“It doesn’t matter how good the record is. Only f**king two people are gonna listen to it”: Producer Max Norman says there’s no point making a “world-class” record anymore
“The problem now is people can’t make world-class records because there’s 10,000 records a day coming out.”
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Producer Max Norman, best known for working with rock and metal artists such as Ozzy Osbourne and Megadeth, has argued that there’s no real point in making a “world-class” record anymore.
Due to the saturation of the market and the rate at which new music is being released, Norman thinks that “nobody gives a shit” about a proper album anymore, and predicts a future of music where attention will be much more focused on live shows.
Speaking on the Talk Louder podcast, Norman says (via Ultimate Guitar), “The problem now is people can’t make world-class records because there’s 10,000 records a day coming out or whatever. So nobody’s making world-class records because nobody gives a shit.
“Because it doesn’t matter how good the record is. Only fucking two people are gonna listen to it anyway, and they’re both related to you,” he laughs.
“I’m trying to think where the industry is going and where it’s happening. To me, there’s a lot more activity of live stuff. And to me, it shows that there’s a lot of longevity in live performance. Whether it be a cover band, whether it be a tribute band, or an original band.”
Norman goes on to discuss rock band Kiss’s adventure into using avatars for upcoming tours, similar to that of ABBA’s Voyage shows, as an example of how “huge” the demand for live shows are, even for cover bands. “Kiss now can become a cover band of itself and keep going. They don’t want to pay anybody, so they’re gonna use computers. Whether that’ll work out or not, I don’t know. Maybe AI can help them.”
With this in mind, he later states that recording a live show could be a lucrative option for artists, as a live set can’t be reproduced, making them “special”: “These actually are now becoming very special events because everybody’s trying to computerise everything. So I see, maybe there’s a good opportunity there to actually just start going out – fucking mic it up, press record, just record the whole fucking evening, have a few beers, quick mix a next day. Bang – put it out.”
Catch the full interview below:
