MMJ & Radiohead - Label Mates

[cmccubbin@work]

http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/12/radiohead-deal-with-ato-confirmed/

Radiohead deal with ATO confirmed
by Lindsay Barnes

Although its been widely expected for weeks, an official from Dave Matthews-Coran Capshaw-owned ATO Records confirmed to Billboard this morning that the English rock band signed a deal with TBD Records, a subsidiary of ATO (yes, ATO has a subsidiary), to release the band's newest album In Rainbows on Wednesday, January 2.

The U.K. rock group is by far the biggest fish ATO has ever caught in its short history, whose current lineup boasts the likes of David Gray, My Morning Jacket, Gov't Mule, and Ben Kweller.

Why has Radiohead decided to opt for the little ol' indie label instead of one of the bigger record companies like its previous label EMI? Perhaps because ATO is no longer the little ol' indie label Charlottesvillians remember. In addition to its Downtown Mall office, the company's main office is now on Wall Street in New York.

Moreover, the label has a distribution deal with Dave Matthews Band's label RCA and has some big industry names steering the ship, former Columbia Records chair Will Botwin as well as former Capitol Records senior VP of promotion and marketing, Phil Costello, whose presence reportedly helped to sway the Oxfordites' decision.

ATO will be navigating uncharted territory for the record industry. Radiohead made In Rainbows available through its own website on October 10 and asked fans to pay whatever they believed was a fair price (including $0) for the album. According to comScore.com, a website that measures digital commerce, only two out of five fans actually forked over any money, making for an average payout of $2.26 per download. While that's a pittance compared to what fans have had to pay for a Radiohead CD in a record store, it's still a huge payday for the band, which has reaped an estimated $2.7 million from the 1.2 million downloads.

Calls to various ATO officials were not immediately returned at the time of this post.

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this can only be good for MMJ!

[getinthevan]

Tour?  

That'd be sweet.  

[corey]

Tour?  

That'd be sweet.

Do you really want that? Or will you be one of the folks crying because MMJ only gets a 40 minute opening set?

:)

[LEATHER KID]

I hope it's good for everybody, but didn't Jim say that he didn't care much for the Radiohead show at Bonnaroo.

[EC]

I hope it's good for everybody, but didn't Jim say that he didn't care much for the Radiohead show at Bonnaroo.

well, it's prob. ok - i don't think all people who operate under a label have to like each other all the time, or even ever, or even have to really deal with each other. ;)

i like where radiohead is going these days, i think.  they're fucking shit up, which is very cool, and because they're so gigantic, they can actually make waves.  

but, give me a BREAK, thinkin' ATO is an indie label.  hahahahaha.  i've never thought that.  i don't actually even think it is, is it?

radiohead always makes me feel good with their decisions.  i think they've managed to maintain artistic integrity in what is probably a difficult environment to maintain such integrity.  

i'm not gonna go too far here, but here's a thought that just occurred to me:  now that the internet has been around long enough that the newer generations don't remember a time without it, and it's buckets and buckets of unpoliced thoughts and opinions, perhaps people are learning to think for themselves again...  and because of that, perhaps music is getting better.  anybody think so?  i see music getting a lot better.   i see people getting creative.

[CC]

I hope it's good for everybody, but didn't Jim say that he didn't care much for the Radiohead show at Bonnaroo.

nah.
that was an overheard private comment taken out of context.
don't believe everything you read.

[BH]

Yeah, that whole thing was ridiculous.  Jim is actually a Radiohead fan, he told someone in a casually conversation that the set was a "little sleepy" and it got all blown out of proportion.

YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW THAT WE WILL CHANGE AND KEEP IT OFF THE RECORD.

[blainesanders]

what's funny is that i thought that Radiohead set from Bonnaroo was a "little sleepy" as well, and i said possibly those EXACT words during the show.  I love Radiohead but i've seen them rawk out 10 times harder than they did at roo that year (not that it wasn't a good show, cause it was, just on the "sleepy" side of radiohead, not rawkin side. plus, anything was gonna seem sleepy after the shit storm MMJ pulled the night before.)  Anyways, it always makes me happy to see Jim say stuff the way i've thought of it before.  I think he and I are on the same sort of wave-length, only the stuff he thinks about gets done, mine doesn't.  His taste in music seems similar to mine, and the band covers tons of songs that "my band was going to cover" back in 99-2002.  only thing is, his band is the real deal, mine was just an ideal idea... that ideal idea always sounded like MMJ in my mind.

[blainesanders]

as far as ATO being indie...

i've pretty much followed this label from their first announcement as a business idea (huge DMB fan in high school).  Anyways, I like what this label does/did.  They basically wanted to start a label of select "good" artists that they wanted to market.  What they proposed to the artists was that they could get all the advantages of advertising and distribution from the big record labels, but they could still have their artistic integrity and not pay a HUGE chunk of change to the label.  I think it was a great idea, and I think it worked.  They have an awesome lineup of acts for a label like this.  Can you imagine how good an ATO Artist festival would be!!  Especially now that Radiohead is on board.  Like MMJ said in the beginning, (something like...) "We had a ton of options with record labels knocking on our door, we chose the record label that looked at the world the most similar to the way we did."    Anyways, I think it's great that this label has done so well, their business platform seems to be beneficial to the artists.  Given the entire record industry could flip on it's head tomorrow, but I think these guys took it in the right direction.  Sorry for the long rant, but i figured people on this board would be the only ones that might care to hear it anyways.

[getinthevan]

Tour?  

That'd be sweet.

Do you really want that? Or will you be one of the folks crying because MMJ only gets a 40 minute opening set?

:)

I would rather see them open for Radiohead than some band that I have absolutely no desire to see.  Plus, I'd rather leave a show wanting more of a band, than leave thinking they played way too long (of course with MMJ this isn't possible though).

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

it's MMJ's turn to headline....they're ready.

[LEATHER KID]

Fair enough.  I think that comment always stuck with me because I felt the same way.  I mean I'm a radiohead fan but that show didn't do very much for me.  Maybe I was just trying to get ready for the late night shows and didn't give them the attention necessary.  Anything that can help the Jacket is good in my book! :)

[aMD]

it's MMJ's turn to headline....they're ready.

I feel that.  MMJ should headline a tour with Dr. Dog and Wax Fang!  seriously!

[EC]

it's MMJ's turn to headline....they're ready.

I feel that.  MMJ should headline a tour with Dr. Dog and Wax Fang!  seriously!

holy fuck that would kick serious ass.

[cmccubbin@work]

it's MMJ's turn to headline....they're ready.

I feel that.  MMJ should headline a tour with Dr. Dog and Wax Fang!  seriously!

man...if they did that i would use my vacation to pull a George Savage and follow that tour for 3 weeks!!!

and about the Radiohead set at the 'Roo in '06...it was VERY sleepy.  it was an awesome show, but just slow.  jim was right.  especially after the show MMJ put on the night before...3.5 hr rock fest kinda made seeing Radiohead a downer.

[getinthevan]

it's MMJ's turn to headline....they're ready.

I feel that.  MMJ should headline a tour with Dr. Dog and Wax Fang!  seriously!

holy fuck that would kick serious ass.

That would kick serious ass.  I'd probably end up at most if not all the shows in the Great Lakes area.

[sidney]

that would be amazing!!!!

[Dorothy_Mantooth]

radiohead always makes me feel good with their decisions.

that makes one of us, skank.  :D  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( you didn't show at our rumble. i'm pissed