My take on Von and the record industry

[Ocean Moves]

The 'dust may have settled' alittle, but I don't
see the industry as any more lucrative for
record companies or artists to make cds.
simple as that. In fact I think the whole
industry is still in the middle of morphing
into a state where artists can write and produce
in their bedrooms (with technology only previously
available in top-rent studios) and publishing it
on line- a medium still very much in its infancy
for this purpose - record companies are nowhere
near up to speed with the potential of the medium
for selling content - partly because the nature of
the medium is still being defined - in fact the
record company itself may no longer be significant,
if the costs of producing the art are low, and
the distribution issue is resolved by the internet.
Where does all this leave Von?
A guy wanting a fat load of money for his art?
Nothing wrong with that - If you believe your
art is of value, why not charge money for it?
If there is no viable avenue for him to do this,
he's not going to do it is he?
It would be more shrewed not to release anything.
Which is exactly what he is doing.
The Avenue in which to sell your art that remains
viable is of course to play live.
Which is also what he is doing.
I think Von's primary struggle, while he was
signed to warner, and now, is one of promotion;
how to (get the record company) to promote
your art to a general audience and avoid
being sidelined as a cult act;
How do you raise your profile, and promote
yourself (and your product) to a wider audience,
when all you have is a small
(but admittedly fanatical) fan base?
A stuggle made all the more acute now, since
for the reasons discussed earlier, they have
no physical product to sell.

[Smallstone]

The industry is always lucrative, maybe not as lucrative as the late 1980s early 1990s when the Sisters were releasing 'product' on a new and cheap format (CD). Labels merge and come and go - but they will be here for a while... I promise Don't get me wrong - I am no fan of the majors!!

Your point re: artists making cheap records in their bedrooms though. People have been making cheap records in their bedrooms / garages / rehearsal rooms since the beginning Rock & Roll. Yeah anyone can publish on line and do, but its all just needle in a haystack. Finding music is the hard thing and traditionally its been the job of labels to sift through the chaffe to find the gens. Not always successfully!! Be it WEA or the smallest bedroom based indie....you need (sadly) 9 times out of 10 the horrible promo marketing muscle a record company can supply to bring it to ones attention. Unless you are dealing with niche markets... and then yeah, online, chat rooms etc are key! I should know. I'm in a terrible band and we're loved by...oooh... at least 100 people worldwide. All thanks to the 'net.
I think record companies are VERY up to speed with the potential of selling content online. Digital tracks - or whole album downloads. It's just another outlet/format like selling CDs thru Amazon or your local HMV or whatnot. Ok they may be a bit behind with the whole file sharing/burning issue but thats probably just another blip like the home taping is killing music panic of the late 70s/early 90s. 10 years ago the internet (pre-digital downloads) was going to kill the industry. It didn't. All it means is more choice for the consumer and it's driving prices of CDs down. Which is good for punters. Is it good for artists though?
The bottom line is promotion. Anyone can make a great record and to a certain extent you can promote it yourself and be successful on whatever level you want. It happens over here in the UK occasionally. Nizlopi the busking duo is a recent example. But they still ended up getting a BIG HIT with the help of radio, tv and press promo and a distributor getting their product into shops and online with iTunes etc.

But for Von? I can remember the promotion around Floodland. He was EVERYWHERE (in the UK at least). Front covers, videos on TV shows, appearances. Top Of The Pops, the Roxy etc etc I think around Floodland Warners did a good job. I think it all went pear shaped around Vision Thing,. You can just imagine the trouble at East West. Between Floodland and that album there had been a musical revolution or two. Acid House, baggy, grunge etc etc The Press are damn fickle over here in the UK.
Will he get that push again from a major? No he won't. As an artist he would be viewed like Nick Cave, John Cale, PAUL WELLER even! Repected but - I hate to say it.... old. What folks call a 'Heritage Artist'. 4AD are about to release this year a new Scott Walker album. Similar in some ways.....

If Von wants to release new music - he could easily and possibly has! But if he hasn't then the longer he leaves it...