Fiona Dodwell: "A Rebel Without Promo" (January 5, 2023)

Not sure it's that cloak & dagger (first link)
Not sure responses were of the type being sought (IG comments - second link).
FWD.

 

[ACTON]

Why do profits even matter at this point? he's a rich old man, with no children to pass down his wealth to.

Good point but money (or the perception that he gets what he earned) seems very important to Moz. Moz has a sister and nephews and probably thinks he'll live forever. I hope he does, or as close as good manners allow.

 

[Luxo]

She pays for Twitter, a free website.

 

[NotBoz]

Morrissey is 63 years old, considers himself to have been "cancelled" and this release had no promotion. He should be thrilled with #73.

 

[hand in glove]

You can't comment on her posts or tweet to her unless she follows you or mentions you, it's all very controlled

When I was on Twitter a couple of years ago, she followed me. Which left me completely perplexed. I left not long after but now I wish I hadn’t! I’d definitely comment. On this and other stories.

 

[Southpaw 2023]

Not sure it's that cloak & dagger (first link)
Not sure responses were of the type being sought (IG comments - second link).
FWD.

Well, that's a well written article. Pathetic on the recording industry's part. Well, like Morrissey says they're all about stardom these days, and aren't looking out for the true artists who've put 40 years of their life into making music!

 

[Redacted]

When I was on Twitter a couple of years ago, she followed me. Which left me completely perplexed. I left not long after but now I wish I hadn’t! I’d definitely comment. On this and other stories.

I don't even see her point of asking for opinions if she so severely limits who can respond.

 

[Redacted]

View attachment 87626

She pays for Twitter, a free website.

hehehe

 

[🐈🐈🐈]

Not sure it's that cloak & dagger (first link)
Not sure responses were of the type being sought (IG comments - second link).
FWD.

what’s with the name dropping with M’s family? Do they have to let her know or does the FAN BASE have to let her know? Very odd.

 

[Thewlis]

How does she know Cosmic Dancer has 1M streams? Is there a way to know other than being close to the artist yourself? I can only see Morrissey’s top 10 streaming songs.

 

[gordyboy9]

people frothing at the mouth over one one of fees articles,if you dont like what she writes then dont read it,its not that hard.

 

[ninetimesfined]

A copy/paste of her phones Notes app to Twitter, written in the style of a frothing qAnon follower. Move over, Blue Rose Society. It’s all about mAnon nowadays. It’s all linked. Capitol Records, hearing aids, Julia Riley and South American pasta.

 

[Paul Gambaccini]

I love Morrissey - but his inability to take any accountability for his own words and actions is quite infuriating. To refuse to take part in any kind of press promotion or interviews (other than with his tiny inner circle of Dodwell and his nephew) and then complain about his chart position is ridiculous. It's a game he's played well in the past, he only ruined it for himself by over-shadowing his spiky wit and charm with weird opinions on Muslims and 'rape capitals of the world'. He should at least be appearing on Ken Bruce's Tracks of my Years or having a chat with Graham Norton if he really gives that much of a shit about mainstream success. He can't blame the record company for not organising such things if he's at the same time refusing to play any kind of ball.

 

[gashonthenail]

Oh dear. None of this increases the likelihood of BOT getting released by Capitol. Unless that is what Moz wants - for Capitol to cut BOT loose and then he is back to trying to sell it again to the highest bidder? Or releasing it himself. But it is all a bit unedifying. What record label would want to get involved in this mess? Although I suppose there is no such thing as bad publicity. If BOT ever does get released it really will be the most hotly anticipated album of 2023, and 2022!

 

[Redacted]

I am still wondering why he ignored Richard Blade, he is a pretty big deal here re 80s music and has several radio shows. He DJs and I think he is involved with Cruel World. He is complaining about not getting promotion, but the biggest 80s DJ in North America is willing to help him. Richard is so nice and a lot of bands really love him because he tries to help everyone. He is very connected through his work and if he still does interviews, I bet he would give M a softball interview and only talk about the music, he is not interested in the drama and the rest of it. He really amazes me with how he handles the really difficult drama queens and works with them, I've been part of it. If he can help someone out by getting them a gig at a private party he is DJing at, he will do it. But instead M wants to talk about the boogeymen out to get him, not people who are willing to help him. I still can't believe Richard had to go to Alain's page to post he was playing Rebels, Central never announced it, never thanked him. Disgraceful.

 

[Luxo]

I can imagine that most people who listen to Morrissey on Spotify, YouTube Music/YouTube etc. are just listening to the classics and the hits (Suedehead, Sunday, Irish Blood, First of the Gang etc.), and many of these listens won't convert into streams of Rebels.

