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How the Music Business Spent the Summer Killing Itself
- trezor 18y agoWell. If you by "the summer" mean "ever since Napster hit the internet and digital music became mainstram", I'll fully agree. Though it is interesting to see how even marketing people, not just geeks or "pirates" are starting to catch on to these people doing absolutely everything wrong.
- dmix 18y agoTitle correction: "How the Music Business Continued to Kill Itself this Summer"
- run4yourlives 18y agoCall me when they're actually dead and I can get into music again. Until then, meh.
- mattmaroon 18y agoAll articles like this fail to understand the reason why this is happening. They're looking at the companies as if they were run by people who were forced to hold their shares for the next 25 years. They're not. They're run by execs who know they won't still be working there in 5 years and who get paid mainly in stock options. (That's how most public companies are run). The incentive of the people who run the company is just to maintain what little they can for as long as they can, and they're actually doing a pretty good job of it. With the possible exception of suing actual customers, they've done a fantastic job of maintaining the status quo just long enough for them to cash out their options every year for some amount of profit.
- qwph 18y agoThis seems to imply that in 5 years (or less) time, we can expect the music industry in its current form to collapse in on itself? Or am I reading too much into this? Otherwise it might not be too bad a time to start thinking about what Music Industry 2.0 might look like...
- jwilliams 18y agoWhat I don't understand is why the back catalog isn't more of a draw - in the music industry, but especially in the film industry. Instead of trying to push new releases, you could be flogging (selling) a raft of your back catalog for almost zero marginal cost. Aside from some perennial classics, this catalog must be earning nigh on zero. There is lots of obscure music and film that I'd happily buy/view/etc if the cost was low.
- tjr 18y agoThere is a lot of obscure music I'd happily buy even if the cost was the same as the new stuff; I'd just like to be able to acquire it!
- jwilliams 18y agoYup! This is key. The Internet is a new distribution channel - the marginal cost is very low compared to traditional methods... It's perfect for selling IP that can't beat the higher marginal cost for traditional distribution methods. There are probably orders of magnitude more people that would pay $1 to watch "They Live" than would fork out $10 to buy the DVD...
- netcan 18y agoWe'll see. I'd love to see a massive groundswell in music. But so far, we still have junkie 'hits'. Most peoples itunes playlists are essentially like the other guys' itunes playlist.
- DenisM 18y agoif the price was low? why would they release a n lower-cost product to compete with their higher-price poroducts for your attention and money?
- jwilliams 18y agoYup - but I think this is a stronger case with traditional distribution methods. Where marginal costs are higher and there are other fundamental limits (e.g. your local music store can only hold so many CDs). The internet potentially has a significantly lower marginal cost. That channel is better suited to volume. (The expectation is that because you have n lower cost products, that people buy n rather than just one).
- tectonic 18y agoDoes this imply that I should short music company stocks?
- netcan 18y agoI would take it even further. There is no evidence that whatever business models emerge after the current situation collapses, will be anywhere near as profitable on the whole as the previous one. There is even less reason to think that the future model(s) will be as profitable for the same players. They're on a sinking ship bucketing water. Why not get off? Maybe there aren't enough lifeboats? A sinking ship is better then open ocean after all. If the future of music doesn't contain the current players, prolonging the inevitable demise of the way things are done is 100% rational. When it sinks. It sinks. No point getting wet before you have to.
- DenisM 18y agoGosh, you would think they would take a summer break, no?
- AndyKelley 18y agoI actually buy CDs, and I discover lots of new music through Pandora and Last.fm. The music industry is trying to promote album sales by killing internet streaming?
- netcan 18y agoI'm not sure about streaming. But they do have some evidence that keeping hits off of itunes for some big names can improve album sales enough to make it worthwhile. Short term & silly. But there is reasoning.