JimH has been asking for our thoughts about the online music stores and about the current state of the P2P sharing services.
After reading the threads I've had some thoughts (not claiming that they are new ideas) that don't really fit in either topic. So instead of having Jim shut down those threads for wandering too far off topic, I thought I'd start this new thread to see if I could get all my thoughts together.
My thoughts boil down to this: The major labels are no longer necessary, and if done correctly the online music stores can help accelerate this situation.
This fact (if you accept that it's a fact) has HUGE consequences for all aspects of the music industry, concerts, record stores, radio, new bands, and music consumers.
The reasons that I believe this to be a fact boil dow to this, the things that record companies can do for artists no longer have the value they once did.
The high startup costs for a new band are going away and will likely disappear in the near future.
1. Studio time - Pro Tools can do everything a studio can (from what I understand)
2. Distributiion - Cd-Burner / Internet. More thoughts on internet distribution below
3. Promotion - Band web site, recomendations etc. See below.
The steps for a new band can now be as simple as:
Record a song into a computer
Master it and make it sound real nice
Create a cool package or even just cover art
Create a web site and start to get your tunes 'out there'
Upload your tunes to the online music stores with as much of your own "Bio" material as possible
Press your own CD's to sell at shows etc.
The next step that is just starting to take place is where I think things get really exciting and powerful for the consumer and the artists.
Take one of the web music stores like MusicMatch (I haven't used Itunes, yet). You've got all the tunes on there that you would expect to find, but what if they had a really good recommendation system (like Netflix) and community bulletin boards (like Interact) and used them as a tool to build audiences for new artists.
In other words you go and buy a song from establshed band A for .99 cents. The store then tells you that other people with music preference that might be like yours like this new band B and by the way you can check out their tunes for 10 cents each, and using your broadband connection you can check out a high quality stream right now.
Also there could be a bulletin board for Band A where people could recommend similar bands in a simple format that didn't make you read a ton of posts or rants and raves, like a voting system or something.
I realize that this is a simplified view of the process, but what does anyone need the major labels for anymore?
In this simplified example a brand new band recorded their music and got it "published" without signing their life away. They retain all the rights to their work and they can start to build an audience in a very public forum.
The consumer also gets exposed to new music on their own terms and doesn't waste $18 on a cd that they don't like that much.
The remaining pieces of the music industry are radio and concert venues. These are controlled by an even smaller number of corporations but even they will need to respond to what people want to hear...
Okay, I rambled on far longer than I planned, go ahead and tell me how crazy I am......
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Topic: OT - Music Industry thoughts - long post (Read 1593 times)