XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 We often talk about how Madonna's "publicity machine", "scandals" and her business savvy a lot of times end up overshadowing the long-standing quality and consistency of her artistic output and her complete involvement in the creative process as told and documented by numerous industry people, fellow artists and producers throughout the years. Now looking at her career from another perspective, do you think that without the acumen, knowledge and interest in abosrbing and acquiring it Madonna's career would have been equally as successful statistically speaking and in terms of the unusually long time it has lasted for, in a field that's famously considered one of the ficklest ever? Do you think that her discipline and her great instincts have not only allowed her to put out good to great music for over 30 years but also to continue being the biggest bankable entity in her field of work? How do you view the fact that Madonna wants to remain connected to the widest possible fanbase share? Is being wise with one's assets also an indication of longer guaranteed longevity as an artist and having the freedom "to do whatever you please" ? Here's an interesting excerpt of an interview to Bert Padell who served as business consultant to Madonna in the 80s and early 90s. It comes from an article by The Sunday Times published in 2009 "Why Madonna's still a material girl" http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article159151.ece 'She is not just a businesswoman but an innovator and creator,' observes Bert Padell. 'Money comes second, creation comes first.' 'I'll give you sixty,' she told Padell during an early morning phone conversation. As he launched into an explanation of a financial issue, the phone suddenly went dead. When he redialed, she laughingly told him, 'See? I told you sixty seconds. My time is valuable.' 'She is exactly the same way now as she was when she first came into my office without a nickel,' recalls Padell. 'It doesn't matter if it's a dollar or $10,000, she wants to know about it' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acko Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 "She took me to her Maverick office or whatever, after we did the Rolling Stone photo shoot and she told me this is how you do it and went over every damn check going out with a red marker. It's like if you wanna own this damn chair ur sitting on u'd better know how much it cost and who's paying 4 it. I learned a lot that afternoon." - Country Love *paraphrased quote* Howard Stern (after CL tells her everyone including Lady G. gets ripped off in the music bizz): Even Madonna!? Country Love: "No! NOT Madonna. She's careful...she WATCHES her pennies" Howard Stern:" "Well shouldn't she!? Good for her." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raider of the lost Ark Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I think this is all based in her upbringing. And she even said it many times. When it comes to money she is still that middle class girl from Michigan. She has a very old-fashioned approach when in comes to money. You want something? Well, you have to work hard to earn the money to buy that thing. Very much the opposite of what's going on today where you see those young singers / hip hop artists with a little bit of success that throw money out of the window as if there is no tomorrow, buying McMansions that the can't really afford etc. All financed with bank loans. Part of her overall success is her reliabilty and her involvement in the business side of the industry. Something that cannot be said about everyone and something that was certainly not expected when she started out. I think it was one of the most fascinating things to read in the first biographies that were published that industry people were "shocked" when she attended business meetings. Something they were not used to. And this kind of attitude makes me think that she would be just as succesful if she was working in a more traditional field. She could be a CEO of a big company or a top lawyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Full article from The Sunday Times Not talking money in public is one of the few taboos this canny iconoclast respects.There’s an incident in the fly-on-the-wall documentary movie In Bed with Madonna [known as Truth or Dare in the United States] that memorably makes the point. It’s when the director Alek Keshishian — who’s previously filmed Madonna everywhere bar the bathroom, and called the experience “like being in psychoanalysis and letting the whole world watch” — tries to follow her into the trailer where she is about to have a meeting. “Get out, this is business,” she snaps, and shuts the door in Keshishian’s face. The viewer is left marvelling at Madonna’s priorities. Here is a woman who, elsewhere in the movie, rolls around on her mother’s grave, fellates a water bottle for the amusement of various gay members of her entourage, strips on stage and generally affects an air of devil-may-care candour — then balks at allowing a micro-glimpse of a business meeting There have been a lot of such meetings in these past 26 years. In the manner of a successful corporate brand, Madonna has spread herself far and wide. “Part of the reason I’m successful is because I’m a good businesswoman,” she once said. “But I don’t think it’s necessary for people to know that.” This conspiracy of silence was confirmed in 1992 after Madonna published her soft-porn photo opus Sex. Some senior professors at Harvard Business School