2008 - Mika (and Amy) helped to extend Universal market share in 2007

[sariflor]

Thanks for the article Robertina. I have a feeling 10 years from now Mika will be distributing his own music and won't need a record company.

He can create the Mikaversal and hire all of us fans to work for him:naughty:

[robertina]

He can create the Mikaversal and hire all of us fans to work for him:naughty:

but hurry up Mika, cause i'll be too old...................

[sariflor]

but hurry up Mika, cause i'll be too old...................

 

Never too old Robi, never too old:roftl:

[Louiza]

for us in the queue, of course!

and more hot chocos and donuts....

 

............and a hollywoodian afterparty!!!!!

 

Totally agree with you:wink2:

[Mika_baby]

He can create the Mikaversal and hire all of us fans to work for him:naughty:

 

Great idea! who should i go to for a register?

[LilMissEmmylou]

re universal being greatful, i very much doubt it. Its such a fickle industry (all be it fantastic at the same time). I followed the rise and fall of an act (who as irony would have it was on universal too - Polydor to be exact) who had single sales higher than some people could hope for with album sales! Yet he is nowhere to be seen now as the rec co in my honest opinion didnt invest enough in his 2nd album and thus it didnt do as well as i think it should have.

 

Fingers crossed it doesnt happen to Mika as I do really enjoy his music btw Hello lol, i guess this is an odd first post but ah well, will go introduce myself somewhere in a mo

 

oh and good read for whoever posted the link - thanks

[robertina]

re universal being greatful, i very much doubt it. Its such a fickle industry (all be it fantastic at the same time). I followed the rise and fall of an act (who as irony would have it was on universal too - Polydor to be exact) who had single sales higher than some people could hope for with album sales! Yet he is nowhere to be seen now as the rec co in my honest opinion didnt invest enough in his 2nd album and thus it didnt do as well as i think it should have.

 

Fingers crossed it doesnt happen to Mika as I do really enjoy his music btw Hello lol, i guess this is an odd first post but ah well, will go introduce myself somewhere in a mo

 

oh and good read for whoever posted the link - thanks

thanks...it was me!

welcome on board!

 

and yes....i've been told about universal...what a shame

[RAK1]

He can create the Mikaversal and hire all of us fans to work for him:naughty:

 

Before Weeaxl gets in here, I bags be his driver!LOL!

So Mr Cowell, are we feeling stupid now?

And I'm with Christine, I would be much happier getting my music straight from the artist cut out the middle man, that way the money goes where the talent is. Mika does all the writing, artwork (with Yasmine) and creative stuff anyway, so why should he get the money straight off anyway. But that being said, Universal/Casablancal have been the ones who have faith in him, so I guess they deserve to be applauded for that, taking on his vision when others were blind to it, and letting him run with it. Not sure many others would let him do that.

[Pam Travers]

im totally obsessed by the deal he has with his record company...id die to read his contract...he said no four times but finally said yes, he said he made sure about the marketing commitments, but honestly i dont know...look even if someday he has his own record company its already too late, hes not the owner anymore of his songs and btw i wonder who will buy them later...the copyrights belong to the record company, before the family could have the copyrights back after 25 years but now its over. mika has already accepted to be a pro-mixity product for an international (understand multicoloured) target and i wonder what else he has accepted, i understand 100 percent that he needed the money but it looks like he really sold his soul away to me, or maybe he is insensitive like people say and he only cares about winning the whole world bit by bit and see the whole thing the same way the crappy directors of those records companies see it and he is ok about it...

[LilMissEmmylou]

Pam of course he is the owner of his songs. He still owns the copyrite for the lyrics and the melody - the record company will own the actual recording and in all fairness why shouldnt they when they no doubt put the money up to create them and took a risk (and yes it was a risk because u never know if an act will sink or swim).

 

I dont think he sold out, i think he found a means to an end. In all honesty, if he hadnt signed a contract with universal... would you have heard his music today? Perhaps not, most of us wouldnt. It may be becoming easier to do things yourself or with the indies, but it still doesnt make it easy. Just looking at the market share these companies have tells us that.

 

Sorry I hope that doesnt seem like a rant, i just find it an interesting topic when people find musicians sell outs for using record companies. I dont know what sort of deal he has but for all we know it could be a 2/3 album deal rather than some unlimited number and thus he could go off to another company or indeed set up his own in a few yrs time never say never

[Pam Travers]

I dont know what sort of deal he has but for all we know it could be a 2/3 album deal rather than some unlimited number

 

i dont know, you dont know, thats why i said id die to read it and...

