Lady Gaga's Manager Would Like To Give Her Next Album Away For Free... If He Could

from the not-up-to-him dept

Mon, Sep 26th 2011 1:28pm — Mike Masnick

It's been clear for a while that Lady Gaga understood the power of free music, using it in a variety of promotions, saying she didn't care if people downloaded her music, because it only got more people to go see her live and emphatically saying she thinks albums cost way too much. She thought that $0.99 was a better price for an entire album, rather than per song.

Now, as Robw was the first of a few of you to point out, her manager has said that, if it were up to him, he'd give her next album away totally free -- with the focus on getting it as much exposure as possible, knowing full well that he'd make that up through greater fan support elsewhere.

"If it was up to me, I'd give away the next album and put it on every handset that I can put it on, to get that scale," he said. "You can't be scared to fail. Sometimes we're going to get big results, and sometimes you learn a lesson, make an adjustment and move on."

Of course, some will immediately point out that since it's not up to him, such comments are meaningless. He can say that and "pander" to fans, even if he doesn't really believe it. But, of course, there's no reason to believe he doesn't mean it. And in an era when so many top musicians are being pressured to toe the industry line about how evil "free" is, it's certainly nice to see one of the biggest (if not the biggest) pop stars in the world, and her management, recognizing publicly that the business model these days isn't in selling music directly.

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Filed Under: album, free, lady gaga

39 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 1:33pm

What they realizes only is that, once you have reached a certain point, selling music is the smaller end of the business, nothing more and nothing less.

I am sure that Gaga and her management have no intention of returning the millions that were poured into turning her from a stripping into an international "star", nor do they intend to refund their fans for having paid for music before.

The story always reads differently when you have "fuck you" money to work with.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 1:34pm

Comparisons
Perhaps all those comparison the Madonna are pretty accurate... If memory serves, Madonna was a smart cookie who planned for and got success. Obviously Lady Gaga is of the same breed.

How smart could Madonna/Lady Gaga possibly be, you ask? Smart enough to not let on how smart they might be to your or me.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 1:52pm

Well that's just because he is making drug money on the side ;)
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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 1:58pm

Re:
This could never work for a new artist without a following.
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vivaelamor (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:01pm

Re:
"turning her from a stripping"

What on Earth is a stripping?
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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:03pm

Re: Re:
If you've never had a good stripping then you aren't living your life to the fullest.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:06pm

Re: Re:
Sorry, I had another word after stripping but removed it. Replace with "stripper" to make it easy on your mind.
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Mike42 (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:12pm

Give music away for free. I bet Bono is spinning in his grave.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:15pm

Re:
I bet Bono is spinning in his grave.

And Paul McGuinness is charging admission.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:18pm

Did anyone know who Lady Gaga was before her studio contract?

She signed a contract with a studio. The studio provided services such as recording time, mastering, post production, and most importantly PROMOTION. Without these services chances are we would never have heard of Lady Gaga.

For this reason I think studios are evil, they are the reason we have to hear her dance pop crap. Please join Mike's quest to stop the studios from discovering and promoting new "talent".
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DaveL (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:19pm

Ummm..
Is this the same Lady Gaga manager that threatened Weird Al with copyright infringement if he released a parody song to "Born This Way"? If some, I somehow doubt his motives here.
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CJ (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:22pm

Sweet
Unfortunately it wont happen because they are slaves to the music industry. It is great that many music artist today are seeing the importance of thinking of their fans, and giving back to them. However many are finding out too late their hands are tied to the music industry which are thinking of only lining their pockets any way they can. Including blocking freebies.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:24pm

Re:
Oh, don't confuse the discussion with facts.

The world needs more strippers, the music industry took one away from us. They suck!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:33pm

Re: Re:
In that case, i think the music industry did us all a favour. Do you really want to see lady gaga stripping?
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:34pm

Re: Re: Re:
Lady Gaga and stripping still hurt my mind. (It's a man, baby!)
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:34pm

Doesnt matter what the manager says anyways, we can all get copies of lady gaga's albums free, right ?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:35pm

Re: Sweet
She is CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED to the label she signed with. The label provided services at great expense before she even proved to be a commercial success. The money the labels make off of ONE successful performer offset the huge losses they incure from the hundreds of duds.

I know the mentality here is that anything you have to pay for sucks, but in the case of recorded music it really is about repayment for services provided.

