Tomorrow sees the release of the remastered Beatles albums, but you won't see Paul or Ringo turning up in New York. Gone are the days when a major release would be accompanied by an event at a big-name record store, the reason being there aren't any such stores left in Manhattan.
The Virgin Megastore in Times Square stands empty. Tower Records fell almost three years ago. The independents aren't benefiting from this either - Etherea Records closed down earlier this year.
New York, then, is in danger of becoming the city where nothing happens - at least with regard to the high end of the music business. As recently as 2001, Michael Jackson sat patiently like a regular pop star and signed autographs in the Times Square Virgin.
Signings are a rare thing these days, as selling records is no longer how artists and record companies make the bulk of their money. This is generated by the tours, and New York is as busy in that respect as one would expect. Britney Spears has just passed through town and Jay-Z is arriving any day now.
But the megastar no longer has to connect with his or her public in any way. The event no longer fits into record companies' business model. This is all well and good, but it makes life considerably less interesting for those in the city who want to see things that wouldn't happen anywhere else.
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'But the megastar no longer has to connect with his or her public in any way'.
ReplyDeleteDispute this - has the notion of 'connecting' not simply just changed? Twitter and the like seems to have made celebrity more accessible, are we just changing how we connect with our celebrities? Instead of queuing for hours to meet and greet, I simply log on to see how my icon is feeling. Has real life 'encounters' been replaced with cyber connections?!
Ah, but don't the really big celebrities have their Twitter/FBc etc managed for them by staff? And isn't this really just more celebrities keeping their brand in the public eye than a true connection/respect for their public?
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