Smokin said:
Here’s the letter I just sent to the president of Sony Music.
Smokin
Dear Sony Execs:
I want to preface by saying that it took long time to get wise to the music industry’s game. Cute.
Now for some specificity. I just signed the ‘FreeFiona’ petition. Frankly, you guys should be ashamed of yourselves. I took a look at your release calendar about five minutes ago, and I am agog at sheer amount of CRAP that you’ll put out instead of what we all are now aware is a FANTASTIC piece of musical craftsmanship. And what did she do to deserve it? I’m assuming here, but let’s try this on for size:
First, she said your business was bullshit at the VMAs. You got mad because you knew she was hitting a little too close to the truth. But you let it pass after putting out some crucification in the form of media coverage of the event, thinking, ‘She’s young and hot-headed. She’ll get over it.’ But not so.
So now you are even more infuriated with her, especially since you’d just listened to the first tracks from ‘When The Pawn’ and thought to yourself, “This will never beat Britney Spears.” To get back at her for being herself, you refuse to market the album the way it deserves to be marketed, but it goes double-platinum anyway. Now you are livid, but oops!, so is she. She asks to get out of her soul-sucking contract, and rather than do the right thing and part ways (since you both hate each other, this is the intelligent move for both of you)you tell her to go **** herself, and that while she’s at it she might as well record the other three (or is it five, vultures?) albums she owes you because that’s the only way she’ll get away from you and your petty vituperation.
Now, she could have done any number of things to get you back, but she chose to stay quiet. Good move, except for the fact that you really, deep in your cold, black hearts, want to get rid of her. So now you’re not only mad that she made you look bad, that she won’t do as she’s told, and that her last album sold well despite being undermarketed, but you’ve taken her musical silence as a personal affront. And then, she goes back into the studio.
“Curses”, you say to yourselves as she records masterpiece after masterpiece. So when, not counting breaks in the recording process, she brings you a FINISHED album in SIX MONTHS, and it’s all quality musicianship and innovation, you tell her, “Sorry kid, we can’t sell this. Give us a ‘viable single’ and we’ll talk about it.” (I won’t even delve in to what a crock the term ‘viable single’ is. But we know it doesn’t mean what you’d like us to think it does.)
Fiona goes back, writes another song just short of genius, and you again reject it with the same song and dance you gave before. So the album sits, shelved and collecting dust, until the unthinkable happens. Some one leaks a track. Then two. And then, before you can even take any decisive action, the whole album is out. Now you’re on the losing side of the race, because if you put the album out now, you’re giving in, and if you don’t you’re losing money. Then FreeFiona pops up, and now you’re starting to wonder, “Maybe we’ve made a terrible mistake. Maybe we should have nurtured her through the process instead of demanding conformity and compliance.” But it’s too late. Not only have you alienated Fiona, but you’ve pissed off Jon Brion, whom you never really wanted to hurt, and you’ve lost thousands of fans who, up til that very moment, paid no attention to your back-biting, sophmoric antics. But now they see, and there’s only so much damage that spin control can fix.
My, wasn’t that fun. Sadly, truth is stranger than fiction. Whatever grand schemes my mind concocts must pale in comparison to the truth of this matter. So, Sony, there’s one thing I’d like you to keep in mind in your dealings with your artists and the general public. The rest of you feel free to listen in. It’s a lecture you need, too.
Stop it. Stop trying to fool us into believing we’re hurting you and your business. That’s crap and we all know it. It costs you less than seventy five cents to make and buy a CD. The fact is, your personal profit margins are going down, and THAT is what has got your collective g-strings in a twist. Don’t patronize us by saying that the lawsuits against illegal music downloaders are a way to ensure that the artist’s interests are protected. You care about them less than you care about us. And finally, don’t think, for one hot little minute, that we don’t know EXACTLY who Fiona and those like her have suffered humiliation and abuse for.
You’re thirteen to eighteen-year-old demographic can breathe a sigh of relief as their heads hit the pillow tonight, knowing that people like you are out there, protecting them from creativity and talent, every hour of every day.
Many want to blame the artists themselves for the state music today. Not so. Rather, blame the lecherous hawker of their wares, for evil lies not in the execution, but in the intent.
Commented on March 9th, 2005 at 8:48 am.
I am a HUGE fan of Fiona Apple. Tracks from her first two albums Tidal and When The Pawn.. are constantly in my playlist and haven’t left there since the albums came out.
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