT, period. The people who want to buy it will buy it and having a mainstream label is hardly a requirement for getting tours or promotional appearances booked these days.

The one date that is gone is probably a venue jumping the gun. It happens a lot. I would expect that date to reappear in a few weeks when they are actually allowed to let the public know about it.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by elle

but he already is walking the walk!!

he walked away from WB and announced that he'll put this out either on his own or w/ some small label.

i don't really get why are we choosing not to believe him when he said he walked, and that he's doing a tour in the fall? (guess learning from history / GOS - but again, then he depended on WB - now he depends just on his own means).

Nothing's concrete yet...that's all. Doesn't matter what he said. Things change - a lot. Like, he thought they were going to do a new Mac record after the Unleashed tour but Stevie did a solo record. Also, WB and the Mac were in the process early Unleashed of promoting a Rumours boxed set with "never before released" stuff that has yet to see the light of day...

[elle]

Originally Posted by bucklind17

The one date that is gone is probably a venue jumping the gun. It happens a lot. I would expect that date to reappear in a few weeks when they are actually allowed to let the public know about it.

cool, hope that's it.

[elle]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Nothing's concrete yet...that's all. Doesn't matter what he said. Things change - a lot. Like, he thought they were going to do a new Mac record after the Unleashed tour but Stevie did a solo record. Also, WB and the Mac were in the process early Unleashed of promoting a Rumours boxed set with "never before released" stuff that has yet to see the light of day...

i agree about nothing concrete. and you have much more experience with all this stuff than i do.

but, again, during the UL he was saying there will be a mac album and if it depended on him there would be apparently. he's still saying he thought he'd be doing something else last year, but since he unexpectedly had time on his hands he decided he might as well fill it.

so he depended on stevie there, and she pulled the plug on it.
box set was depending on WB again...

--> no WB involvement = good thing

[BTFLCHLD]

hello, it's May!! I don't doubt Lindsey will have my dreams come true. I shall have that CD on blast, flying this side and that side of the california coast, drinking in every show as without water since the GOS tour. I'm frick parched and I've some Lindsey, else I DIE. haha.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by bucklind17

I feel like a broken record, but the man needs to release the album independently. Far less successful and celebrated artists have released albums independently and done well with their endeavors. At this point, the priority should be getting the music OUT, period. The people who want to buy it will buy it and having a mainstream label is hardly a requirement for getting tours or promotional appearances booked these days.

The one date that is gone is probably a venue jumping the gun. It happens a lot. I would expect that date to reappear in a few weeks when they are actually allowed to let the public know about it.

I concur with what you have stated. Lindsey's solo music screams independent label. They would absolutely respect and treat him better than an old-school label like Warners. I hope once Stevie's current gig an and Lindsey's solo thing has run it course, they will quickly go into the studio and create a great Fleetwood Mac album.

I can't imagine that his recent solo work (which is already recorded?) would be rolled into a Fleetwood Mac album. I read a recent interview where he said that he didn't want to do that again -- that it would be better to collectively create the album, along with an outside producer, so it wouldn't all be resting on his shoulders.

[Cammie]

Penquin Head :
That last paragraph is more truthful and sounds like a wife saying..."Look, calm down...we will work this out!" You remember how stressed he got on the video of him looking for a producer!

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by elle

i agree about nothing concrete. and you have much more experience with all this stuff than i do.

but, again, during the UL he was saying there will be a mac album and if it depended on him there would be apparently. he's still saying he thought he'd be doing something else last year, but since he unexpectedly had time on his hands he decided he might as well fill it.

so he depended on stevie there, and she pulled the plug on it.
box set was depending on WB again...

--> no WB involvement = good thing

But, if they were the only ones who offered you a deal you'd probably take it. Also, you may just being making it public knowledge you could go independent to get the big boys attention.

[holidayroad]

I mostly agree with what CADreaming is saying. Yes, it would be nice if Lindsey could release his albums independently and have it all work out right. I just worry about it. I mean, all these years, he's had the backing of a big record company. Yes, they didn't promote him the way they should have, but at least he knew he'd have a place with them, even if the album didn't sell. He's taking a huge chance to sign with someone else. If he does, he may never have the backing of WB again. It's too late in the game to chance this.

[elle]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

But, if they were the only ones who offered you a deal you'd probably take it. Also, you may just being making it public knowledge you could go independent to get the big boys attention.

he can go small label, or he can put it out himself. he has options, even more affordable to him than tons of bands that do it all the time. big label is a distant third choice and not worth considering for someone like LB imo - he has his own studio, he records, engineers and produces CDs himself and has a band on some songs only (granted on more this time than usual), can hire independent PR (already has) and can pay for DVD packaging / shipping.

see interesting excerpts from david lowery's blog (cracker, CVB) about labels, independent labels, and putting CDs out on your own (or start own label) that i quoted few months ago (almost nobody seemed to care) - he argued that he did not want to do his own route mainly b/c he would need to pay for studio time, engineer, the band etc - again, LB already has most of this stuff in place / does it himself anyway, and he already hired independent PR, plus he seems to be using his networking potential more lately (emphases are mine):

"In 2007 after more than 20 years of recording and touring with the help of a record label or two, I was dreading the fact that we didn’t have a record label anymore. Our various one-off deals had run out and it didn’t seem like anyone was much interested in giving us the kind of deal to which we’d grown accustomed. Sure we could have got deals with various labels that would have offered us 50/50 profit splits or small advances. But check this out. Any contractor reading this will immediately grasp how expensive it is to record an album:

Like it or not the minimum amount of time to mix and record and album of 12 songs is about 18 days. I know no professional highly regarded bands that will make albums at a quicker pace (unless you go the live in studio route**). So say there are 4 people in the band. Then you need and audio engineer and an engineers assistant. aside from the engineer’s assistant everyone is a highly skilled specialist. So you are looking at 5 people who should be compensated in the range of 250 – 500 a day. Then there are the studio costs. The cheapest home studios charge 300 a day. What if you had your own studio? well did you get the mixing console and microphones for free? The computer software or tape machine for free? NO. Minimal cost for setting up the crudest pro level studio is 25k. Protools HD hardware and computer is 20k by itself. What about lodging or travel? So trust me when i say an 18 day record ultimately costs a minimum of 36k. You may defer payments to your side musicians or engineer or even the studio. But when the CD comes out they will need to get their money.

