the end of record labels as we know them

I've worked ... with major record labels as a designer … I met the type of … cartoon character label bigwigs who you'd think were too clichι to exist outside the confines of Spinal Tap. … one of my first reactions to it all was, "so this is why CDs cost $18..." …

For quite a while I resisted the idea of stealing music. Of course I would download MP3s - I downloaded a lot of stuff - but I would always make sure to buy the physical CD if it was something I liked. I knew a lot of musicians ... bewildered at what was happening to the industry they used to understand. People were downloading their music en masse ... It was like it was okay simply because the technology existed that made it possible. But it wasn't okay - I mean, let's face it, no matter how you rationalized it, it was stealing ...

We live in the iPod generation … where the uniqueness of your music collection is limited only by how eclectic your taste is. … if I filled my shiny new 160gb iPod up legally, buying each track online at the 99 cents price that the industry has determined, it would cost me about $32,226. How does that make sense? … [The dying record industry] had a chance to move forward, to evolve with technology and address the changing needs of consumers - and they didn't. Instead, they panicked - ... they started to demonize their own customers, the people whose love of music had given them massive profits for decades. They used their unfair record contracts - the ones that allowed them to own all the music - and went after children, grandparents, … alongside many other common people who did nothing more than download some songs … - something that has become the cultural norm to the iPod generation. …

the record labels have spent billions of dollars attempting to scare people away from downloading music. And it's simply not working. … freely-available music in large quantities is the new cultural norm, and the industry has given consumers no fair alternative. … They didn't band together and create a flat monthly fee for downloading all the music you want. They didn't respond by drastically lowering the prices of CDs … or by offering low-cost DRM-free legal MP3 purchases. … From personal experience I can tell you that the big labels are beyond clueless in the digital world - their ideas are out-dated, their methods make no sense, and every decision is hampered by miles and miles of legal tape, copyright restrictions, and corporate interests. …

Lots of pro-piracy types argue that music can be free because people will always love music, and they'll pay for concert tickets, and merchandise, and the marketplace will shift and artists will survive. Well, yes, that might be an option for some artists, but that does nothing to help the record labels, because they don't make any money off of merchandise, or concert tickets. Distribution and ownership are what they control, and those are the two things piracy threatens. The few major labels left are ... owned by huge parent companies for whom artists and albums are just numbers on a piece of paper. ... The only thing that matters to these corporations is profit - period. Music isn't thought of as an art form, as it was in the earlier days of the industry where labels were started by music-lovers - it's a product, pure and simple. …

shady political maneuvers and scare tactics are all the RIAA and other anti-piracy groups have left, because people who download music illegally now number in the hundreds of millions, and they can't sue everyone. … If the album manages to not leak directly from the label, it is guaranteed to leak once it heads off to manufacturing. … Why? Because people love music, and they can't wait to hear their favorite band's new album! It's not about profit, and it's not about maliciousness. So record industry, … don't blame the fans who flock to the leaked material online, blame the people who leak it out of your manufacturing plants in the first place! But assuming that's a hole too difficult to plug, it begs the question, "why don't labels adapt to the changing nature of distribution by selling new albums online as soon as they're finished, before they have a chance to leak, and release the physical CDs a couple months later?" Well, … selling it online before the big retail debut, … would mess up those Billboard chart numbers …

It's just the end of record labels as we know them. … Until the walls finally come down, we're in what will inevitably be looked back on as a very awkward, chaotic period in music history - fans are being arrested for sharing the music they love, and many artists are left helpless, unable to experiment with new business models because they're locked into record contracts with backwards-thinking labels. … it will be in the hands of musicians and fans and a new generation of entrepreneurs to decide how the new record business is going to work. Whether you agree with it or not, it's fact. It's inevitable - because the determination of fans to share music is much, much stronger than the determination of corporations to stop it.

29.11.2007 / gib mir kontra!