2007: the best year for music for people who love it, the worst year for music for people who sell it.
I am beside myself with the quantity of good music that came out this past year. Yet, record sales are in a steep decline.
The music industry has had a marketing model that is obsolete. They refuse to let it go and that is why the major record labels are slowly reaching the end. They often point the finger at file sharing. Sure, that is a thorn, but there are far bigger issues facing the industry. Blaming their problems on file sharing is like blaming McDonalds for being fat.
The first thing that this industry is about five years behind on is the fact that the majority of people who buy music are increasingly using mp3 type formats to listen to music. When I buy a CD, the first thing that I do is put it on my computer to upload onto my iPod. Yet, the major labels are sticking with CDs as the major way of selling their product. That is about as smart as if a company only sold cassettes in the 90s during the CD boom.
Another aspect that the industry hasn’t moved quickly enough on is that entertainment options and choices are diversifying. The major TV networks faced this as cable networks and the Internet started drawing audiences away from the big three networks. The networks took a blow and adjusted their programming and have included those competing formats and the “on demand” philosophy. NBC shows full episodes of their prime time programs online whenever a viewer wants and takes advantage of online advertisement money. Adapt and survive. That is the cardinal rule. The record industry seems to want to fight it instead. In a world with so much at our fingertips, instead of finding a way to make it work for them, the major labels are suing their customers and driving the prices of cds higher. Charging 18.99 for a Justin Timberlake album, when most customers really just want the single seems to dare consumers to find other means of acquiring the music. Creating this scenerio is compromising the value of the product itself (music right?) among its consumers.
It seems to me that the future of music business lies in soundtracks to videogames, commercials, and movies. For years, the best music being broadcast has been in commercials and in video games.
The album format also needs to retire as the package of choice for most music. I love the album format when the contents are meant to work together. Leave the album format to artists that have a strong following and a conceptual vision to tie a dozen songs together that create a product greater than the sum of it’s parts. Most albums are made of a handful of singles and filler. It’s too easy to just download the a-sides for cheap or free. Why would anybody pay nearly 20 bucks for an album that is made of 50 percent b-sides and the packaging offers less than what you could get from a google image search. In general the cd album has little more to offer the consumer than they can get for free or cheap. (Then again, proper marketing has convinced us that we need to go out and buy bottled water when it is nearly free, or at least already paid for, right at our finger tips.) Back to the cd… Give the consumer something in that package that feels of value. Texture the packaging. Put in stickers. Print the label on the disc with paint that changes color as the disc heats up from playing. Make a cover that folds out into some sort of pop up book interpretation of one of the songs. These are all things that have been done and they are things that have driven me to seek the actual cd over a digital version. If you want to extend the life of this format, you need to make it include something that can’t be downloaded.
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