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Meat Loaf - Source: Reuters -
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Picture this, if you will.
It's 10.00am on a beautiful summer's morning and you are sitting in the plush surrounds of Auckland's Langham Hotel.
For those who haven't experienced the hotel first hand - think opulence. Draped silk and textured wallpaper. That sort of thing.
Imagine someone enters the room - a boisterous, if somewhat ageing, man. A former rock icon, who talks a million miles an hour and insists he is about to introduce you to something that will change your life forever.
Then, imagine he pushes a button and a shrieking, shrill cacophony of noise fills the room. And continues to fill the room for the next hour and six minutes.
It's not necessarily unpleasant - some of the music is surprisingly catchy. But it certainly doesn't fit the mood of the morning - particularly for the room full of entertainment journalists held captive on the morning of the Oscars.
It doesn't take a top strategist to work out this isn't a great way to plug your new record.
Yet this is Meat Loaf's (yes, he of the mullet and Rocky Horror Picture Show) ingenious plan to "change the record industry".
Meat - as his friends and family call him - was in town this week on a two-day promotional tour for his 11th album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear.
He was available for interviews but only to people who had listened to the new record. And the new record could only be heard by attending this special "listening session" up at the Langham.
On the one hand, I can see where he's going with this. If you force people to attend such a session, at least you know they have actually heard your record and haven't stuck it in a drawer somewhere.
On the other hand, it's completely ridiculous.
There is no "right" way to listen to music. I can often be found previewing new music on my way to work, in the kitchen while I make dinner, or even *hangs her head in shame* while I lunge my way through an OzFit aerobics video. (Don't even ask...)
I appreciate this is probably not how the artists in question imagined people would listen to their work. But that's when I have time.
Realistically, how many people sit down, removed from all outside distractions, to listen to a record in full?
Music is the soundtrack to life - and most people's lives are busy.
Frankly, I don't think it compromises someone's artistic integrity if I fold my washing while they sing their hearts out. Good music should stand out above such distractions and grab your attention. It should penetrate the chaos of life.
So while I appreciated the free coffee and mini pastries - I just don't think Meat is onto a winner here.
The Phoenix Foundation, however, are onto a much better idea - offering their new single Buffalo as a free download.
Starting Thursday, the track will be available for download free for the next seven days. So you can listen to it at home, in the gym, or where ever you so choose: thephoenixfoundation.co.nz
And that my friends, is the real future of music.
Watch Meat Loaf's interviews with Breakfast and Close Up .
Meat Loaf's Hang Cool Teddy Bear is released on April 19 - Joanna Hunkin will be reviewing the album then.
