Spanish Scandal Embroils Million-Selling Artist

Singer Sought Inside Information On SGAE Investigation From Intelligence Sources

Originally written for Billboard Magazine, September 2011

El Rey De Pollo Frito – “The King Of Fried Chicken” – is not a title that Ramoncín is particularly happy with. The 55-year old Spanish pop star has only himself to blame, however, having written and recorded a song with that name in 1978.

But now the unflattering moniker is surely the furthest thing from his mind. That’s because the veteran artist – awarded a Diamond Disc for his one-million plus record sales in 2006 – has been accused of involvement in Spain’s ongoing SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) collection society scandal. It is alleged in the Spanish media that he attempted to extract inside information on the investigation through a contact in the country’s equivalent of the CIA.

As previously reported (Billboard, July 2), Eduardo “Teddy” Bautista, a Spanish 60s soul legend and, until recently, the chairman of the SGAE, along with José Luis Rodriguéz Neri, the Director General of its digital subsidiary, SDAE, were arrested on June 29. They and seven more were accused of corruption, which the prosecution claims was endemic within the organization. Neri has been singled out as the mastermind.

He is being tried for a range of crimes, including fraud and misappropriation of funds, which, it is claimed, were illegally diverted to front companies. The prosecution also alleges he ran up huge personal bills on company credit cards.

Ramoncín – real name José Ramón Julio Martínez Márquez – had been part of the SGAE and SDAE management team for 20 years, until 2007. He then became an advisor to the digital affiliate. As the arrests were made and accusations started to fly, he publicly tried to distance himself from the organization and the misdeeds of some of its officers, even saying in an interview with Publico magazine: “I regret having stuck up for the collection of cowards that is the SGAE.”

And stick up for it he had. Ramoncín gained a degree of notoriety with the Spanish public as a vociferous champion of the canon digital, a highly unpopular blanket tax, collected by the SGAE on huge variety of devices – from USB drives (40 cents), MP3 players ($4), to high-volume photocopiers ($306). The tax even applied to the computer this article was written on, adding around $16 to its price – due to it containing a hard drive.

But despite his public condemnations, Ramoncín seems to have continued to be privately loyal to at least one of his former colleges  ­– José Luis Rodriguéz Neri. Descriptions and partial transcripts of phone calls made between the pair, discussing the police investigation of the SGAE, appeared in the quality daily paper ABC on September 23 and have been widely reported elsewhere in the Spanish media.

These conversations, which took place before the arrests, alternate between alarm that the investigation will take place, outrage at what the two consider to be its political motives and speculation at who might lead it. At one point they even appear to speak in code.

Incredibly, Ramoncín also remarks that he will be dining with a friend from the CNI, the Spanish National Intelligence Center. “Then I’ll know more than anybody,” he boasts. Whether he ever had that conversation is not known, but what seems clear is that he played at least some part in the intrigue, and was prepared to use dubious methods to aid his situation. It is also obvious from the conversations that both men were completely unnerved by the prospect of being investigated.

A motive for Ramoncín going that extra mile for Neri was reported in business magazine El Economista on September 26. “I found myself in a delicate situation,” he explained to the SGAE investigators. The delicacy of the situation involved money, as it seems the singer’s had all but run out. In desperation, he turned to his colleague Neri to supply him with the funds needed to save him from ruin, according to the Spanish periodical. 

The rationale for the canon digital was to recoup some of the revenues lost through piracy, by levying an additional charge on anything that might be used in the pursuit of illegal copying and distribution.

Ironically, it is alleged that a proportion of the revenues collected via the canon have ended up in the pockets of Neri and his co-accused, instead of going to the artists, producers and others that usually benefit from royalties. With Neri also using company credit cards to fund an extravagant lifestyle involving a clutch of luxury homes, opulent foreign travel, jewelry purchases and “domestic expenses”.

As of July this year, the canon tax has been rescinded. Bautista and Neri face a possible 10-year stretch if found guilty, and public and industry ire towards the former has resulted in the canning of a documentary on his considerable artistic contribution to Spanish music with his band, Los Canarios. Meanwhile, a planned Greatest Hits double CD seems destined for the remainder bin.

Looking on from his throne in the courtroom, the King Of Fried Chicken must be wondering what his legacy will amount to at the end of this investigation.

Amazon.es finally arrives

Originally written for Billboard Magazine  - October 2011

"Now you can make your purchases in Spanish," reads the splash page, signaling that after years of having to buy music from foreign Amazon stores - and in the case of physical media, paying extra shipping charges - on Wednesday 18^th September Amazon.es arrived for Spanish music fans - sixteen years after the first purchase from Amazon.com was shipped to the country from the U.S. via the .com

With 450,000 CDs available, the company is hoping to have a big impact on Spanish music market, currently dominated by large retailers such as department stores FNAC and El Corte Inglés.