approached her to talk to their students and faculty about how she had made Sex sell, shifting 1,5m copies of a £50 coffee-table book in days — a record in the publishing world. Madonna turned the invitation down. At the time she was preoccupied with setting up Maverick. Such vanity projects were all the rage with the superstars of the 1990s and most of them turned into expensive failures, like Prince’s Paisley Park. Maverick, by contrast, was for a while a great success, yielding one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1990s in America — Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. The exec who signed Morissette, Guy Oseary, so impressed Maverick’s owner that she decided to take him on as her manager, in place of Freddy DeMann. For her, the new arrangement had several advantages: Oseary was in his early twenties and thus in touch with Madonna’s core demographic, the young pop audience. He was also cheaper, less visible and more malleable than an old-school heavyweight like DeMann. As Maverick’s fortunes waned in the early 21st century — battered like most record labels in the losing battle against online piracy — Madonna conceived a bold exit strategy. She sued Maverick’s distribution company and minority shareholder, Warners, for breach of contract and improper accounting, and demanded $200m in damages. This move led to Warners buying her out to avoid the bad publicity of a protracted lawsuit — and prompted more admiration among the business community. In 2004, Professor Colin Barrow of the Cranfield School of Management singled her out for praise. Madonna, he said, was “America’s smartest businesswoman… who has moved to the top of her industry and stayed there by constantly reinventing herself”. He held up her “planning, personal discipline and constant attention to detail” as models for all aspiring entrepreneurs. He could have also cited her ruthless refusal to allow personal loyalties to interfere with business, and her conversion of herself into Brand Madonna. Sir Tim Rice, co-creator of the musical Evita, which spawned her most successful film role as Eva Peron, found these qualities less admirable: “Sometimes it was as if you were dealing with General Motors.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 AWESOME THREAD!!!!! MORE MORE MORE!!!!! These are fascinating to read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Her obsession with a tightly packed schedule would certainly not seem out of place in a corporate boardroom. Her brother Christopher has described Madonna’s typical day: “Up at 9, in bed at 11 with every hour in between planned as rigidly as any military campaign.” While she isn’t renowned for self-mockery, Madonna the martinet can occasionally see the funny side of her mania for timetabling. “I’ll give you 60,” she once told Bert Padell during an early morning phone conversation. As he began to explain the intricacies of a financial issue, the receiver went dead. When he phoned her back, Madonna was giggling. “See? I told you 60 seconds. My time is valuable.” Her finest hour as a dealmaker came in 2007 when she signed a $120m, 10-year contract with Live Nation, the world’s largest concert-promotion company. This so-called “360- degree” deal placed the exploitation of all of her music-related activities, from touring to recording, under one roof. Her decision to sign with a concert promoter showed her, again, to be ahead of the game. Her experience with Maverick had taught her that, in the 21st century, albums are best seen as a tool to sell concert tickets rather than money-earners in their own right. “The business paradigm has shifted,” she said upon signing. “As a creative artist and a businesswoman I have to acknowledge that.” Madonna has, as usual, got the better of the deal. Aside from some generous stock options she cashed in last year, she will have pocketed the premium Live Nation paid for a “360-degree” monopoly that, two years on, they no longer want. Dismayed at the near-impossibility of turning a profit from record sales, Live Nation have been talking in private about licensing Madonna’s next studio album back to her old record company, Warners. In contrast to her public image, the material girl has been a cautious investor. In his 2001 biography, Andrew Morton revealed that Madonna had avoided the stock market in favour of low-interest-bearing government bonds — a piggy bank for grown-ups, basically. She blanked new technology to the point that she had to sue for the rights to her internet-domain name, Madonna.com. More recently she has preferred old-fashioned bricks and mortar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Now another one of your reputations. Very ill-defined, mind you. They say you're a tough business woman and that you have a good head for contracts so and so forth .... You mean I read them? Do you trust your business affairs to other people or do you do it? Well I have managers, lawyers and agents .... Do they bother you with the details? They have to. I insist. I call them up all the time and annoy them. Why? What are you protecting? I just want to know what is going on. I make a lot of money and I want to know where everything is going Is money important? It's not important like "oh God I have to have a lot of money" but I know lots people in my position who have a lot of money and somehow it gets lost somewhere and nobody knows where it went 18:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcTO58swcdE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerGirl Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 