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By Tamara Conniff
(Hollywood Reporter) Fifteen musicians from such classic rock bands as Deep Purple, Santana, Starship, Survivor and Toto are forming the independent music company Rockforever.com. The artist collective plans to rerecord, distribute and promote classic hitss and new material.
On the digital-download side, Rockforever.com has a distribution deal with MP3.com to offer more than 50 new live and in-studio rerecordings and cover songs. It also has a deal with Liquid Audio for second sales of digital downloads directly from the Rockforever.com web site as well as the Liquid Audio network. CEO Charlie Schmitt said Rockforever.com is negotiating a deal for physical distribution of CD's and DVD of live events.
Rockforever.com was launched by John Cafferty (The Beaver Brown Band), Spencer Davis (Spencer Davis Group), Ronnie Hammond (Atlanta Rhythm Section), Larry Hoppen (Orleans), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), Jimi Jamison (Survivor), Dave Jenkins (Pablo Cruise) and Bobby Kimball (Toto). Also members are: Alex Lingertwood (Santana, Jeff Beck), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Peter Rivera (Rare Earth), Mickey Thomas (Starship), Pat Travers (Pat Travers Band), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple) and Leslie West (Mountain).
Schmitt said the key is in rerecording classic hits and recording live versions and offering them directlly to fans. The record labels have the control to license the masters of original recordings. But because the acts are no longer under contract and have secured publishing rights to numerous works, they can rerecord their hits and sell the tracks as downloads. They can also sell CDs and license the recordings for film and television. (A rerecording of "Still the One," for example, was recently licensed for a Keds commercial.)
Such other big-name artists as David Bowie, Prince and Todd Rundren also have taken their music directly to fans via the Internet.
On the live performance side, the group goes under the moniker The Voices of Classic Rock and is booked by the Agency Group. They have played 80 dates this year. Schmitt said they are planning a two-day concert event in January in Hawaii. The company is in negotiations with VH1 Classic to televise the event.
Rockforever.com also is planning a 13-week "unplugged" series that will feature 13 Voices of Classic Rock artists performing at Universal Studios in Orlando. The shows will be recorded and sold as digital downloads and eventually as CDs and DVDs.
By Justin Oppelaar
(Variety) As an increasing number of high-profile artists head to court to fight what they see as exploitative recording contracts, a clutch of veteran rockers from the '70s and '80s have joined forces to circumvent the industry and market directly to their fans on the Net.
The group, which includes John Cafferty, Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner from Deep Purple as well as Loverboy's Mike Reno, recently bowed Rockforever.com, an online record label, merchandise e-tailer and tour promoter to generate new revenues from their stash of past hits.
The site, which has distribution pacts with music netcos Liquid Audio and MP3.com, will offer re-recorded versions of the artists' tracks, done both live and in the studio. Currently, Rockforever has roughly 50 live tunes on offer, either streamed on MP3 or via download on Liquid.
Record companies typically retain ownership -- and full royalty rights, until artists pay back their advances -- of the master recordings from songs done under label contract. But the song's author is free to re-record the tracks -- and play them live -- without running afoul of the label's rights.
That means artists who have fallen out of vogue, but have a catalog of past hits, can exploit their celebrity long after the label has elected to drop their contracts, said Rockforever chief executive Charlie Schmitt.
``If you look at the record company philosophy, it's the diametric opposite of traditional brand marketing,'' Schmitt said. ``They build a brand, but the first time the brand falters, what do you do? You fire the band -- but there's still a whole lot of equity available in there.''
Artists in the group, who according to Schmitt have 66 top-40 singles and 24 platinum records among them, also plan to play between 60 and 80 live dates per year, and have inked deals to tape a cable TV special and appear at Universal Studios Orlando in a series of ``unplugged'' concerts.
Schmitt is undaunted by the tough operating environment for Internet businesses in recent months -- especially those involved in music. Noting that the company received seed funding in the low six figures from Long Island investment firm Pulver Equities, he said the key is to keep a keen eye on the overhead.
``My philosophy has always been to build the business off of existing revenues,'' he said. ``We will start lean and grow it from there.''
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