Merck hopes for Gn'r summer tour

[McGann]

This is from a speech Merck made earlier this month at the Concert Industry Consortium conference.? Just nice to know he's hopeful.? Got this from Sp1at (thanks, Gigger), and the text of the entire speech is up at Mygnr...it's a really good read, actually.

Here's the part we're interested in:

"The faith, bond and trust built with the people that matter are the secret behind every career artist?s success and it is the reason why everyone in this room hopes that Iron Maiden, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath with Ozzy, Elton John, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Eminem, Guns N? Roses, and Morrissey will tour this summer, because you know the faithful will be there with their bums on seats to be baptized once again."


(Emphasis mine)

/Mike

(Edited to fix a grammatical error I made!)

[Mateoson]

Well, thanks again for absolutely no news yet  again Merck. You da man! We've "hoped" for this shit for years now... nothing different.

[erose]

awsome news! and this is from sp1t??

sorry gigger, i was totaly wrong.

[younggunner]

i hope they release the album before any touring

[jarmo]

This is the speech Merck held:
http://www.pollstaronline.com/cic2005/cic2005keynotespeakers.htm

Another Axl mention:

The consumer lays his money down because he believes in Neil Young, Robert Plant, Axl Rose, Lou Reed, Eminem, 50 Cent or Slipknot. The artist gives us a reason to exist and provide a service. The great architects of our industry, many of whom I?ve already mentioned, all knew this, but in recent years we have seen the rise of the executive that believes it is all about him or her. That attitude and the lavish spending and expense accounts that accompany it have put music as an important part of our culture in jeopardy.

--

The golden era of the music business targeted the music enthusiast. In today?s world, he has been disenfranchised while the majors chase the passive consumer who, as we discovered above, does not give a fuck about music.


This is why we now work in a business that is dictated to by research, focus groups, BDS, SoundScan, and Bree, Susan, Lynette, Gabrielle, Edie or one of the other 100 million desperate housewives across the country that decide what music you get to hear on the radio, because it may influence their decision as to which soap powder they might buy.


I put all of these gifts of technology under the category of ?professional excuses.? The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Iron Maiden, Guns N? Roses, Slipknot, Eminem, and Metallica didn?t need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives. Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Allen Klein, Steve O?Rourke, Peter Grant, Bill Curbishley, Rod Smallwood and Cliff Bernstein did not need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives to sell millions of records, concert tickets and merchandise around the world. It?s arguable they did not even need radio or MTV.




/jarmo

[Izzy]

I put all of these gifts of technology under the category of ?professional excuses.? The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Iron Maiden, Guns N? Roses, Slipknot, Eminem, and Metallica didn?t need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives. Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Allen Klein, Steve O?Rourke, Peter Grant, Bill Curbishley, Rod Smallwood and Cliff Bernstein did not need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives to sell millions of records, concert tickets and merchandise around the world. It?s arguable they did not even need radio or MTV.[/i]

Please, who is Merck trying to kid?

As if those bands would have been a fraction as big as they are/were without those 'excuses' - those bands have reaped the benefits as no other band has.

[jarmo]

I think he's talking about how bands didn't need all this market research etc. to make it big or to sell concert tickets.

Read the whole speech. It's interresting.




/jarmo

[Izzy]

I think he's talking about how bands didn't need all this market research etc. to make it big or to sell concert tickets.

Read the whole speech. It's interresting.




/jarmo

Yes, i got that

But its naive to believe GNR, Eminem, Metallica etc could have ''made it on their own''

Without that mass exposure we'd have never heard of them! It doesn't matter how good a band is if people don't know about then

If anything the bands he mentioned show how useful those 'exucses' are.

As for the other bands he mentioned - it was not as if they succeeded despite being ignored - all of them have recieved horrific levels of backing from those same ''excuses''

Show me a band that succeeded in selling out arena's/stadium and have diamond certified albums with absolutely no tv/radio backing etc. Just look at pre-Black album Metallica sales and post Black album sales - MTV has been worth about 80 million albums to them

[jarmo]

Iron Maiden sold out Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg in about 2.5 hours. 50000 tickets.

