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Here’s the Deal with The Cost of Breaking a Band

There’s an interesting new study out of the UK on the costs associated with breaking a band in today’s music market.  On average, it costs a label a million dollars to develop and market a new artist.  Add up things like the advance, recording costs, shooting three videos, offering tour support and whatever is spent on promotion, and you come up with about a million bucks. 

And even when you spend that kind of cash, there’s no guarantee that the public will care.  Developing new talent is a crapshoot, so you sign as many acts as you can afford, plug them as much as you can and hope that one of them will be so successful that they will pay for all the failures.  It’s a good article. 

Here’s the Deal with One Nine Nine Four

There’s a new music documentary in production called One Nine Nine Four.  It’s an Australian film all about the birth, growth and explosion of punk rock back in the 90s.  It features interviews with the Offspring, Bad Religion, Rancid, Blink-182 and more—and it’s narrated by skateboard legend, Tony Hawk.

This film was supposed to have been out last year, but the filmmakers haven’t been able to get permission to use all the music they need.  Well, they can get permission—but the money that’s being asked is crazy.  Fortunately, fans have come to the rescue with donations.  They’re optimistic that they can get this film out there by the third quarter of this year.  Meanwhile, if you want to see what this movie will look like, check out the main website and also to a clip featuring Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.  I hope they get this sorted out because it looks good.

And there are more documentaries to come.  Randy Rhodes, the legendary metal guitarist who worked with Ozzy, will be the subject of a film.  

And there will be a Guns N’ Roses tour documentary, too. 

Here’s the Deal with The White Stripes Canadian Rock Doc

And speaking of documentaries, I’ve seen Under the Great White Northern Lights.  This is the tour doc that the White Stripes shot on that weirdo tour of all the provinces and territories a couple of summers back.

On Tuesday, the band’s first-ever official live album will be released—sixteen tracks, and it’ll feature performances from this tour. 

ExploreMusic Playlist: The songs featured on the radio show today were:

“Pockets” by Woodhands
“Seven Nation Army” (Live) by The White Stripes
“Lion On A Leash”  by Kae Sun
“Satan” by Beast