450,000 streams of Rebels seems impressive, but only if you don't understand how streaming works. Compared to other artists, and Morrissey's/The Smiths' other songs it will pale in comparison. It's also worth considering that even 450,000 unique streams (i.e. 450,000 people) wouldn't necessarily covert to 450,000 purchases of the song if it were to ever go on sale. If that were the case, lots of small artists would become very wealthy on the back of a song or two.

Also, I'm not sure of this, but when is a 1 stream considered 1 stream? Is it the full song, or 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds of the song, for example? If it's the case that 1 stream doesn't necessarily mean that the song is listened to in its entirety, then that could serve to inflate already relatively low numbers. Finally, are those 450,000 listeners of Rebels on Spotify unique listeners, or is it the same relatively small number of people listening to the song multiple times?

Edit: Spotify considers 30 seconds enough for a single stream:

https://artists.spotify.com/en/help/article/how-we-count-streams

 

[ninetimesfined]

What I don’t understand about MileyGate: (yes, we are calling it that) how come no-one around them knew this sort of outcome was likely? You don’t need to be a lawyer, presumably, to understand the type of record deal you’ve got, or for the other party - Moz - to think, ‘hold on a minute, might be worth reviewing your contract, love’. After all, he’s a stalwart of the industry and I’m sure the ‘it’s a shitty business’ sort of comment would have come up in conversation.
So then they recorded her backing vocals and then it’s a case of deciding not to tell anyone, for fear of it being blocked by her label… why did Sam or whoever announce it? Is communication that bad in Camp Morrissey that a key message about a high profile singer effectively moonlighting by applying her vocals to an album on another label - something that could be costly or block the album - and his comms team don’t know not to blab about it?
I don’t claim to know anything about the music industry but to be the whole action/response just feels amateur, not like an artist who’s been around for 40 years, seen it change, should understand the implications of those changes on his livelihood. It’s not a brand new manufactured singer that’s naive to all this crap…

 

[Luxo]

Point of clarification:

Rebels Without Applause has almost 450,000 streams. This is not the same as 450,000 listeners.

This amount of streams is equivalent to between 750 and 4,500 physical single sales. How can it be such a broad range?
In the UK (as an example, although most markets have a similar calculation structure) if a song gets 100 streams on a premium account it counts as 1 physical sale or if it gets 600 streams on an ad funded platform it counts as 1 sale.

We can't know how many unique listeners Rebels has, but we can understand the stream total is roughly the equivalent of somewhere between 750 and 4,500 unique customers if we assume the number of streams is mixed between premium and free account users.

As an extra note, the 431,702 streams (at time of commenting) are a global tally.

And on YouTube, a massive, massive platform, the "official" version of Rebels only has 15k "views". A tiny, tiny figure in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Luxo]

And on YouTube, a massive, massive platform, the "official" version of Rebels only has 15k "views". A tiny, tiny figure in the grand scheme of things.

And by way of comparison, a band I love, called the Country Side of Harmonica Sam, a small band from Sweden, who play honky tonk country music and barely play any gigs outside of Sweden, have 28k views on this video:



I also think they are a good example of self-promotion. During the lockdown(s) in Sweden, they recorded a series of videos in a band member's home, recorded by said band member's daughter, playing the songs live, and released them on YouTube and Instagram. It would be so, so easy for Morrissey to do something like this, but he won't.

Their vinyl records are released by a small independent record company in Spain, called El Toro. If a small band from Sweden can get a record deal, then there's no reason why Morrissey can't, except for his own self-sabotage.

 

[Luxo]

The paranoia level just moved to Def-Con 4. Moz should self-release and sell his albums at a slew of 2023 concerts at the merch bar and online. With half the sales of traditional channels he'd still make the same net profit. Imagine the excitement at getting his new album at his concert.

It wasn't new material, but when I first saw the Specials at the Manchester Apollo in 2011 (?), they were selling a live recording of the very gig that you just saw and listened to, for around £20-25 if I remember correctly. The gig was recorded that very night, by "Abbey Road Live", and burned onto CDs on the same night, which came in an LP style folding sleeve, which had been signed by the band. You put in your order before the band came on, then picked it up from the merch stall within 30 minutes of the gig ending. They obviously sold like mad, and I still have mine. It's totally unique to the gig that you saw, enabling you to cherish and recall the memory of it all even more.

Morrissey could very easily do something like this, rather than selling signed LPs of other artists for £200+ a pop.

Edit: here is said CD. It's lovely, and it's signed by the original line up (minus Jerry) before Neville and Roddy left, and before John and Terry sadly passed away.

 

[Luxo]

I've said it before but it's not hard to keep your name out there in this day and age, what does he do in this space - absolutely nothing.

Also, he likes to talk about his perceived enemies, but what about his friends, namely someone like Jonathan Ross, who has his own TV chat show on ITV? He may have done so already, but surely he can have a chat with him and get on there?