Matthew Didn't Have Clout: In which a comment thread and a bunk story are injected with a strange truth...

I hate to drudge this up, but I had an addendum about the piece Stonedranger did on Matthew And The Arrogant Sea last week. I have to admit, I was surprised by all of the music industry experts that suddenly came out of nowhere. With such a music savvy population, you'd think that Dallas would have made more of an impact on the national music scene in the past oh, ten to twenty-five years. The figure that MATAS proposed sounded high to everyone, and it could have just been left at that. But what followed was punditry worthy of the Fox News Channel, complete with facts and figures pulled from nowhere and links to Reggaeton budget breakdowns. There was even quite a bit of talk about whether EMI existed at all.

And since D.Construction's (is that worth mentioning anymore?) Lindsay Graham took it upon himself to post a link to an incredibly relevant article about Keith Richards and his big-time book deal the other day, I thought we'd post a link to an article I ran across as well. It was a strange little piece that The Dallas Observer posted on their Unfair Park Blog referencing another article written on a Hip Hop News website exactly one week before Stonedranger posted his Matthew And The Arrogant Sea piece. It was about: EMI striking a "major deal" with a record label in Dallas. Sounds somewhat relevant in light of recent discussion on our fair and lovely blog last week. Some thoughts...

This discussion basically broke down into two groups, those who were immediately dismissive once they read the article (The aforementioned Graham, You Go Live In Utah's Amanda Cobra, our anonymous friends) and then the band, its fans, and us, trying to make sense of the whole thing. I honestly understand why someone might read the piece, see the figure, and just move on not really buying it. But what troubled me was that there was such a smug certainty based on the answers, links and figures of our fellow bloggers, and none of it really added up to the case I was hoping it would. And all along, there was apparently a relevant link that nobody hipped us to. Come on, we can't know everything. I wonder if anyone from The Observer read this whole mess, knew about the article, and decided to keep quiet instead. And yes, posting an article on the Dallas Observer's blog does qualify as "keeping it quiet."

Lindsay Graham suggested that maybe it wasn't "the best time to be "investing" a non-recoupable $6MM in a new act," but I would ask whether the time was right for a label with the business woes of EMI to be investing in DFW Hip-Hop or DFW music period. The aforementioned hip hop deal took place a short time before the Terra Firma buyout, and Hip-hop in particular has never been a very successful Dallas export, save for how people always bring up D.O.C. albums that came out almost twenty years ago and some of the little-known gems you can find on this site. It's actually a real shame that Dallas has never had anything to match the success of Houston's rap scene, which isn't to imply that the talent isn't there. It's just that there seems to be a stigma or even a curse attached to DFW music when it tries to break free of the Metroplex, and DFW hip hop, at least until this point, doesn't seem to be a sure fire profits machine.

So Graham continues:

"I'd suggest handing a $6MM allowance to a bunch of Denton kids (25 or not) is not in line with making a company "look robust." My only hope is that some executive, seeing the end for EMI and likely his career, is making some last-minute, middle-finger gesture to put a pet band on the roster - and Terra Firma on the hook."


So I have to ask: is doing business with a small Dallas rap label, handling distribution, promotion, putting out DVD's and going through the trouble of sending a representative to Dallas all the way from Southern California a good way to make a wounded company look robust? Is this the proverbial "middle-finger gesture" you spoke of? I'd just be interested to hear Lindsay's take, since he seemed to know so much about it when it was just a theory. And I'm definitely not implying that there is six million bucks involved here, but now that it has actually happened with someone, what do you think?

And even more Cavuto-esque financial babble:

"When investing in the stock market, you can always sell your holding and get back (the hopefully appreciated) beginning capital. You cannot do this with a band - especially if it is 'non-recoupable'. We can argue about what the payback period should be for a band, but I assumed 1 to 2 years. Using my same numbers from above, that's 915,000 copies a year."

So Lindsay please apply your "trick" and stock market theory to EMI's new partner, Clout Records . You might know shit about music but you sound like a good businessman. Does Clout strike you as something obviously profitable? I mean, I don't know. For DFW's sake, I hope they are.

