Clear Channel: making money from the musicEver wonder why the US music industry seems to have degenerated into producing bland pap-pop? Blame Clear Channel. In this excellent article from Rolling Stone, the corporations grip on the airwaves and live venues across the USA is spelt out for all to see...

Clear Channel controls roughly 1,200 radio stations and about seventy percent of all live events that are promoted in the United States. The company also is reportedly considering the launch or purchase of a record label.

The company is now drawing flack for it's continued focus on revenue, to the detriment of both quality product, and the artist's own income. As Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw puts it, "They don't care about music. They care about ad rates."

One former Clear Channel executive told Rolling Stone that at annual corporate meetings, sales awards are given out for more than an hour -- and programming prizes take up only ten minutes. "You're controlling all this media, and what you're saying is, 'We don't care about what's on the air,'" he says. "All they care about is moving product."

On the live front, the Channel has such a near-monopoly of the live circuit that bands are at the mercy of the corporation. Steve Miller complains of his tour being so padded out with corporate freebies and giveaways that one concert he performed at had an attendance of over 18000, of which only 2300 were paying money that he might see some profit from (after splitting the profit with Clear Channel, of course).

Read on...

[via j-walk]
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