Further I would bet nearly every modern (post 1980) album you own was recorded in more than 18 days. There are exceptions, but no one has made a career of recoding “live in studio”.

Then you must consider the costs of marketing and distributing a CD or even download only. Again you can’t even get noticed by the bloggers unless you hire a specialist an independent publicist or two. They use their personal contacts to bring (even a cracker ) an album to their attention. The popular and influential bloggers, like the magazine reviewers are overwhelmed with submissions. It wouldn’t even matter that we are a “brand name. “

Commercial even large non-comm radio? Forget it. You need to hire one of these independent radio promoters that essentially bribes stations with “promotional buys” or events.

Okay. ”But aren’t you gonna make a lot more money if you sell the CDs yourselves?” Yes. But most people don’t realize that an album that sales less than 25k its first week can chart as a top 5 album now. A few years ago that would have been impossible. Maybe 100k minimum to get you in the top 5. I just looked at the Sound Scan report for one of our much more successful americana peers. Their last album. touted as their “highest charting”, sold less than 50k copies in the US! I’m not even gonna embarrass them by mentioning their name. Suffice it to say that Cracker’s last album sold considerably less.

You see how this “start your own label” thing is ultimately a sketchy proposition? You put considerable capital at risk and it’s a distraction from the necessary creative “work” an artist must do. It is generally profitable for someone like us to put out our own record, but not guaranteed.

Not saying I wouldn’t put out our own albums on our own label again, if I had to… Just saying I don’t want to."

http://300songs.com/2011/01/23/69-de...song/#comments

[elle]

Originally Posted by holidayroad

I mostly agree with what CADreaming is saying. Yes, it would be nice if Lindsey could release his albums independently and have it all work out right. I just worry about it. I mean, all these years, he's had the backing of a big record company. Yes, they didn't promote him the way they should have, but at least he knew he'd have a place with them, even if the album didn't sell. He's taking a huge chance to sign with someone else. If he does, he may never have the backing of WB again. It's too late in the game to chance this.

i'm not even talking about them not promoting him - i'm talking about them stalling him, and preventing him from any other independent promotion he put together himself (bad example, and also prime example of his laziness about that kind of stuff, but just look at his youtube channel). that's not a home / place to be with.

and please read what i quoted above from another insider / musician. he does not need to sign with anybody. he has most of the stuff already done / in place (other than promotion, which he doesn't get from WB anyway).

[CADreaming]

^Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but not totally realistic for Lindsey at this point in his career. By the way, having Irving Azoff as a manager ain't too shabby of a deal. So, I'm not concerned that he'll be missing some tremendous career boost if he doesn't go indy -he won't ever be a chart topper, or sell millions of cd's or downloads. Even Fleetwood Mac won't ever reach that sort of pinnacle again. But, he will have an avenue to put his stuff out there, so in the end of the day it doesn't really matter if it's done via WB or an independent. He is 62 years old and has had the best of both worlds.

[elle]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

^Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but not totally realistic for Lindsey at this point in his career. By the way, having Irving Azoff as a manager ain't too shabby of a deal. So, I'm not concerned that he'll be missing some tremendous career boost if he doesn't go indy -he won't ever be a chart topper, or sell millions of cd's or downloads. Even Fleetwood Mac won't ever reach that sort of pinnacle again. But, he will have an avenue to put his stuff out there, so in the end of the day it doesn't really matter if it's done via WB or an independent. He is 62 years old and has had the best of both worlds.

yes, he keeps repeatedly saying what's in bold above, and he seems to really appreciate what he has and can do (also, he'll still be 61 in sept).

but see i don't see it as enthusiastic - i see what i'm saying as realistic. (with the caveat of course that i really don't know what i'm talking about )

and reality is this - lindsey solo doesn't sell many records, but he accepted that a while ago - and at this point he's considered a rock legend. many legends don't sell much but get great reviews and keep putting out CDs on their own small labels and keep touring - b/c they are artists and driven to do that. and people appreciate it.

so i see two options -

1. putting CD out on his own (or small label) now - which is what i and some others here are trying to advocate - or -
2. going back to WB (which is in huge turmoil) and having it stalled for another xx years.

to me the choice seems clear. i want it now (well, september)! and judging by the newly appearing tour dates that you and others have found, this seems to be happening.

what am i missing?

[CADreaming]

That it's going to happen regardless...

elle, do you seriously think I don't know exactly when his bday is??

The difference between major label and indy or your own label is money. If you have the option of using their budget vs. using your own personal money you go with theirs. And who wants to sell cd's out of the trunk of your car? Distribution is also vital, although as I've said it has changed a lot. Look at what Stevie has sold even with all the promotion she's gotten. Trust me when I tell you all the players involved know what they are doing and will successfully milk it til it's dry...and LB won't be left out at all. It's going to be fine.

[elle]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

That it's going to happen regardless...

elle, do you seriously think I don't know exactly when his bday is??

yeah i was puzzled a bit

(in my defense, i have a late summer bday and hate it when people always add another year to my age b/c they go by the year, not bday)