Look at the P&L statements for the labels and tell me if they are "linig their pockets".
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sarvinc (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:41pm

Re: Re:
I know a few people who would go even further than *give* away their music for free. They'd probably crap their pants if they could *make* you listen to their music for free. These are musicians with small followings that are pretty awesome at what they do.
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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:46pm

Re: Re: Re:
Please tell me I don't have to end every one of my posts with /sarc for people to get it.
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Michael Whitetail, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:48pm

Re:
Your assuming that a person cannot self-promote themselves in the music business. You are of course, very wrong.

Many artists are doing very well for themselves, despite not having the backing of a major label, simply because they embraced the internet, and leveraged it to level the playing field.

These days the entry costs for recording, mastering, and production are very reasonable for the average person, and word-of-mouth advertising has always been the best sort of advertising. There isnt the need to sign with a label, fork over all your profits and loose your copyrights to boot.

The restrictions of what an artist can and cannot do with their own creations is the #2 reason not to go with a major label. The #1 reason is not haveing to be sell your soul/be indebted to a major corporation.
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Digitari, 26 Sep 2011 @ 2:52pm

RE GaGa Naked
bleaching eyes as I type, gonna use a toothbrush to help scrub out that mental picture too.

One is always Free to say I "wish".

(wish terms subject to change, wish is copyrighted, wish may not induce other copyright infringement in use)
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 3:01pm

Re: Re: Sweet
Yeah but that's alright, the expenses were all taken out of her advance, so it didn't actually cost them a thing.
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sarvinc (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 3:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Sorry, maybe I should start every one of mine with "if this isn't sarcasm then...".
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 3:41pm

Re: Re: Re: Sweet
^ This, and were the P&L statements prepared in the same manner that shows only a handfull of movies ever made a profit?

TD Article
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D. Hope-Ross (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 3:58pm

Re:
If only Bono were dead.
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D. Hope-Ross (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 3:58pm

Re:
If only Bono were dead.
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mrharrysan, 26 Sep 2011 @ 4:24pm

She does not have millions of dollars from her label. She went bankrupt. She probably realized that she isn't going to see any money from music sales, given major label "accounting", so she might as well give it away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1392686/Lady-Gaga-admits-went-bankrupt-spendin g-millions-tour-costumes.html
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re:
Ask her.
http://www.youtube.com/user/hotforwords
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 4:49pm

Re:
Oh look Microsoft, Nike and Ford use Jamendo.

http://pro.jamendo.com/en/

Maybe you heard Jamendo in their commercials.
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illuminaut (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 5:46pm

Re: Re: Sweet
It's just your assumption that she would have never been a success without her label. It's also been pointed out many times that the big labels do not incur "huge losses from the duds" because it's basically a loan.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2011 @ 7:34pm

Re: Re:
He is. If you play "Lemon" backwards at 78rpm, you can hear him say, "This is Bono. I am dead. Rice? I hate rice. I never eat rice!"

Pretty shocking, really.
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Daddy Warbucks, 26 Sep 2011 @ 10:15pm

Overwhelmed
I remember growing up hearing the same songs many, many times on the radio. It was as if I owned the album and got to play those songs over and over. Hearing those songs repeatedly made me want to go to the concerts with my friends, who also heard the songs as many times as I did.

Free radio (paid by ads) worked to drive me to as many concerts as I could get to without going deaf. Labels are short sided and will flail around to protect, until TRILLIONS of digital versions of their songs finally overwhelm them and they become useless the peer user.

Why can't they see what Gaga sees, 100's of Millions with a song are more likely to go to concerts than 1 Million with a song.
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The eejit (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 11:22pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
And? The Todd like hotness, whether it's got junk or a trunk. [/Scrubs]
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The eejit (profile), 26 Sep 2011 @ 11:23pm

Re: Re: Re:
Yes, because curiosity didn't just kill the cat, it ripped its head off and stumpfucked it until the sun came up.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2011 @ 12:01am

Re: Ummm..
Yeah, same one. The guy is a fucking idiot.

He'll be the one asking to work for free soon...
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2011 @ 1:17pm

Free is too much for that crap.
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S, 27 Sep 2011 @ 4:12pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You do need to.

I keep forgetting to tag my own comments with /s when relevant and I get the creeping heebie-jeebies wondering what kind of psychotic knucklehead it makes me appear to people who don't realise I'm not being earnest.
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S, 27 Sep 2011 @ 4:15pm

Re: Comparisons
Lady Gaga is actually on my very short list of "people who get it" -- which always makes me chortle a little inside when pretentious little pricks start going on about how "stupid" she is.
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lrobbo (profile), 10 Jun 2012 @ 8:54am

Would it would be better if they simply threw it away.
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