Too old for radio?
You have to skip down through the Britney ‘news’ before you hit this disturbing article which describes how not just the record companies have gone insane in the music business.
Bruce: Magic Refused Radio Play
Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year for “Magic,” an album full of singles and a sold-out concert tour.
Alas, there’s a hitch: Radio will not play “Magic.” In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from “Magic.” But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as “Dancing in the Dark,” “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA.”
Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.
Why? One theory, says a longtime rock insider, “is that the audience knows those songs. Of course, they’ll never know these songs if no one plays them.”
Clear Channel seems to have sent a clear message to other radio outlets that at age 58, Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations. This completely absurd notion is one of many ways Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. It’s certainly what’s helped create satellite radio, where Springsteen is a staple and even has his own channel on Sirius.
It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.
Guess that’s bad news for singles from the Eagles’ newest CD, or for Ozzy.
Well his latest stuff is cr*p, so I have no problem in not having to listen to it while i wait for the next crappy new song from britney to be played.
Just saying
No more of my money is going to those granny suing, coke snorting, pink handed, money grubbing lawyer wielding RIAA bastards. If I can’t get the music I want directly from the artist, or some non RIAA affiliated source, it’s a pirate’s life for me, buckos. Arrrrr!
When sales and creativity decisions are made solely by beancounters – it doesn’t matter what the industry is. Growth dynamics cease.
#3, dont worry, RIAA is going down. This month Radiohead made 6 million dollars selling their new independent album over the internet.
Now Nine Inch Nails dropped their label as well and is planning a similar release, and so is Madonna. RIAA associated record companies overcharge for music and pay their artists a rediculously small royalty percentage, so it is no surprise that the artists are bailing.
Clear Channel is not RIAA however. Clear Channel is the company responsible for every FM station in the country sounding exactly the same, and making 90% of the “talk radio” stations have a conservative bias.
It’s political! Clear Channel is affiliated with the right wing conservatives and Springsteen is definitely not of that persuasion. The new album is critical of the current administration and that does not sit well with Clear Channel. Pure Politics.
This is why I stopped listening to commercial radio years ago. The only FM station I listen to now days is my local NPR affiliate. I listen to new stuff on the Internet and get tips from friends about new music. Clean Channel and the RIAA can bite my shiny metal youknowwhat.
Hooray satellite radio
6. jer- I think you got it.
Springsteen must be devastated after hearing this news. This means that now there is virtually no chance his new music will reach AM radios in 1987 Buicks driven by guys wearing Member’s Only jackets in Luckenbach, TX.
Remarkable that this article does not even consider addressing the political content of Springsteen’s new album . . . or was that the subtext that they aren’t allowed to directly address?
It’s offensive to me that some fat-cat gazziliionare can ‘send down an edict’ that we can’t listen to new Springsteen in my local community.
But, because Clear Channel owns practically everything in my local community, they can.
I’m for a “local doctrine” (rather than just fairness) that gives licensing preference to locally originated shows and local ownership of radio stations.
I enjoy network radio but national firms should not be allowed to dominate every local market, just because they have the bucks to do it.
AS FOR SPRINGSTEEN SPECIFICALLY, something stinks here. Springsteen has a relationship with Clear Channel, right? Is this some internal dispute between him and management?
Despite my concerns about Clear Channel, they do have a pretty cool music web site.
http://tinyurl.com/ynqofg
They offer full streaming of Springsteen’s new album, if you don’t mind a little talk-over
Holy crap! The article is from Fox News and it doesn’t mention the political issue involved here?
How the heck would such a fair and balanced news organization miss this part of the story? It’s like . . . they almost seem to have AVOIDED the issue on purpose! What’s THAT about???
Yup!!!! Pure politics.This has nothing to do with his age.
I’m no fan of Clear Channel but I don’t want to hear any of Bruce’s new stuff either. I would likely change the channel immediately if they did play any.
Bruce’s concert tour is sold out because people want to hear “Born in the USA” and “Dancing in the Dark”, not tracks from “The Ghost of Tom Jode”.
The fact that he has the number one album in the country doesn’t mean much either since it took less than 100,000 copies sold the first week to get there. There is at least that number of die hard fans that would buy a CD full of beer farts if Springsteen decided to release one.
Tom Petty: The Last DJ
Well you can’t turn him into a company man
You can’t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don’t understand anymore
Well the top brass don’t like him talking so much
And he won’t play what they say to play
And he don’t want to change what don’t need to change
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they’re gonna hang him so high
Because you just can’t do what he did
There’s some things you just can’t put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ
Talk radio might be conservative (I don’t listen to it), but the “music” I hear sure is not conservative by any stretch of the imagination. What I accidently and unwillingly overhear is nihilistic, crybaby, anti-social dirty diaper crapaphony.
The Boss is on the current Rolling Stone cover, if that’s any consolation.
#17 Don’t you see? Hopelessness and irresponsibility serve the current so called conservatives perfectly. They keep the young-uns from getting uppity, and thinking they have any power to lift up the lid and jump out of the handbasket that we are all riding in, straight to Hell. This is not a generational thing either; when was the last time you heard Muse on a Clear Channel station? What, never? Could it be that Muse is critical of the idiots running things, and hopeful that people have real power in this world? It certainly isn’t lack of album sales, and one of the local independent stations (google: CD101) plays them quite often; they play Springsteen as well. I suppose that is the result of having to actually make money, rather than being a loss leading paid propaganda operation designed to get us thinking gibberish while wallowing in mediocrity.
#17
“but the “music” I hear sure is not conservative by any stretch of the imagination”
That’s actually quite simple, you air what can be sold. Period.