You don't hear/see them being played on music channels here.


He didn't say none of the bands needed MTV. MTV was added at the end of the paragraph. It's kinda clear what he means to me. You don't need to know what the housewives think of your band if you wanna sell tickets or t-shirts.

The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who or Iron Maiden didn't need MTV.



/jarmo

[WARose]

mh..   i don`t know...   i`m a gnr fan since 1 or 2 years now, and i`m for the most part fan of the NEW gnr. first i did only know the old gnr, but i became a fan when i came to know the new one so there hasn`t to be all this promotion and stuff to become a fan, but i think for the majority you`re right.


And as Merck i`m hoping for a summer tour of gnr, too........

[ppbebe]

  Hey, Welcome to the club, WARose!

The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who or Iron Maiden didn't need MTV.

I wonder if there was MTV in the mythological times of them.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

uh. market research is everywhere.
and in some way, flyers for Guns n Roses weren't sent to a 50 years old woman.
when there is advertisment (even in its lowest form. word of mouth ...) there is a market research.

the difference is that , some time ago, market reseacrh was made AFTER the creation
now as, merck says, the market research tells what to create ....

[Saul]

The fact that he is mentioning Axl Rose and GNR is reason for optimisim .. i mean if this guy believed that axl and gnr werent gunna do anything he wouldnt even mention his name. Even though this doesnt give us any "news" persay , release date , tour or whatever it's still a case of the glass is half full , NOT half empty. 

[Twisted Nerve 85]

Hoping for a summer tour?

We all are Merck we all are 

[Wheres Izzy]

I think he's talking about how bands didn't need all this market research etc. to make it big or to sell concert tickets.

Read the whole speech. It's interresting.




/jarmo

Yes, i got that

But its naive to believe GNR, Eminem, Metallica etc could have ''made it on their own''

Master of Puppets went platinum before Metallica ever made a video and I don't think it got much airplay on the radio. I know it's not selling 80 million but I think having a platinum album constitutes "making it".

[killingvector]

this is all good. The first official confirmation of a rumor.

[Izzy]

First to clarify my position

Merck claims these bands didn't need the media etc to get them where they are.

I disagree.

Iron Maiden sold out Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg in about 2.5 hours. 50000 tickets.

You don't hear/see them being played on music channels here.

Perhaps, but only those living in a cave have escaped hearing of Iron Maiden through one medium or another. They wouldn't have sold so many tickets without radio etc etc - they wouldn't have 'made it' like that on their own.

He didn't say none of the bands needed MTV. MTV was added at the end of the paragraph. It's kinda clear what he means to me. You don't need to know what the housewives think of your band if you wanna sell tickets or t-shirts.

If u want people to buy the stuff they first need to hear the stuff

There are thousands of bands out there signed and unsigned, doing the rounds in tiny venues, better than Iron Maiden or Guns N Roses etc - trouble is we'll never here them - they have the talent but without people knowing of them it all goes to waste.

GNR were ignored in America to begin with - and then MTV picked up Sweet Child O'mine and it exploded.

Talent isn't enough

It was never enough

The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who or Iron Maiden didn't need MTV.

True, but they had about 10,000 radio stations helping them along the way. They had newspaper articles etc.

Face it - how do u know of these bands? Media exposure, the media decided who was good and then told u about it. The media made them famous long before the talent confirmed anything.

It's more than obvious that talent doesn't lead to success. Many bands have talent but fortune rewards few of them. The key component is media. GNR ruled the world because they had radio friendly stuff than MTV liked.

Look at the music situation now - MTV doesn't back ''rock'' and the bands no longer appear - do u honestly believe musical talent has just died? A 21st century Pink Floyd is out there - its the media that will determine if they suceed. Not their talent.

