Tags : muxtape, Pandora, riaa
Is the Music Industry Digging Its Own Online Grave?
As Twitter and Techmeme lit up with the news that Pandora might be going under and Muxtape was shuttered, the immediate reaction seemed to be a deep and abiding hatred of the music industry as well as a collective wish that the record labels and governing bodies be sent to any type of available grave.
The ironic part is the the recording industry doesn’t need anyone’s help; it’s going to kill itself sooner or later if it continues on its current path. What entrepreneur in his or her right mind would want to launch a music app at this point? It’s a given that dealings with the RIAA and/or SoundExchange won’t be pretty, so why even bother to try?
If the RIAA has its way, every music app, with the exception of basic consumer sales sites like iTunes, will be gone. In its zeal to recreate the past with a sales model that had the labels rolling in money and the industry controlled by the complicated and often incestuous relationship between radio and the labels, the RIAA would completely eliminate the technology that could make even the long tail of recorded music profitable.
So what would be left? I know I’m not the only music fan who’s growing more frustrated that my tithe to the church of music is being overlooked, and that the sites where I’m finding all the great music that I buy are being shut down one by one. I remember Napster fondly as a site where I found tons of music I’d never have heard of without it. My iTunes library is legal, but many of those purchases were spurred by music I found on Napster, or last.fm, or Pandora. We know what happened to Napster, and it seems that at least Pandora may follow it.
What is the resort, then, for those of us who aren’t interested in the pablum being spoon-fed to us via Clear Channel here in the States? We’ll be forced to head underground to find new music, exactly the behavior that the RIAA claims it’s trying to stop. The U.S. and other countries will end up like China: a country whose music industry is so ravaged by piracy that recorded music is viewed as nothing more than an advertisement for live shows and merchandise.
At this point, the industry is faced with a choice: lay off the Draconian measures it’s using in dealing with online music services and find a model that benefits the artists and the Web services, or add more fuel to the bonfire of user revolt that could turn the U.S. industry into a wasteland of piracy.
Guest author Cyndy Aleo-Carreira is a contributing editor at The Industry Standard .
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uh yes? and offline too!
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I'm just wondering how long until even the big artists don't make a dime on their recorded music. Why is it so hard for them to see the writing on the wall?
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Looks very much like this Duncan, sad developments we are witnessing these days.
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Why can they not figure out that by charging outrageous fees and forcing good services to shutdown, they are actually encouraging piracy?
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but everything is pretty simple. guys are making tons of money on the music and they wouldn't like to loose it. How about music tax? Americans don't dive into this doomed grave :)
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One the one hand, they control supply, so forcing distributors' hands is, for them, good, even logical in an evil way. On the other hand, 99% of music is pirated so they better get their act together.
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If a high percentage is pirated, then they don't control supply
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(bring back vinyl)
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the future for profit in the music biz will be concerts....cant remember the last time i bought a cd, or any other music content.
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@Jason: that means that they don't control distribution. But they do have some control over artists, the supply.
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oh, there's still vinyl. i rarely buy cds anymore, but spend waaaay too much money on records. note to anyone in the music industry: all new releases on vinyl should come with a handy code for mp3 downloads. this will save me much time and headache downloading things i already paid for from soulseek.
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Man, Cyndy is everywhere these days!
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In electronic music scene these days the record is nothing but a fancy business card. Releasing a CD/vinyl is just as raising a flag saying "hey, here i am, come to see me live"
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well said Tibor :)
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If people don't pay for music, the music industry is dead. If the music industry gets draconian, the music industry is dead. In short, the music industry is dead.
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Matthew, I would disagree with your statement. What NIN and Radiohead did with their online free/premium releases shows that many people are willing to pay for music when given interesting choices. However, if the industry ignores this, then you are completely right.
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protectionism is in every industry, in every country, in every ideology, in every religion .. it is so ubiquitous as to be considered normal. guarding the food. so. does it work? seems to. is it effective over time? seems to be. why would or should music be different? technology? heck, who is more protective than tech companies, with their intellectual property rights addictions, walled gardens, stifled innovation? it is a noble cause, rebelling against the man, and all of that, but until an alternative comes that provides income on the same scale, protection will exist. and when that alternative does surface, you can bet it will be protected in turn.
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Radiohead and NIN grandfathered into the system based on success carved out whilst using the old system. So, great for them that they're able to offer fans options, but their success doesn't necessarily translate. Furthermore, these examples are a success because fans ultimately paid for the product. So, I stand by my statement, if no one pays, then the music industry is dead.
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Rob - The Radiohead experiment was pretty much a failure. It was estimated that 62% of people didn't pay for the album. Those who did pay (I was one of them), paid an average of $6 worldwide. When you average it all out they ended up getting $2.26.
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industry might be dead soon, at least as we know it, but music for sure won't
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The music industry isn't dead, it just smells funny.
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I was just thinking, the recording industry is going down, one way or another. We should just help it along somehow. A caomplete halt on buying music aint gonna fly. Just wish I could think of something. Apple going completely DRM-free is a possibility.
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LOL Louis. I'm trying to be you. Seriously, though... this is a temporary gig. I'm helping Duncan out while he's at Gnomedex. As for the industry, they are at a juncture where they could essentially carve their own path and instead, they seem bent on self-destruction.
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