Downloads are not currently available from the Spanish portal, and when pressed on their possible debut, Vice President for Europe Greg Greeley would not be drawn on whether they would, or name a date, telling Spanish daily El País that it was policy “not to reveal our future plans.”

The arrival of Amazon.es could not have come at a better time, according to Antonio Guisasola, president of Promusicae, the country's recorded music industry trade group. In an e-mailed response he told Billboard that the arrival of such an “emblematic online brand” brought with it a “little oxygen” to a music industry beset by plummeting sales, worrying rates of piracy, and a political administration whose response to the industry’s problems is decidedly “lukewarm”.

Guisola cites the development of another channel to market, increased price competition, and a widening of the market as reasons for cautious optimism. He also hopes that a powerful international player in Spain will toughen the government’s attitude towards illegal downloads.

Spaniards certainly now have more choice with a dedicated portal, where prices are a little cheaper than in stores, bargain hunters being able to pick up this week's number one album - “Hacia lo salvaje” by Amaral for €10.79, versus a discounted €11.99 in leading media outlet FNAC.

Asked about widening its market share from a standing start, VP Europe Greeley’s stated position is that although Amazon is a late starter in Spain, it would expand much more rapidly than in earlier territories as the company already had a strong commercial route map, drawn from its experience in other European countries.

Capturing market share may be an Amazonian priority, but however you cut the cake, it is getting considerably smaller, year on year. In fact, music sales in Spain fell by around 55 per cent between 2005 and 2010 – a rate of decline well above the global average. In 2010 alone, the market fell by an estimated 22 per cent, as reported by Billboard on Jan 31 this year, to €167 million (U.S. $228 million).

Promusicae itself said in late July that the trade value of Spanish recorded-music sales was down 18.7% in 1H11. And it’s not just that physical recordings are losing out. The value of Internet-download sales was down 19.7% year-on-year, and mobile download sales fell more than 50%.

As for the presence of Amazon.es being an incentive for improving the piracy situation, where according to Nielson’s November 2010 report 45% of active internet users use services that distribute music illegally, only time - and perhaps a change of political climate after the November elections - will tell.

Is piracy killing live music in BCN?

This was the intriguing question posed by Ben Cardew in an English language blog that appears in Spain's left-of-centre El País daily. His thesis, roughly speaking was that as Spaniards buy so little music, there is little commercial incentive for record labels to tour their bands in the country (to promote sales), unless they can put on massive stadium events that rake in the dough. As a result, Barcelona - he asserts - has a pretty dire gig scene for a city of its size and standing, where only electronic and/or club-based acts (with low overheads) and local talent gets a look-in. Ben also states that Manchester - and even his home town of Norwich could give the Catalan venues a run for their money.

Well I'm not so sure. Firstly, his theory is only that. Despite making a vague comment about the Barcelonese missing out on bands "on the cusp of success," he does not identify which sorts of acts don't come to BCN. He even contradicts himself somewhat, by stating the the Cuidad Condal has a "vibrant music scene" - a statement I think is truer now than a few years ago. So I've invited Ben to tell me which bands we're not seeing due to profligate downloading. I pointed out to him that in the last few weeks I've seen a huge variety of bands, from Elbow to John Maus to The Sonics, plus local acts like Furguson and Vilaroel. We also get much more commercial fare at the Palau St Jordi, if that's more your bag (and you have a bag full of money). 

Anyway, here's my reply to Ben in full, which I have to say he addressed with scrupulous honesty and courtesy: 

Hi Ben - thanks for getting back so quickly. Sounds like we have fairly similar musical tastes. I saw Wild Beasts and Odd Future at PS, plus Deerhunter, who believe are Atlas-related. I have a number of points to make in reply, so apologies for the mammoth post.

Firstly regarding spending on music. Spaniards have far less money for this than many other Europeans, as they are simply poorer. As you probably know the majority of wage earners are inframileuristas, (i.e. make less than 1000 Euros per month), plus we have a ridiculously high level of unemployment, especially amongst the young, at 40-odd percent. This might account for Spaniards not buying much music, rather than a national addiction to piracy (yes, I’m addressing Alex’s post here).

In fact, where is the hard-and-fast evidence that the Spanish are a nation of downloaders, anyway? All the studies I’ve seen are by the music industry, with a vested interest in exaggerating the stats in order to push for tougher legislation. Is there any independent data from a non-biased source (not Warner’s, Sony or Promusicae)?

On a related point, have you seen this posting about a Swiss government study into downloads?  it found that in Switzerland, at least, downloading did not affect overall spend on musical entertainment, but was complementary to it, and thus the Swiss government chose not to outlaw downloads for personal use.