 

Pam of course he is the owner of his songs.

please dont make it so simple

 

the record company will own the actual recording and in all fairness why shouldnt they when they no doubt put the money up to create them and took a risk (and yes it was a risk because u never know if an act will sink or swim

 

a risk? you must be kidding

 

sink or swim(lol) they all knew he would do better than just swim

 

 

In all honesty, if he hadnt signed a contract with universal... would you have heard his music today?

 

yes probably because i love music and thats my whole point, glad you talked about it

i just find it an interesting topic when people find musicians sell outs for using record companies

 

i dont. I just dont. ( i did not say that because he signed a major but because of everything else i mentioned, like the fact that mika is a project of tommy m to target a multi-coloured audience etc)

[LilMissEmmylou]

ok i guess ill leave you to your own thoughts because the way i see it any investment is a risk and thats all mika was to the rec co at the start - an investment and i do think they deserve some credit and financial return for getting his music out there and promoting it well - i know i personally wouldnt have heard his music without it being pushed so heavily and i used to go and watch random gigs in london 4+ nights a week before i moved

[Pam Travers]

ok i guess ill leave you to your own thoughts because the way i see it any investment is a risk and thats all mika was to the rec co at the start - an investment and i do think they deserve some credit and financial return for getting his music out there and promoting it well - i know i personally wouldnt have heard his music without it being pushed so heavily and i used to go and watch random gigs in london 4+ nights a week before i moved

 

yes your right it was a total investment...anyway its nice you know his music no matter how or why, thats the most important thing probably

 

 

you certainly read this interesting article "Suddenly they all wanted to dance with me" but im giving the link for those who didnt

 

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2067214,00.html

 

and 4 those who wont follow it , some extracts:

 

"Talbot says. "I saw him last September at the Universal conference, and it was gobsmackingly obvious to everybody he was going to be huge." Why? "The music is mainstream and populist - But there's another thing going on here - hype. Hype plays an increasingly influential role in the charts. Look at the Arctic Monkeys, who made the News At 10 when their first single was released, and Corinne Bailey Rae, whom everyone was touting as the next big thing for 2006. There is this appetite, this obsession that everyone in the media has to be the first to tip the next big thing. In the past two to three years, this game of predicting next year's big star has reached fever pitch." It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; a conspiracy of success. Once the hype merry-go-round starts turning, artists such as Mika and the Arctic Monkeys are almost guaranteed success unless they or the record companies screw up."

 

"I have heard pop stars talk of themselves in the third person, but Mika takes it one step farther. He refers to himself as the "project"."

 

"There's something about the project that seems to connect a lot of people in the American media," he says. "It's a pop record that they can relate to sonically. At the same time, it's seen as an Anglo record, but it's not alienating in that Anglophile kind of way that a lot of English projects can be when they come over to the States."

 

 

 

"His manager, Iain Watt, had spent years promoting stroppy indie bands who didn't want to be promoted, and says working with Mika is a joy. There is so much one can do with pop stars these days, if only they are willing. Now they can be marketed on YouTube and MySpace, and you can use them to sell myriad products. In America, Mika's music was selling mobile phones before his first record was released. In Britain, his face was flogging Paul Smith before the public knew him as Mika"

 

"If you can put the artist on all those platforms, young kids can discover him on YouTube or MySpace, older listeners can hear him on Radio 2, and then hipsters can feel safe buying Mika because they've seen him in a Paul Smith campaign," Watt says. "If you asked the Arctic Monkeys to be in a Paul Smith campaign, they'd tell you to **** off. If the campaign had been for, say, George at Asda, we wouldn't have done it." Why not? "We need to associate him with the right partners. This was his introduction to the media, and we based it on credibility in terms of song writing and the way he looked and projected. It was very style-led."

 

 

"Mika reminds me of the famously uncool, staggeringly successful 70s pop star, Gilbert O'Sullivan. All he lacks is the shorts."

 

"Lucian Grainge does not see Mika's songs as little paintings. He sees them as cash cows. "Yes, it hit me straightaway that it was full of singles. Mika writes hit songs." He says there are likely to be five singles released from the album."

[I <3 MIKA!!!]

can someone explain the article to me i dont understand it at all:blink:

[LilMissEmmylou]

The original one in short is about the sales in the music industry and which record labels are doing best and in the case of universal they are saying Mika helped them to do as well as they did hope that helps I <3 Mika

[Pam Travers]

The original one in short is about the sales in the music industry and how people in the record labels are always looking for the next big thing in order to cash and it shows how manipulative they are and how they take zero risks and how uncool the whole thing is. hope that helps I <3 Mika too.

