Hello again operators! This week’s topic will focus on the convergence of the music world and technology.
Music was a business long before technology helped extend its profitability, however, that was a over a hundred years ago. Since that time, industries have formed around music based on the idea of capturing songs and selling the playback experience in a physical form. For many decades, people couldn’t reproduce the physical media that contained the music, so big businesses grew to create and distribute the media. They were a product business no different than auto parts. Their issues revolved around inventory, physical distribution, and product design.
Personal reproduction became widely available with the introduction of tapes. While that did give birth to a large underground market of mixed tapes and sampling (sampling was done in the studio before that), it wasn’t a convenient enough reproduction form to penetrate the mass market. Then came the first blow to the long established recording industry—MP3s and then in 1999 the network to easily share them known as Napster.
Since that time, we have witnessed a chaotic overhaul of the entire music industry. Problems like inventory were rendered asunder. Issues like gas prices couldn’t impact the sale of non-physical media. Out of that chaos a few players have tried to solve the new digital sales model: eMusic.com, Apple, Yahoo!, Napster (post acquisition), and more. Apple’s iTunes music store is clearly the most successful, but Steve Jobs himself says that the iTunes store makes up less than 20% of the music people have on their iPods, so the problem is far from solved.
But, that was only the beginning of the industry’s problems. When MySpace hit the scene, no one could have predicted the unbelievable downsizing of the A&R business. I remember scenes in movies where an aspiring musician desperately sought to get their demo in front of record executives to get signed. Now, it’s not up to an elite few to decide what’s on the menu for the world, the listeners find and support who they want.
While the profit models of the music world are in a frightful transition, the listener demand for music is stronger than ever. Music is still a cornerstone of an individuals identity. And, more people have more music than they ever have owned before.
Which brings me to my question to all of you, what do you think the future of music is? Some thoughts to consider:
- Is the recording model still valid? If so, is it the bands that will be doing the recording and distribution?
- If the money isn’t in a recording model, then what will the model of the future be?
- How will bands profit from the music they make?
- Is the a role for the Record Labels of yesteryear in the new world?
- How do bands of the future promote themselves?
- Do you want to or think its “right” to pay for music?
- How important is rights management to the future of music?
- Am I even asking the right probing questions, or is the future of music going somewhere all together different?
My first two follow-up questions are probably the most interesting. There are a lot of people tackling these questions and many have set up shop thinking they have the answer, but no clear winner has emerged, so construct your responses thoughtfully. Subscriptions services are out there and have been for several years, but they haven’t even come close to taking over. Many sites sell downloadable songs, which has been somewhat successful, but hasn’t curbed the massive free sharing activity that accounts for more than half of the songs people acquire. DRM put up some hurdles, but even your average high school student knows where to go to get around DRM files.
Please compose your response by Wednesday, September 12, 2007. Responses may be left on this post as a trackback or a comment with a link to your post.
