Now I have read how terrible it is that the development of internet file sharing has devastated the music industry. That the public no longer has to pay to have a copy of their favourite music. How the evil music fan has been stealing from the artist pockets. How the great defender of the artist, the royalty collection agencies and of course the record companies have been doing their best to stem the wave of selfish law breaking.

Well I could go on but you know where this is going I think. Clearly there is a a whole lot of spin, propaganda and frankly, total crap being written and said. The telling facts are things like on winning thousands from various file-sharers, these agencies and companies promptly gave non of the winnings to those they claimed to represent.

These agencies and companies have take no responsibility for the simple fact that new technologies have come and they have, without any doubt simply made huge undefendable mistakes and like the good old musician who still wants to make it with 90′s music in the 21 century, they have simply been left were they belong. In the past.

I love it. I have studied and  completed my MBA, Masters of Business Administration specialising in the music business. It has been a great area to do research and study in. Every mistake and failing that can be made has been. Arrogance, greed, bad business practice, laziness and even attempts to reverse the natural development of things. Even King Canute would have laugh at their stupidity.

Why and how can this happen. Every empire falls and the greedier and more lacking in soul and foundation the empire then the faster it will disappear. Well , this is only approximate, but if we think of the 1880′s as the first time that the industry could develop seriously. Columbia , the founding company in EMI  was founded in 1888 and was the first company to sell pre-recorded music. The death coming in 2000. we are talking 120 years.  Not bad for an empire. But time has come.

This has been a peoples revolution. The royalty has been toppled. It may have started with good intentions of delivering music to the world at a fair price where the best artists got the chance to concentrate on developing their art.  Stories like Chess records and Muddy Waters or Motown Records with  The Miracles and Smokey Robinson. They all got swallowed by the money greedy machine called the major label.

Now as prices increased, quality was replaced by the MacDonald’s mass production model of, cheaper and  homogeneity began to rule what would be pushed onto the public, the dark clouds began to gather. As the thunder cry for cheaper CD’s came and the development of the computer digital music standards like mp3 and mp4, the public was no longer reliant on the CD to capture the magic of music in its shiny  digital grooves. They could  swap music with each other without ever having met. They could reduce its quality and hence size down to easily transferable packages. And now the killer blow. The internet and the relative anonymity it provides due to the huge amount of traffic. that was it. The Huge stone on the top of the Record company’s coffin. The rolling waves washing away the profits that they had amounted  in bank accounts. Profits that they surrounded by accounting methods making it impossible to prove that the artists owned any of it.

Now those profits are nothing but losses. They scream unfairness. Once again they hide behind the claim that the artists are those who have lost the most.  They even managed to get some neive major artists to support their claims.

The truth is that the idiom which refers to a playing field is in the process of being levelled has never been more appropriate. There are certainly fewer and lower mountains of power on the field of the music industry. In fact there are some deep pits on the playing field that are filled with executives trying hard to fill in from profits that are not theirs and are still dragging others into it. These pits in fact need to just be closed before they get deeper and drag more into them.

These are the fact as I see them.

* A record/mp3/track is like a poster. It is a marketing tool to show people why they should come and see an artist carry out his craft.

* If you are performing artist then perform is what you should get paid to do

* if you are a recording artist then you should record and get paid to do that at a fair rate, not sit at home and watch money come in for a job you did 10 years ago.

* if you don’t like the idea of working for a living then go and join the old record executives in their hole.

There is more opportunity for an artist than ever before. There is more music spread to more people than ever. There is more access to music than ever. We all own more music now than we ever did before. More importantly, there is more chance for a new artist to earn a living without having to give all his money to a second party. He/she can even play their own music to millions without having to ask anyone else’s permission.

What has gone? The opportunity to become a multi million dollar earning artist from 2 or 3 records. Well sorry but it was always going to be a short lived hype. Like the financial boom before the financial crisis. Judging those over expanded levels was never going to be intelligent. We were put in a rocket of executive  excitement, shot up into the sky with the dream of reaching space and now reality has hit and the rocket fuel of lies and dreams have run out the rocket has fallen back to earth. Only they are trying to tell us that we can fall into deep depths of musical caves. No. The ground is the ground. we can now build a good solid building that every artist can live in.

Well enough waffle.

If you are interested in finding out how to begin to put down the foundations of your own building and start to find your own home, or you want to know where to find the musical homes of the future artists then drop in on my blog often and keep an eye on my website.

I was sitting in a karaoke bar in Cologne. Yes I freely admit that I enjoy going to these places of false  super stardom. And up stood this very dark skinned man. He was smiling happily and seemed to be clearly not aware that he was about to destroy a song sung by some old great legend.  The destroying the song was not the surprise but the confidence with which he was about to do it was the unusual part.

He began. ” long tones that were clear and charismatic in their expression knocked me and everyone into the room almost literally, to the floor. This was no “karaoke singer”. This was not just a professional bu a world class singer. Even more shocking was that he was in a karaoke bar in Cologne and had waited humbly for his turn to join the happy club of people who like to get to know each other through the medium of musical impersonation, only this was no impersonator.

After a few songs that evening I began to realise that his face was familiar. I had seen him on television.  Yes he was that guy that came in the top 10 of the 2007/8 show in America “America’s Got Talent”, right there with the biggest smile on his face chatting with anyone who wanted to, no allures joining in to life in Germany’s 4th largest city.

At some point we got taking.  I am normally half “off duty” after midnight and this was well into the early morning. I he asked me what I did and I just told him I had just finished my MBA and was developing a music management business. I expected that usual “Oh how nice!”. I mean, someone like him must be represented by Simon Cowell or Sharon Osborne. I was amazed when he asked me if I could do anything for him.

That was how I came to represent Robert Hatcher in Europe.

There seems to be a battle of wits trying to persuade you all that there is no underlying motive other than to do you all a good turn whilst benefiting from the side effect of you realising what it is that the Blogger does offer.

Well all this seems to be quite a challenge. I am however going to start off  by not taking all this advice at first and just stating who and what I am and what I would like to achieve with no clever tricks.

I am based in Cologne, Germany. I am a MBA (Masters of Business Administration) who concentrated his education on the music business. Yes I am a failed, though not totally and not yet given up,  pop/rock/soul/house star .

I am enjoying the downfall of the old style record companies which, in my smart arse (wow, arse is not in my browser dictionary) opinion, only took from artists and customers and gave back the very least that they could get away with. Now I too want to take a lot but then I am not here to claim altruism.  I do have one flaw as a businessman. I love the art of music. Hence I am stuck in that position where I am a fan myself, of the people I do and will represent. This means I am probably not going to be able to be unbiased about their music. I may well go on too long about how good they are. I will defiantly not be shy about criticising other artists, companies and pretty much anyone. I will be wrong at times and my not be gracious enough to admit it. I will try but hey, I am only human.

I am no genius. If I were i would already be rich and famous. I am not a musical genius otherwise I would have sold my 5th album by now and living a life of recording studios, concert venues and TV fame. I am not being modest, just honest. Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of stage experience so I am not bad at all that. I have a fan base but I just do my thing and always will.

So why is this called midnight@? I run a company called R.R.I.P.M. it is for Rock, R&B, Indie and Pop, Management. As part of my strategy to promote new artists I host a party called Midnight@. It is a club event that features as the first part , a live performance from a new artist who is normally unsigned. they play their own music and are what I consider the best. I then get the best DJ’s to turn the second half of the party in to a dance event.  I want you to come and see the artists. If not, come later and enjoy the party, but best would be for you to enjoy both.

I want you to film my artists and put their videos on line so you can experience them and their music. I will be giving you the chance to give me feedback on their music. You can suggest bands or artists. I want you to talk about them and us. I want you to be as direct and uncompromising as I am but mostly I want you to help me prove that you do not need t be a 60-year-old cynical business man with a big record company and best friends with every executive from TV and Radio to have a say about who is good in the music business.

I am terrible at spelling and I do not check my writing enough so you will find mistakes. Well at least you will know that it is me.

You will fine me in various places. I was a dancer for Fragma and many dance acts in the early 2000′s. I was and am still recording house tracks with DaHool, Dj Hooligan, Mario Lopez, Street HiFi and was the Rapper who never spoke in the reformed 2 Unlimited in 2003 ( a group I am no longer in but get asked to do shows with the music). I am a model and I am a stand up comedian in English and German mostly performing around Nordrhein-Westfalen. I have done TV, German films and even background roles in the film “Desert Flower”. I have heard positive and plenty of negative comments on line about me and my various media roles.

Now you have heard the basics. I am here like most people. to achieve something. I hope it is more than just a business but I hope it is at least a business.

I am James Allan. Come to my monthly event in Germany (at present Cologne), look in on my websites and argue with me as much as you want.

www.rripm.com

www.jamesallan.de