[LilMissEmmylou]

ok now i HAVE to pull u up on that - how can u say they take NO risks???? they sign thousands of bands a year between all the majors and so very few ever become a name you would hear on the charts or even just on the radio/ music tv? They take plenty of risks. Hind sight is alwasy 20:20, its easy to say they "knew" Mika would be successful now that he is, but it doesnt mean he wasnt a risk along with the other thousands of risks each year.

[greta]

The original one in short is about the sales in the music industry and how people in the record labels are always looking for the next big thing in order to cash and it shows how manipulative they are and how they take zero risks and how uncool the whole thing is. hope that helps I <3 Mika too.

that's what I understood too.

Short term strategies to squeeze "the next big thing" even if in the long time period the crystal castle is gonna be destroyed by itself..

[I <3 MIKA!!!]

thanks!

[Pam Travers]

ok now i HAVE to pull u up on that - how can u say they take NO risks???? they sign thousands of bands a year between all the majors and so very few ever become a name you would hear on the charts or even just on the radio/ music tv? They take plenty of risks. Hind sight is alwasy 20:20, its easy to say they "knew" Mika would be successful now that he is, but it doesnt mean he wasnt a risk along with the other thousands of risks each year.

 

lol, you must be some lucian grainges cousin...thats the only valid xplanation i have...

 

just sthg to anyone who would read the whole thread, google universal and read, google lucian grainge and read, google corporate filthy music system and read etc.

 

some random questions about the music industry by cl

 

How powerful is management?

 

Who owes whom a favor?

 

What independent promoter's cousin is the drummer?

 

What part of the fiscal year is the company putting out the record?

 

Is the royalty rate for the artist so obscenely bad that it's almost 100 percent profit instead of just 95 percent so that if the record sells, it's literally a steal?

 

How much bin space is left over this year?

 

Was the record already a hit in Europe so that there's corporate pressure to make it work?

 

Will the band screw up its live career to play free shows for radio stations?

 

Does the artist's song sound enough like someone else that radio stations will play it because it fits the sound of the month?

 

Did the artist get the song on a film soundtrack so that the movie studio will pay for the video?

[I <3 MIKA!!!]

 

Does the artist's song sound enough like someone else that radio stations will play it because it fits the sound of the month?

 

\QUOTE]

 

this question reminds me a hell lot of leona lewis cuz i have all her songs and ALL of them have the same exact tune as mariah carey or christina aguilera and i dont mean her voice (though that sounds like them also but i know she cant help it) but the rythm and beat and background is an exact repleca like i can start singing another song to it just different words:shocked: I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW THEY CAN ALLOW THAT! ISNT THAT LIKE COPY RIGHTING????

[LilMissEmmylou]

not at all lol, Lucian Grange is too hyped in my opinion - i just have an interest in the running of the industry. You can google any topic and find what you want to read

 

also who is cl? IMHO managers are highly important btw - otherwise id not aspire to be one and no record is really a steal, there are so many people to pay from it. Distributors, pluggers, promoters, managers, musicians, marketing dept, human resources, promo materials, printers, producers.... the list is so endless im often amaized they manage to pay them all through the record sales of today as they are much lower than in previous yrs yet those helping to create them desire inflated rates of pay. Anywho bed calls me or ill be asleep in my lecture tomorrow x

[Pam Travers]

You can google any topic and find what you want to read

 

managers are highly important btw - otherwise id not aspire to be one

 

and no record is really a steal, there are so many people to pay from it.

 

you can google any topic and avoid what you dont want to read

 

the questions were not real questions , they were affirmations = yes of course managers are important (now)

 

many people to pay? yeah like the independent radios for instance otherwise you wont be played in america, no money, no radio

 

 

@i <3 mika, leona lewis, mariah carey etc all belong to universal= universal owns the copyrights=of course they all sound the same and thats the opposite of a problem

 

ps: if you follow the very first link i gave to the guardian its xplained that they signed mika because every song sounded like something you had already heard before=success guarantee=zero risk

[FOUCHONNERET]

Maybe champagne in the queue next time, instead of after the gig.

 

i just read some old article...seams that christine have intuition:naughty:

[Louiza]

i just read some old article...seams that christine have intuition:naughty:

 

you're right fanny! who would have guessed that we'd have been offered champagne at the xmas party! amazing!!