Irrespective of whether the industry stats do stand up or not, another big factor for low music sales must be the supremacy of - totally legal - Spotify in the country - which pays artists peanuts.

In addition, the costs of getting on a plane and coming to Spain where cities are pretty spread out and distant from one another are much higher than going to the UK or, say Germany (with cities just down the road from each other) from the US, for example, so you have another barrier to foreign bands touring that has nothing to do with downloading.

As regards sweaty venues, we have quite a few to choose from - Apolo 2, Razz 3, SideCar, Moog, L’Heliogabàl, and City Hall, for example, where I’ve seen a number of great bands.

Barcelona is certainly much more reliant on festivals than in the UK, for example, and let’s not forget the freebies such as BAM (Rita Indiana, WU-LIF, Little Scream, Man Man) and Nits de Montjuïc. These take advantage of the balmy summer nights we enjoy here, and perhaps reflect a cultural difference between Spain and the UK music audiences.

On that note, I think its wrong to expect to see exactly the same sorts of bands in Catalonia as in the Midlands - or anywhere else for that matter. Hip hop for example is not as popular as in the UK, so there are less reasons for a rap act to tour here (although artists such as Ari Puello have enjoyed some success, and appeared at Nits de Montjuïc this summer).

On the positive side, after years of the dreary Cantautors, and cookie-cutter Ska and Jevi bands dominating much of the local talent, we have some great acts emerging in Barcelona. I’ve had a great time in the aforementioned sweaty dives listening to Odio Paris, Lion’s Constellation, Furguson and Mujeres, for example.

Finally, to address your point about gig-goers being entirely at the mercy of the legal drug pushers (the alcohol companies). As traditional mass-media advertising becomes more difficult due to channel fragmentation, sponsorship is an increasingly attractive option for any brand interested in a youthful demographic, and these will seize the opportunity to jump on the back of any bandwagon (excuse the pun) that happens along.

For that reason I think we can expect corporate sponsorship to continue, even if it means a shift to other market areas, such as apparel, and Levi’s have already sponsored smaller events here.  Of course, with economic Armageddon just around the corner, all bets may be off in any case.

All the best - and I hope to bump into you at a BCN gig some day!

BB

The day we gave Garvey the Elbow

I like Guy Garvey. I really do. The wife and I have spent many a relaxing Sunday evening just chilling out to his laid back tone and low-key musical selections on his BBC 6 Music show. What's more, The Seldom Seen Kid was one of my favourite albums of 2008. Some grumbled at the time that the disc's Mercury music win was more of a vote of sympathy for a bunch of old geezers who had been plugging away for almost two decades than an acknowledgement of any true artistic achievement. Although I'd still dispute these misanthropes, their bitter commentary now sounds somewhat prescient.

This year has seen a number of high-profile festival appearances for the band, plus the release of Build A Rocket Boys! their fifth studio album. I have to confess I misheard the lyrics of Lippy Kids as Build A Rocking Horse. Perhaps this isn't surprising, as the LP deals with the subject of nostalgia and childhood, and lacks the elements of menacing nastiness that undercut the stadium  swagger of previous tracks such as Grounds For Divorce. 

Despite the increasing cosiness of a band, that according to Garvey is becoming very comfortable with the joys of fatherhood, we leapt at the chance to see Elbow at the Apolo in Barcelona on 20th November. For those that don't know, it's an old-fashioned music-hall style venue in the heart of the city's theatreland, with atmospheric lighting and pretty good acoustics. The band had been slated for the seating-only Poble Nou Casino, but as they are now a stadium act, the lads apparently felt happier with the larger venue.

Arriving at the Apolo for the umpteenth time we were in for a shock. Apart from the fact that most of the crowd seemed to be British, there was a really peculiar demographic. Middle-aged couples such as ourselves jostled politely with pensioners and children in their early teens. What seems to have happened is that a bunch of UK forty-somethings had packed up granny and the kids for a musical trip to Catalonia. It's been recently shown that the age of UK festival attendees has risen dramatically in the last few years, and this gig seemed to be an illustration of this.

However, it wasn't the age profile of the audience I found disturbing - after all I'm getting used to being the oldest git in the room at concerts these days, and having a few wrinklies in the room made me feel a little less exposed. The problem I had was the flashbacks this happy-clappy crowd gave me.  When I was about twelve years old, my parents took me to see The Spinners at Crawley Sports Centre, and now, 32 years later I was looking around the audience, half expecting my mum and dad to be there, clapping along to The Birds.

The band itself were in exceptional musical form. Garvey's voice was CD-perfect. And acoustically, the change of venue had paid off handsomely.

But.

