Dave Heckman of Metropolis Records:
The dark interview
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R.J. Preece: Yeah, but maybe this is generational. When you’re talking about smaller bands, at some point you realize that they’re not living “the rock star lifestyle”, that when you buy it, you are supporting them. Is this a generational thing? Dave Heckman: To a large degree, but I know people my age [40s-50s] who steal music— don’t pay for it. And they’ll come up with excuses like “the record labels are evil”—like we are bankers or a big oil company. Ninety percent of all music that is consumed is not (legally) bought. Even back in the 70s, when the cassette came around, even at that time period I’d say it was about 50/50. Now its 90%. Some people think that’s a low number, that it might be 95%, for every one song or album bought, there are 20 that are illegally copied or downloaded. But it’s getting worse. Let’s take the people 10 years ago. The year 2000 was a great year for Metropolis Records. We broke a lot of bands. We sold a lot of records. The industry was at its peak, the label was at its peak. Now all of those people that were 20-30 on average, are now 30-40. And the new generation that is consuming, not necessarily buying, they were 10-20 years old. And in 10 years, those buyers are 1-10 years old. So it’s what everyone else does. My kids are laughed at by other acquaintances because they “buy” music. They’re “silly”. They’re “stupid”. “Why would you buy something when you can get it for free?” R.J. Preece: Wow. Dave Heckman: Yes things are that bad. R.J. Preece: So have online technologies helped a label such as Metropolis in any way? Dave Heckman: For the most part, it’s destroyed many labels. But we have used the Internet for promotion, and I’ve saved about USD$100,000 a year not sending out physical promos anymore—we do that digitally. So I’ve had to adapt. But I think the industry would be off a whole lot better if there was no Internet. R.J. Preece: Because of the copying element… Dave Heckman: But before the Internet, I remember one of my employees was freaking out thinking we’d be out of business in a few years once they put CD burners in computers. |
R.J. Preece: You’ve specialized in particular genres, and the market supports that production to a certain degree. With this changing market, how is it changing the music, the selection, or the opportunities? Is it lowering it?
Dave Heckman: It’s lowering it. There are very few artists who can make a living doing this. So the art will suffer because of this.
I’ve heard arguments that it makes the music industry more “democratic”; there’s a lot more music out there, but it’s a lot less consumed. And it’s the record label which usually makes the consumers out there aware of the band. But now when you promote the band, they become aware of it, and then it’s downloaded or copied.
R.J. Preece: Do you think there’s a way out of this?
Dave Heckman: No. Unless we go to a whole 1984 situation. I think it might be possible for the digital service providers to stop piracy, but it’s not in their interest. They charge for people to use the Internet. So it’s the technology companies pitted against the labels.
It’s disappointing to me, but I’ve accepted it. I mean most people write off the record labels as being “evil”. The big record labels against the consumer.
Well people aren’t “consumers” if they’re not paying for it.
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