This is so fascinating to me because I'm the complete opposite, and I really admire her for her business sense. I think that the fact that she oversees everything is what sets her apart from other artists. And why shouldn't she? It's her money that she has worked hard for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moka Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Editorial : http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_38T64sfKt3Y/SoV1vzXVDyI/AAAAAAAAGrI/tm8BgGOJ4nw/s1600-h/forbeseditorial.jpg Page 1: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_38T64sfKt3Y/SoV1cx1EiZI/AAAAAAAAGqw/MEZzmd-f5ac/s1600-h/forbes2.jpg Page 2 : http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_38T64sfKt3Y/SoV1cfTkYQI/AAAAAAAAGqo/uQDmESkH_nU/s1600-h/forbes3.jpg Page 3 : http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_38T64sfKt3Y/SoV1b2LBgHI/AAAAAAAAGqg/7vk9KtPIwF4/s1600-h/forbes4.jpg I love this one. My favorite part, when Madonna talks with the advertiser for Pepsi during the Pepsi ad and she says to him : "Hey Roger, are you going to have the burning cross reflecting on the pepsi can?" "What burning cross?" Madge : "You'll see " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rachelle of London Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Queen! She's my business role model! I even have that on my LinkedIn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 "She took me to her Maverick office or whatever, after we did the Rolling Stone photo shoot and she told me this is how you do it and went over every damn check going out with a red marker. It's like if you wanna own this damn chair ur sitting on u'd better know how much it cost and who's paying 4 it. I learned a lot that afternoon." - Country Love *paraphrased quote* Howard Stern (after CL tells her everyone including Lady G. gets ripped off in the music bizz): Even Madonna!? Country Love: "No! NOT Madonna. She's careful...she WATCHES her pennies" Howard Stern:" "Well shouldn't she!? Good for her." ------------------- Country Love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Queen! She's my business role model! I even have that on my LinkedIn Omg I need to put it on mine too At my gym she's on my member profile as fitness motivation mantra. I have "Somewhere in the world, Madonna is working out" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 I think that the fact that she oversees everything is what sets her apart from other artists. And why shouldn't she? It's her money that she has worked hard for. This Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Jan Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I think too she was bitten by an ex manager. I read an article by a woman who hired Madonna before she was famous and she recalled Madonna being told that she was earning far less for her performance by her manager. She was being ripped off completely and lied too. Madonna always strikes me as someone who learns from bad experiences and avoids them in the future. She would not be tricked like that ever again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VogueMusic Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Just another reason (in a long line) why I love her. She will NOT be played. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qans1990 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Such a great idea for a thread!! I think this is all based in her upbringing. And she even said it many times. When it comes to money she is still that middle class girl from Michigan. She has a very old-fashioned approach when in comes to money. You want something? Well, you have to work hard to earn the money to buy that thing. Very much the opposite of what's going on today where you see those young singers / hip hop artists with a little bit of success that throw money out of the window as if there is no tomorrow, buying McMansions that the can't really afford etc. All financed with bank loans. Part of her overall success is her reliabilty and her involvement in the business side of the industry. Something that cannot be said about everyone and something that was certainly not expected when she started out. I think it was one of the most fascinating things to read in the first biographies that were published that industry people were "shocked" when she attended business meetings. Something they were not used to. And this kind of attitude makes me think that she would be just as succesful if she was working in a more traditional field. She could be a CEO of a big company or a top lawyer. I agree with most of this. In addition to making her a very wealthy woman, I think the old-fashioned midwestern values of working hard and saving your money are also what make M very relatable to a lot of people, esp in the US. Unfortunately the phenomenon of musicians (or celebrities) going broke is not a recent one affecting just today's young singers / hip hop artists. CNBC made list a few years on which there are a wide range of musicians, from different decades and musical genres, that went bankrupt due to carelessness, lack of discipline, overspending, etc. Not on the list, but I think LG also declared bankruptcy at one point, and even Michael Jackson was allegedly broke before he died. http://www.cnbc.com/id/39852571#. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I think she should be more proud and vocal about her business acumen, but I understand why she doesn't: She already has 90% of the world cutting her down, dismissing her creative abilities, and chalking her success up to "good business sense." It's simply not acceptable (even in the artist community) to be a commercial success without being seen as a "sellout". I think she really wants to be remembered as a great artist (and mother, obviously). She'll never get that if she brags about how good of an investor/negotiator she is. I think "Material Girl" is the closest she'd ever get to actually having an anthem about it, however that song is (lyrically) all about dating/marrying for money and she obviously didn't need a man to get any of that. Speaking of that song, it's interesting that she took a song written by men, turned it around and made a video whose story-line basically made the whole song a joke and then made millions off of it, and launched a career for the ages. Certainly those men made lots of money off her, but she obviously got the lion's share of the success (by proxy) even though she never even wrote the song. She basically played the entire record industry - a male-dominated slugfest that constantly objectified and took advantage of women - turned it around on them and became the biggest selling female pop star. She's fucking brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Papi Si. Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I think she should be more proud and vocal about her business acumen, but I understand why she doesn't: She already has 90% of the world cutting her down, dismissing her creative abilities, and chalking her success up to "good business sense." It's simply not acceptable (even in the artist community) to be a commercial success without being seen as a "sellout". I think she really wants to be remembered as a great artist (and mother, obviously). She'll never get that if she brags about how good of an investor/negotiator she is. I think "Material Girl" is the closest she'd ever get to actually having an anthem about it, however that song is (lyrically) all about dating/marrying for money and she obviously didn't need a man to get any of that. Speaking of that song, it's interesting that she took a song written by men, turned it around and made a video whose story-line basically made the whole song a joke and then made millions off of it, and launched a career for the ages. Certainly those men made lots of money off her, but she obviously got the lion's share of the success (by proxy) even though she never even wrote the song. She basically played the entire record industry - a male-dominated slugfest that constantly objectified and took advantage of women - turned it around on them and became the biggest selling female pop star. She's fucking brilliant. And when I read stuff like that post, and the first few posts of this thread, I'm reminded of why I'm so drawn to her and why it goes way deeper than the music videos and the performances. She's such a good example of what can happen when you refuse to let life steamroll you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 http://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9781429978354 She was not one of those who got their fingers burnt in the Internet bubble - indeed, she was so slow out of the starting blocks that she had to sue for the rights to her domain name, Madonna.com - preferring to keep her other assets in property and art. While paintings may be her 'sin,' as she says, 'Financially it is an excellent investment, as well as something sumptuous to admire every day.' However, her shrewd approach has led her to lose numerous paintings because she refused to pay the asking price. It is now the same with property. When she first came to live in London, she was so shocked by the high prices that on several occasions she lost out on homes she liked because her offers were unrealistically low. Frugal as she is in her financial dealings, if there is one song she would withdraw from her catalogue it is Material Girl; Madonna has always regretted the decision to record a song that defined her as a consumer rather than an artist. As far as she is concerned, money is a means to an end, usually artistic, rather than an end in itself. I think Material Girl is the closest she'd ever get to actually having an anthem about it, however that song is (lyrically) all about dating/marrying for money and she obviously didn't need a man to get any of that. Speaking of that song, it's interesting that she took a song written by men, turned it around and made a video whose story-line basically made the whole song a joke and then made millions off of it, and launched a career for the ages. Certainly those men made lots of money off her, but she obviously got the lion's share of the success (by proxy) even though she never even wrote the song. She basically played the entire record industry - a male-dominated slugfest that constantly objectified and took advantage of women - turned it around on them and became the biggest selling female pop star. She's fucking brilliant. This! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Although she sends her maternal grandmother Elsie Fortin money every month and has bought her and other elderly relatives televisions and other home comforts, Madonna is reluctant to featherbed family and friends. For several years she harbored the notion of owning her own basketball team. While she is a fervent supporter of the New York Knicks, her financial advisors sounded out several other teams. Her heart, however, was set on the Knicks but her offer to take a share in the team was turned down. Typically, she wanted to be an active investor, involved in the day-to-day decision-making. The current owners didn't want that, preferring instead a sleeping partner. In the end, discussions came to nothing. Now able to pay millions of dollars for a painting or a home she likes, Madonna has effortlessly taken on the mindset of the super-rich. 