Garvey was just too twee for me. Despite him being increasingly tipsy and letting out the occasional fuck, the performance was anodyne O2-Arena-Simply-Red-ness at its worst. What in moderation could have been amusingly whimsical asides became increasingly cloying. Band-led hand-clapping during slow numbers, and every other song being "dedicated to YOU, Barcelona!" added to the feeling of a Blackpool singalong without the knowing camp. By the time the entire band were standing around the piano toasting their two decades together - and act that can only be described as Doonicanesque - I was ready for the sick bucket.

At the end of the encore, Garvey seemed ready to redeem himself  by referring negatively to the day's General Election in which the right-wing Partido Popular had won an absolute majority, to the dismay of most Catalans. So did we get Leaders Of The Free World to see us off into the night?  Did we fuck. The band played A Day Like This as they always do.

Time to Build A Rocking Chair, Guy. Here's the video.

The Maus That Roars

On Saturday night (26th November) John Maus was nervously smoking and drinking strong coffee outside the Poble Nou Casino in Barcelona. But this was more than standard pre-gig nerves. Maus had recently come from Madrid, where the night before he had performed at the Círculo de Bellas Artes to a largely hostile audience.

He was reportedly abused, and had beer and even a hamburger thrown at him. It was not something he was used to, and even described the experience as the "worst night of my life". He was hopeful that be would receive a warmer reception in the Catalan capital.

So what went wrong in Madrid?  And why was did Maus become a trending topic in Twitter - mostly due to the huge number of abusive and threatening Tweets aimed directly at him? Well, some described the concert as the worst they'd ever experienced. They were expecting a conventional performance - and John Maus does not do conventional. John Maus does strange. To be specific, he sings, screams and roars over backing tapes of this songs, whilst variously hitting himself in the head, beating his chest and violently swaying backwards and forwards.

This unconventional approach did not go down well in Madrid at all. Maus was forced to cut what is never a particularly long set short, and retire backstage. But Barcelona was different. Despite being in a seated venue, the audience at the Poble Nou casino were incredibly enthusiastic, rushing to the edge of the stage, filling the aisles and even (in the case of  members of  Catalan band Villaroel) trying to take part in Maus's traumatic performance.

Clearly the Barcelona audience had taken him to their hearts. The question is - was it purely due to the enthusiasm of the spectators to Maus's art, or was there an element of the Catalans wanting to show Madrid music fans that they were more open-minded, and culturally superior? Some exchanges on Twitter certainly indicated that some Madrileños suspect the latter.

The argument of the more constructive critics of the Madrid performance was that what Maus does on stage is performance art, not a "concert" and thus not a worthy addition to Primavera Sound. I disagree. I think that one of the great things about PS is its diversity. I also wonder who would decide on the difference between the categories, and under what criteria.

One reason I wanted to see John Maus live was because of the extreme nature of the criticism against him. "If he's pissed that many people off, he must be doing something right," was my reasoning. And I wasn't disappointed. I found the performance thrilling, brave and honest. You don't have to agree with me, of course, but I would like you to watch at least some of the video below before making your mind up. You could also read Primavera Sound's take on the Madrid gig and Maus's unique approach.

EMA - Sala Apolo 2 - 27 Nov 2011

Let's start at the end. After almost two dozen bands over the last ten days I really wasn't in the mood to be dragged out on a cold Sunday afternoon by my spouse. As usual, my instincts were wrong, and my wife was right.  And even more correct to insist that we stay to the end of the festival and see yet another astonishing performance.

		Erika M. Anderson and her band were a revelation and an incredible way to finish off PC11. Starting the set with a name-sake Laurie-like breathy monologue about a dog falling through ice (and sexual abuse?)  she went on to rock an audience too exhausted to do much more than applaud.
	One of the many high points was an amazing version of The Violent Femme's Add It Up. As she yelled "Why can't I get just one fuck?" it crossed my mind that maybe she scares 'em off. And I mean that as a compliment.

All Gigged Out

This is a blog that just doesn't want to be born. I've tried several times to get it started and other stuff just got in the way. And thankfully, most of that stuff has been concerts. Take a look at the bands I've seen in the last week and maybe you'll see why.

19th November: Vic Godard & Subway Sect
20th:  Howling Bells, Elbow
23rd: Villarroel,  Veronica Falls
24th: Capitán, Spectrals, JEFF The Brotherhood, The Pop Group
25th: Still Corners, St. Vincent, Girls, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Stephen Malkmas & The Jinks
26th: Gem Club, Gary War, John Maus, High Places, Hyetal, Factory Floor

That's right - Primavera Club is here and there's no rest for the wicked music fan until after he's seen Furguson, Autumn Comets and EMA in a couple of hours time. After that I'll give my opinions on the bands I've seen, including some video footage in shot on the Barcelona Beat Jerki-Cam.

In the meantime, here's one of the highspots of the festival so far.