Superstar vanity project or way of the future?
Lost amid all the bellowing about “historic” this and “iconic” that and the swirling vortex of hyperbole that engulfed the news of Janet Jackson’s imminent return is the nature of the deal that’ll bring her back as a recording artist.
The formal announcement trumpeted, “BMG is proud to announce that it will release the first album in seven years from (historic this, iconic that) . . . ”
But, as showbiz columnist Roger Friedman quickly pointed out, “BMG is not a record label. They are a publishing company. The old BMG was a label, then it merged with Sony and then it was consumed by Sony. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
Actually, BMG does a bunch of things these days — marketing, licensing, royalty collection and such — but Jackson’s album, due out this fall, is being released on her own label, named after her most ambitious album, Rhythm Nation.
The fact that said label has a roster of one didn’t stop her camp from framing the news this way: “Janet Jackson becomes arguably the first female African-American recording artist to form her own record label.
“The partnership with BMG makes Janet Jackson the biggest worldwide superstar yet to quit the traditional record-label system for a so-called artist-services deal, designed to put artists in the driving seat. Unlike a traditional record deal, under an artist-services deal the artist retains ownership of their recordings and full oversight of all costs and revenues.”
It’s those last seven words that describe the model that could become the norm for many veteran artists who remain big names but whose commercial heyday is receding ever further into the distance.
Billboard cited examples such as Prince and the Pet Shop Boys among established acts that recently have gone the pay-for-everything-keep-everything route, while BMG itself touts Bryan Ferry, Backstreet Boys and Smashing Pumpkins. (Radiohead, of course, long ago took all of this to another level.)
Whatever ensues, Jackson should prove to be a more satisfactory boss than her predecessor. It’s worth recalling that her last deal with a major label, Island, ended a mere seven months after her most recent album, 2008’s Discipline, materialized to grand fanfare and limp sales.
“During her brief stay at the label,” Rolling Stone reported at the time, “Jackson frequently lamented that the label wasn’t doing its part to properly promote her most recent album.”
Chimed in producer Rodney Jenkins, “She just didn’t get her just due as an artist of that magnitude.”
Assuming that won’t be a problem under Jackson’s new arrangement, there won’t be anyone to blame if things fall flat in the fall.
After all, BMG’s part in this brave new world will be limited largely to the solemn promises listed on its website: “Artists’ approval of all budgets,” “No hidden charges or deductions for international sales or services,” “a voice in all key decisions” and the like.
The biggest tangible benefit to Jackson will probably be the leverage she’ll have with “our sister companies within Bertelsmann, one of the world’s biggest media groups.”
As columnist Friedman parsed it, “The way things are now, Janet will be lucky to sell 250,000 copies. It’s not about her. It’s about the market. Her audience has aged. They want to see her in concert, live, singing ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately.’ ”
Regardless of how Jackson’s specific case plays out, the arrangement itself makes the eventual direct signing with services such as Spotify, Apple’s Beats and even YouTube seem even more like an inevitability.
Those companies may not be able to duplicate the administrative and publishing duties that a BMG can, but the reach, the massive built-in audiences, and the market and demographic data at their disposal could redefine any act’s notion of “artist services.” Vinyl Countdown: The two, largely unloved albums the Doors made without Jim Morrison are coming back to vinyl (oh, and CD).
Due Sept. 4 are 1971’s Other Voices, originally released three months after Morrison’s death, and 1972s Full Circle, the final album to bear the Doors moniker until 1978’s music/spoken-word collage An American Prayer.
Pressed on “virgin 180-gram vinyl,” the albums will recreate the original elaborate packaging, including “the wild, fold-out zoetrope that came with Full Circle.
Once assembled, this basic ani- mation device depicts the human life cycle of a man from infancy to elderly.”
The albums will also be paired together on a two-CD set, which (unlike the vinyl) will include one bonus track, the rare non-album B-side “Treetrunk.”
John Lennon fans who don’t want to splash out 200-and-something bucks on the nine-record vinyl box set due out June 9 will be able to pick and choose when the albums become available individually on vinyl, Aug. 21. Retro/active: Sometime before the release of his 1994 album Wildflowers, Tom Petty chose to shelve half of what was at one point to be a double CD.
Now he’s decided to dust off those long-forgotten tracks and put them out as Wildflowers: All the Rest. There’s no release date yet, but one of the songs, “Somewhere Under Heaven,” graces the end credits of the new Entourage movie and is being released digitally this week.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reports that Petty also plans to record a second album with his old band, Mudcrutch.
Cowboy Junkies are plotting an elaborate return with a four-disc box set. Titled Notes Falling Slow, it will include “some remastered catalogue albums as well as a disc that will have nine or 10 brand new recordings.”
The tentative release date is late September. jsakamoto@thestar.ca
“The way things are now, Janet will be lucky to sell 250,000 copies. It’s not about her. It’s about the market. Her audience has aged. They want to see her in concert, live.” ROGER FRIEDMAN SHOWBIZ COLUMNIST