[Izzy]

Master of Puppets went platinum before Metallica ever made a video and I don't think it got much airplay on the radio. I know it's not selling 80 million but I think having a platinum album constitutes "making it".

Metallica are an intresting case, but at best they are the exception that proves the rule

It took 6 YEARS for Kill em all to go GOLD
It took 4 YEARS for Ride the Lightning to go GOLD

It took months for Justice (with Metallica's first video single) to go 2x platinum

Read this again

I put all of these gifts of technology under the category of ?professional excuses.? The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Iron Maiden, Guns N? Roses, Slipknot, Eminem, and Metallica didn?t need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives. Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Allen Klein, Steve O?Rourke, Peter Grant, Bill Curbishley, Rod Smallwood and Cliff Bernstein did not need BDS, SoundScan or the desperate housewives to sell millions of records, concert tickets and merchandise around the world. It?s arguable they did not even need radio or MTV.

Then consider this,

Metallica had sold less than 1.5 albums in America before Justice. They have now sold 56 million in America. They didn't need radio or TV?

Of course not

[jarmo]

Perhaps, but only those living in a cave have escaped hearing of Iron Maiden through one medium or another. They wouldn't have sold so many tickets without radio etc etc - they wouldn't have 'made it' like that on their own.

You don't need radio exposure if you've got loyal fans. That's the point.

Loyal fans will buy tickets, not housewives who have no idea or even care about the artists that are on the radio. Iron Maiden might have been on the radio in the 80s. That's not what sells tickets today. The fact that they kept the fans is selling the tickets. I don't see Culture Club selling 50000 tickets in 2.5 hours. They were on the radio too back then.


The golden era of the music business targeted the music enthusiast. In today?s world, he has been disenfranchised while the majors chase the passive consumer who, as we discovered above, does not give a fuck about music.


That's the point I get from reading the article. How the industry has changed.

The point isn't whether or not you need MTV. You can argue all you want about how important the media is. Yeah, exposure on MTV and radio sells albums. Nobody's arguing about that. But you can sell tickets without MTV as Merck pointed out.






/jarmo

[Izzy]

Perhaps, but only those living in a cave have escaped hearing of Iron Maiden through one medium or another. They wouldn't have sold so many tickets without radio etc etc - they wouldn't have 'made it' like that on their own.

You don't need radio exposure if you've got loyal fans. That's the point.

But they got the loyal fans BECAUSE of the exposure - people heard it, liked it, and became dedicated to it. Take Def Leppard. 1983 it was Def Leppard who? Despite 3 albums. Then MTV started playing 'Bringing on the Heartbreak', the rest is history. How many die hard fans did they have before that? Not many.

Nirvana. How many copies of Bleach had they sold begore 'Smells like teen spirit'? the talent was there, but the fans weren't.

Loyal fans will buy tickets, not housewives who have no idea or even care about the artists that are on the radio. Iron Maiden might have been on the radio in the 80s. That's not what sells tickets today. The fact that they kept the fans is selling the tickets. I don't see Culture Club selling 50000 tickets in 2.5 hours. They were on the radio too back then.

Chicken and the egg. The media raised Iron Maiden up, the fans keep them there - it wasn't the fans that raised them up first though

The point isn't whether or not you need MTV. You can argue all you want about how important the media is. Yeah, exposure on MTV and radio sells albums. Nobody's arguing about that. But you can sell tickets without MTV as Merck pointed out.

But very, very few tickets - without MTV they would have sold 1000 max and that seems optimistic. Obviously word of mouth can get u so far - that's clear, but if u want real success its the media that will take u there, the fans pick up the rest after they've been told avout it.

Without serious media coverage - none of us would be talking about Iron Maiden.

OF COURSE, u can sell albums without mass coverage, but Merck claimed u could be a serious success without ''soundscan'' etc. That's absurd. It's never happened. No band just sold millions of copies out of the blue - they were carried there.