'But I'm broke,' is a remark heard all too frequently from the queen of pop, who, like the British monarch, never carries money. Her bodyguard or chauffeur is given a $300 float to take care of daily expenses. For while she may employ bodyguards, chauffeurs, maids and cooks, old habits die hard. The girl who survived by bumming meals from friends and acquaintances has not changed overmuch. When she is out with a group of friends, Madonna is rarely the one to reach for the check. She will wait to see if someone else is going to pick up the tab and then, as a last resort, she will break down the bill, so that everyone pays their share. Jimmy Albright, her former bodyguard and lover, remembers how he would often end up paying for everyone - even though he was the poorest guy at the table. As he observes, 'I used to tell her that she was so tight she squeaked. She thinks that because people know she has a lot of money they will try and take advantage of her. But she's on top of everything.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Her penny-pinching approach startled her Australian-born butler at her Notting Hill home in London. When he splashed out $600 for flowers, including her favorite tiger lilies, she reprimanded him severely for his extravagance. In New York she uses a modest car service rather than stretch limos, to save money, and keeps an eagle-eye out for those who feel that, because she is now wealthy, she can be ripped off. On tour she will personally haggle with hotels for cut-price rates and she checks every bill, refusing, for example, to pay excessive phone or fax charges. This obsessive need for control goes way beyond the parameters of a typical business manual. Even on the rare occasions she takes a holiday - she has had only a handful in her adult life - she has an organized schedule to work on lyrics and future projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXL Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Madonna Schools Celebrities in How to Build a Brand Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Christopher Johnson, CEO at Whitehorn Group, talks about the business acumen of Madonna as she builds her brand outside of music and looks at celebrity brand endorsement. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." Video @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/c2443fa6-5dbf-4259-a9e9-72c6b715a618 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Papi Si. Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Omg that gif!! Awww Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TearsInHeaven Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I love this one. My favorite part, when Madonna talks with the advertiser for Pepsi during the Pepsi ad and she says to him : "Hey Roger, are you going to have the burning cross reflecting on the pepsi can?" "What burning cross?" Madge : "You'll see " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerGirl Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 She's brilliant - in every aspect of her career. I wish I had half of her drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FurnStar Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I find it fascinating hearing about the business side of Madonna. Not many people in the music industry seem to have her business sense. But I think maybe it just comes naturally to her. Her brother said that as a little girl she always had to win at monopoly and make the most monopoly money...and at 14 she charged him for his first joint . Is it any wonder she grew up to be a brilliant businesswoman? I think she's genuinely one of the very few artists out there that has great talent AND great business sense. That's probably how she's managed to stay relevant for all these years in such a fickle industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Gold Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Literally a Queen. Love her Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crozzauk Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 The thing is people use this acumen against her artistry - claiming this is what makes her a machine rather than an artist, but i think its just another example of her simply being on the ball. Everyone detests the idea of someone ruthlessly making money of us, or ripping us off, and she is no different. as she says it would be very easy for her money to just disappear and her be helpless in getting it back or tracking where it goes - unless she is like this. People will call her cheap and thrifty, but i think its just a normal instinct to want to feel like your money isnt getting sucked into an endless vacuum. She went through times of severe hardship where she didnt have money - it will be built into her very being to hold onto what shes got and be careful with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Barthes Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 A veteran music journalist who is an acquaintance of mine, interviewed her several times over the years and he told me one time it was at her NY apt. and one of her bodyguard told him she could hear a penny fall on the floor from the other side of her apt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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