D is for Disaster

Everyone is talking about the demise of the music business, but it’s really just the demise of big business in music. We’ve all read about the disastrous results in physical sales of CDs. And digital has not, and will not, become the cure for what ails us. Some are resigned to the situation. The recent and short history of these megomaniacal and monolithic majors was profitable to some but ultimately concentrated power in the hands of very few (the labels and mega star artists). But there are too many layers of management between the artist and the consumer. Not enough sustainable value is being created by their involvement. In the past labels discovered artists and acts; without their efforts many of us would never have experienced the wonderful cross-genre love affairs (the emergence of country rock, for example, that Bob L talked about this week). But Wall Street has been controlling the mega majors in the music industry for maybe 20 years. And with the exception of a few, mega stardom and royal riches were not part of the entitlement plan for musicians.

D is for disintermediation

The only useful comment I remember hearing at that oh so distant Midem was from Jacques Attali, the French futurist (still can’t figure out why they put him on the panel but he was delightful). He’s not right about everything, but he was right when he said that the only thing artists have a limited supply of is face-time, their physical presence. He suggested that this is why live performances have, and always will be a great way for artists to earn a living. The Internet is all about disintermediation, allowing the consumer more direct access to products and services without so many middle men (read: those very expensive music industry execs). In the digital content market place, disintermediation means free! So the only logical way for artists, the good ones, to earn a living is to do it in ways that give consumers “just a little piece of my heart now, baby” (Janis Joplin). And the only way for retailers to earn a living is to give a much greater level of service, a little bit more of their hearts. "You know you've got it, if it makes you feel good."

D is for Divine Timing?

This morning I whizzed by the go faster stripes in the road on my bashed up baby blue scooter. I was more tranquil than usual, surrounded as I was by floating cherry blossom petals. Time for reflection. Time for a new blog post. I thought about how many people (ok, maybe only a half a dozen) have asked me why I haven’t written more about format wars and interoperability, and in particular, the future of DRM. Although I am by nature a ranter, there doesn’t seem to be much more to say than I’ve already said more than 2 years ago when bashing the digital entertainment industry. But the recent move by EMI to allow their catalog to be sold as DRM free MP3s on iTunes and digital music stores (yes, I too thought it was only iTunes but learned differently directly from the horse’s mouth) may well be a potential sign of the resurrection of the music industry. I couldn’t help but giggle when this news was announced during the very week of Easter and Passover. Easter represents resurrection and Passover, freedom from slavery.

I suspect that many consumers may have missed this opportunity to rejoice in their newly found freedom, not even realizing that they have been enslaved. But this move by EMI may be the first step in freeing them from format, device and platform slavery. I’m sure the divine has better things to do than to time events such as EMI’s announcement to coincide with religious holidays, but one never knows...

Posted at 10:01AM Apr 25, 2007 by Shelley Taylor in Music  |  Comments[4]