At about this time last year, Taylor Swift, Scott Borchetta and Big Machine Label Group made all of the headlines when Swift (with Borchetta's gentle nudging) decided to hold hew newest record 1989 off of Spotify, and pull the rest of her albums off of the streaming service. Then Borchetta started the "Music Has Value" campaign with Big Machine Rocks and the merchandise and all of that. It became a brand, a trademark of Big Machine.
In some ways, this is so incredibly bold and amazing. Music DOES have value. Music should be paid for in some way shape or form because it is art that someone poured their heart and soul into. Spotify and other streaming services should be for sampling songs and records, and then people should go and purchase the ones they love. All of the Mickey Guyton's and Cam's of the world are getting cheated by streaming services, who convince customers to stream "Better Than You Left Me" and "Burning House" rather than purchase them. However, while Scott Borchetta is promoting this message and image, his label is putting out songs that are not valuable.
In some ways, this is so incredibly bold and amazing. Music DOES have value. Music should be paid for in some way shape or form because it is art that someone poured their heart and soul into. Spotify and other streaming services should be for sampling songs and records, and then people should go and purchase the ones they love. All of the Mickey Guyton's and Cam's of the world are getting cheated by streaming services, who convince customers to stream "Better Than You Left Me" and "Burning House" rather than purchase them. However, while Scott Borchetta is promoting this message and image, his label is putting out songs that are not valuable.
Back up. That statement is a little too general. Quite a lot of the music that Big Machine Label Group is involved in releasing and recording is not valuable. However, there are many exceptions, including Maddie & Tae's new album Start Here, most of Taylor Swift's music, Danielle Bradbery's music up to this year, Cassadee Pope's record and new single, Lauren Jenkins' music and many more.
But then there are also songs that have been released recently that fans have been encouraged to buy and not stream, but they are not songs worth buying. On the main Big Machine Records, listen to new Tim McGraw music. He has gone the electronic-influenced route, with songs like "Looking for that Girl" and "Southern Girl." Tim McGraw, one of the symbols of country music is going electro-country with Big Machine. His new single 'Top of the World" is barely country, showing that McGraw is just taking another step in the wrong direction. And although we love Danielle Bradbery, her new single, "Friend Zone," is not very good. It is catchy as hell, but the songwriting is not up to par, the beat is like Iggy Azalea gone country and the song is just not up the standard the rest of her songs have set. It's like Big Machine is making her go a direction which doesn't truly show off what makes her popular: her vocals.
But then there are also songs that have been released recently that fans have been encouraged to buy and not stream, but they are not songs worth buying. On the main Big Machine Records, listen to new Tim McGraw music. He has gone the electronic-influenced route, with songs like "Looking for that Girl" and "Southern Girl." Tim McGraw, one of the symbols of country music is going electro-country with Big Machine. His new single 'Top of the World" is barely country, showing that McGraw is just taking another step in the wrong direction. And although we love Danielle Bradbery, her new single, "Friend Zone," is not very good. It is catchy as hell, but the songwriting is not up to par, the beat is like Iggy Azalea gone country and the song is just not up the standard the rest of her songs have set. It's like Big Machine is making her go a direction which doesn't truly show off what makes her popular: her vocals.
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On their Valory Music roster, Thomas Rhett is a disgrace with his new album, Tangled Up. The songs are qualified as country on iTunes, and played on country radio, but everything released so far sound more like early 2000's pop-funk than country. His most recent release, "I Feel Good," is about as far from country you can get. It sounds like a bad Katy Perry song. On Republic Nashville, there's Florida Georgia Line and their album Anything Goes. The worst country album released last year, this record sounds like it was spit out in 15 minutes, every song following the same formula, with the horrendous choices of topic, Tyler Hubbard screeching at the top of his lungs, Brian Kelly whispering in the background, with electronic drums and almost no country influence. This album has also been responsible for "Sun Daze," "Sippin' On Fire" and "Anything Goes," all terrible singles which will all go No. 1, because of how messed up country radio is right now. And on that section of Big Machine Label Group, there's also The Band Perry who have changed from a quite excellent country band to a bad Disney pop rock band with their new single "Live Forever."
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Most of the songs Big Machine has released in the last year are not art. They are not songs that sound like someone spent a lot of time and effort on. They are songs that an artist spit out in 20 minutes in the country radio formula to get another No. 1. If Big Machine is shouting that music has value, why is the label releasing music that doesn't have value? So Scott Borchetta, maybe instead of spending money to make shirts with "Music has Value" splashed on the front, maybe spend a little more money into making your record label's music valuable.
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