Fellow blogger Amanda Cobra offered her own theory to counter former MATAS band manager "Freddie" about why EMI would have any interest in this "freak folk" we've been hearing about for the better part of our aging decade:

"While I appreciate your theory about EMI trying to sneak into the "freak folk" market, I'm pretty sure that particular niche is not something a company like EMI would be worrying about if they are currently being bought out by an investment firm to stabilize their plummeting stock value. Again, just my theory."

Amanda, I would also appreciate your industry analysis as well. What's been more likely to be blasting out of independently owned coffee shops and Urban Outfitters for the past five years or so: Dallas Hip-Hop or Freak Folk? Freak Folk at its core is still basically just a singer-songwriter with various other sonic ornaments to signify that it is not just ordinary folk. Singer-songwriter fare of the experimental variety has done quite well lately, especially in Texas, and its "cool" factor is of the sort that advertisers and executives eat up all the time, rendering the idea of EMI getting into the "freak folk market" just as if not more plausible than EMI getting involved with a DFW hip hop label that, gasp, most people have never even heard of.

The deal is actually significant for a couple of other reasons as well. A record company with EMI's history being owned by a private investment firm makes it the largest privately owned major label in the world. That might actually make dealing with a label as large as EMI less of a dehumanizing experience, since they'll no longer be answering to stockholders, who I'm sure have all the subtlety and charm of our friend Lindsay. Hell, it even brings imprints like DFA that much closer to being truly "indie." Also, the distribution deal between Clout and EMI is a 75/25 split with Clout retaining the rights to the masters. That is actually the definition of what a truly beneficial long term deal should be like, and it's virtually unheard of when dealing with big labels. In fact, most indies will split 50/50 at best.

On the flip side of things, you have an understandably frustrated Stonedranger, forced to keep off-the-record details to himself, as promised, even as the story begins to unravel:

"There is also an entirely untold part of this story that makes a pretty big difference. Unfortunately, at this point, I have promised to keep that portion of the story confidential... but let's just say, for the record, that it involves a smaller record label and a buyout, and if true, it makes the idea of MATAS getting signed out of nowhere less difficult to believe."

And now we know that this actually happened with EMI and another local label two weeks ago, so you might understand why Stonedranger would believe something like that. Little cool labels are pumped with big money from majors all the time. EMI has had various distribution deals in hip-hop, releasing everything from more recent Ice Cube and Fat Joe records to the Beastie Boys' now defunct Grand Royal imprint. Of course, EMI yanking the critically and publicly lauded "Grey Album" by Danger Mouse was a less proud moment in the British company's hip-hop history, but that is neither here nor there.

In the aftermath, Freddie added in his open letter:

"Folks of all levels of involvement (including those with copious experience in the music business) would say things like, "Maybe this is just EMI's pitch and by the time the thing is signed it will be more reasonable", "Maybe their desperate for new markets", etc. When combined with anecdotal evidence about this or that obscure act being given X million dollars for being in the right place at the right time, Matthew's story was made plausible."

Since "this or that obscure act" or in this case, a label with an entire stable of obscure acts, was indeed awarded a contract with the major in question, Matthew starts to not sound as crazy. In fact, I think the truly crazy people are We Shot JR's fellow bloggers who were so smugly sure of themselves and their knowledge of the music industry. I mean, the EMI buyout from Terra Firma was announced a mere nine days after the press release for the Clout Records deal, and it's not as if Clout has some obvious built in profitability that anyone outside the deal would recognize.

I'm not saying Matthew was telling the truth, but I AM saying that those who pretended to know so much don't look quite as savvy: a little known Dallas based music entity (which is really what MATAS and their side projects were as well) was in fact presented with an unusually good deal right before the buyout. Again, this doesn't make Matthew's story true, but it certainly would have changed the debate and at least been something substantial to refer to rather than the rambling made-up figures of Wall Street Journal Op-Ed wannabes. And one more thing (and this goes out to bands, label owners, singers, rappers, artists etc.): If any wack-a-doodle on the internet EVER asks you for a PDF of your contract, no matter what the circumstances, politely tell them to fuck off.