The Variety article

Posted: Thurs., Aug. 30, 2001, 4:54pm PT

Back to the future
Classic rock artists find new life in Net venture

By JUSTIN OPPELAAR

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 banded together to circumvent the industry altogether 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.

Re-recordings

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 exec Charlie Schmitt.

Equity available

"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.

CEO 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."

The Hollywood Reporter article

Veteran players rock on with own indie company

Aug. 31, 2001

By Tamara Conniff

The LeadIn
Fifteen musicians from such classic rock bands as Deep Purple, Santana, Starship, Survivor and Toto are sidestepping record labels and taking their careers into their own hands by forming the independent music company Rockforever.com. The artist collective plans to re-record, distribute and promote classic hits 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 secured 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 CDs and DVDs of live events.

The Main Article
Fifteen musicians from such classic rock bands as Deep Purple, Santana, Starship, Survivor and Toto are sidestepping record labels and taking their careers into their own hands by forming the independent music company Rockforever.com. The artist collective plans to re-record, distribute and promote classic hits 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 secured 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 CDs and DVDs 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), Bobby Kimball (Toto), Alex Lingertwood (Santana, Jeff Beck), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Peter Rivera (formerly of 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 directly 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, there is nothing that can stop them from rerecording their hits -- including Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," Orleans' "Still the One" or Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" -- and selling the tracks as downloads and CDs and licensing 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 Rundgren 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.

Rockforever.com was formed as a limited liability corporation owned by all the artists. After publisher royalties and production and packaging costs, if applicable, have been deducted from any given product release, the profits are split 50-50 between the artist and the corporation. n

The Billboard article

Edited by Jonathan Cohen / September 02, 2001, 12:00 AM

Classic Rockers Form Label/Web Venture

Leslie West

Mountain's Leslie West, Starship's Mickey Thomas, and the Spencer Davis Group's namesake are among the 15 classic rock musicians who've joined together to form Rockforever.com. The venture incorporates a digital record label, an online merchandise and memorabilia E-tailer, and a live performance group.

The Rockforever.com collective also counts among its founders John Cafferty (John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band), Ronnie Hammond (Atlanta Rhythm Section), Larry Hoppen (Orleans), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), Jimi Jamison (Survivor), Dave Jenkins (Pablo Cruise), Bobby Kimball (Toto), Alex Lingertwood (Santana/Jeff Beck), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Peter Rivera (formerly of Rare Earth), Pat Travers (Pat Travers Band), and Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple).

The organization plans to re-record and release member artists' classic rock hits and new material for online distribution via audio streams and digital downloads. The site will also offer classic rock news and editorial content, and sell merchandise relating to member artists. In addition, Rockforever.com has established a distribution relationship with MP3.com and Liquid Audio.

Meanwhile, the 15 founding members will continue to tour and perform in various combinations as "The Voices of Classic Rock."

"Voices of Classic Rock began as a live performance concept geared towards corporate events," Rockforever.com CEO Charlie Schmitt said in a statement. "But we soon realized that while the major record companies were content to bypass these artists, the fans were still avid. These 'Voices' have a huge fan base that is hungry for new material. Unencumbered by traditional recording contracts, the Rockforever.com artists are free to re-record their hits and with the advent of the Internet -- reliance on record companies for marketing and distribution of music is no longer necessary."

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.