One of the biggest challenges of the Columbia job is to find unsigned artists and help chart their course. Here is the snapshot of the New York Times Interview with Producer and Co-Head of Columbia Records Rick Rubin.

Music executives are obssessed with selling music rather than making music…

“The music business, as a whole, has lost its faith in content,” says David Geffen. “Only 10 years ago, companies wanted to make records, presumably good records, and see if they sold. But panic has set in, and now it’s no longer about making music, it’s all about how to sell music

Signing artists for the wrong reasons…

“The most important thing we have to do now is get the art right says Rubin. So many of the decisions at these companies have not been about the music. They sign artists for the wrong reasons — because they think somebody else wants them or if they need to have a record out by a certain date.

If the artist is great — anything is possible…

So, what’s important now is to find music that’s timeless. I still believe that if an artist gains the belief of the listener, then anything is possible.”

Some say the future of the industry is a subscription based model..

“You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”

The opponents of the subscription model feel that making all music by all artists available for one flat fee will end up diminishing the overall revenue stream. “There would have to be a new economic plan,” Geffen explained. “And it would have to be equitable, depending on the popularity of the artists.”

Steve Barnett is nervous about the subscription model. “Smart people have told me if the subscription model is not done correctly,” he said, “it will be the final nail in our coffin. I’ve heard both sides of the argument, and I’m not convinced it’s the solution to our problems. Rick wants to be a hero immediately. In his mind, you flick a switch and it’s done. It doesn’t work like that.”

At the end of the day, its all about the music…

Rubin paused. “That’s the magic of the business,” he said. “It’s all doom and gloom, but then you go to a Gossip show or hear Neil in the studio and you remember that too many people make and love music for it to ever die. It will never be over.

The Bottom Line: We couldn’t agree more with some of the observations. Music labels are not concentrating on making great music — instead they have focused on “How can we sell the music”. KOAR has always said you cannot peddle crap. Of course a plethora of great artists are not waiting to be discovered either — todays music label needs a staff of producers and collaborators’ to work with the unsigned talent hoping to create new stars.
The subscription model can be dangerous if its not well thought out. It doesn’t make sense that a well written HIT song on iTunes is priced equally as a track performed by an unknown artist that does not attract interest.

The iTunes egalitarian pricing system scorns achievement and is guilty of pandering to the cult of mediocrity.