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The entire M.O. of the modern music industry is to shatter our preconceptions of just how short-sighted somebody can possibly be.

Tuna-Fish 15y ago
This is because the modern music industry honestly believes that it is going to go the way of a dodo. When you think that your sources of revenue are dying, it makes sense to try and extract as much as you can from them on the short term, despite the damage it does to them long term. Of course, this makes the prediction self-reinforcing.
- Jgrubb 15y ago
  I would actually counter that it's not the music industry that believes it's going the way of the dodo. I'm in the music industry. Have been for almost 15 years now and have never worried for one second about my career. I'm a musician though. The people who are rightly worrying that their jobs are in peril are the suits (though often dressed in Tshirts and ballcaps) who bring less and less value in an age where experiments like Louis C.K.'s are a widely publicized and self-produced success. Disruption at it's finest and most liberating. You're basically right, I just want to reinforce that there are lots of us modern music industry types who couldn't be happier about "the situation". As a side note, I wonder how someone could plot the frequency of usage of auto-tune in the studio with record sales.
- nettdata 15y ago
  One thing that most people don't realize is that a lot of the major record companies are in fact more manufacturing and distribution companies than anything. Here in Canada, EMI produces and delivers, via physical distribution, a huge number of CD's and DVD's. As soon as things "go digital", that goes away. I think that physical channel, more than anything, is what they've been trying to salvage, by staying away from digital.
  - joechip 15y ago
    I worked for one of the big 5/4/3 music companies and they are actually desperate for physical distribution to go away. Universal Music (the largest music company) sold its CD manufacturing plants a few years ago and all their focus is on digital exploitations. They are looking to the future and that rarely includes people buying CDs in retail stores. I can't stress how desperate they are to take advantage of the huge number of digital assets that they own. So, start-ups, don't be too afraid of them. If you have a way for them to make money they will be interested in you, just don't assume they are idiots. You may also want to start thinking about writing software to help them manage the millions of digital assets that they have - its not a simple problem - imagine the digital rights that needing tracking (for every type of exploitation in every territory), the royalties to be paid, the SOX auditing, the contracts, digital workflows, let alone the challenges with taking digital content and pushing it to a huge variety of downstream partners.
    - moe 15y ago
      If you have a way for them to make money they will be interested in you, just don't assume they are idiots. That's a really polite way of saying "They will squeeze the last drop of blood out of you and then some". You may also want to start thinking about writing software to help them manage [...] We already have the software. It's called spotify, soundcloud, grooveshark, iTunes etc. The technology to pay the artists a slice of the revenue is in place. Except currently it's mostly used to pay the labels instead.
      - joechip 15y ago
        That's a really polite way of saying "They will squeeze the last drop of blood out of you and then some". Very true! However, they do have a lot of cash and very few ideas of how to exploit all their digital assets. We already have the software. It's called spotify, soundcloud, grooveshark, iTunes etc. The technology to pay the artists a slice of the revenue is in place. Except currently it's mostly used to pay the labels instead. I didn't mean software for end users, but software for the music companies to use internally to manage their assets. You'll be surprised (or not) to know quite how disjointed and hacked together their internal systems are. Every music company merger results in years of hacks in getting data from one set of archaic systems into another. Of course, the same software could also be used for managing other media, such as film, tv etc - there are small companies that have done very well supplying custom software to entertainment companies e.g http://www.ecteon.com/products-overview http://www.ecteon.com/products-overview
digispaghetti 15y ago
Shows like the X-Factor, and the endless tirade of crappy movies, prove this - big labels are essentially music/film factories that pump out the lowest common denominator, wrapped in a DRM bundle. Here we have someone who loves their craft, actually has some respect for the fans and proves that by willing to put trust in them, and it paid off. It's not going to work for everyone - if you're not established I think this model will be quite hard to work with at the moment, but it opens up spots for independent companies to step in and help provide the distribution channels needed (and we've already seen this work with music to some extent).

Tuna-Fish 15y ago

This is because the modern music industry honestly believes that it is going to go the way of a dodo. When you think that your sources of revenue are dying, it makes sense to try and extract as much as you can from them on the short term, despite the damage it does to them long term. Of course, this makes the prediction self-reinforcing.

Jgrubb 15y ago
I would actually counter that it's not the music industry that believes it's going the way of the dodo. I'm in the music industry. Have been for almost 15 years now and have never worried for one second about my career. I'm a musician though. The people who are rightly worrying that their jobs are in peril are the suits (though often dressed in Tshirts and ballcaps) who bring less and less value in an age where experiments like Louis C.K.'s are a widely publicized and self-produced success. Disruption at it's finest and most liberating. You're basically right, I just want to reinforce that there are lots of us modern music industry types who couldn't be happier about "the situation". As a side note, I wonder how someone could plot the frequency of usage of auto-tune in the studio with record sales.
nettdata 15y ago
One thing that most people don't realize is that a lot of the major record companies are in fact more manufacturing and distribution companies than anything. Here in Canada, EMI produces and delivers, via physical distribution, a huge number of CD's and DVD's. As soon as things "go digital", that goes away. I think that physical channel, more than anything, is what they've been trying to salvage, by staying away from digital.
- joechip 15y ago
  I worked for one of the big 5/4/3 music companies and they are actually desperate for physical distribution to go away. Universal Music (the largest music company) sold its CD manufacturing plants a few years ago and all their focus is on digital exploitations. They are looking to the future and that rarely includes people buying CDs in retail stores. I can't stress how desperate they are to take advantage of the huge number of digital assets that they own. So, start-ups, don't be too afraid of them. If you have a way for them to make money they will be interested in you, just don't assume they are idiots. You may also want to start thinking about writing software to help them manage the millions of digital assets that they have - its not a simple problem - imagine the digital rights that needing tracking (for every type of exploitation in every territory), the royalties to be paid, the SOX auditing, the contracts, digital workflows, let alone the challenges with taking digital content and pushing it to a huge variety of downstream partners.
  - moe 15y ago
    If you have a way for them to make money they will be interested in you, just don't assume they are idiots. That's a really polite way of saying "They will squeeze the last drop of blood out of you and then some". You may also want to start thinking about writing software to help them manage [...] We already have the software. It's called spotify, soundcloud, grooveshark, iTunes etc. The technology to pay the artists a slice of the revenue is in place. Except currently it's mostly used to pay the labels instead.
    - joechip 15y ago
      That's a really polite way of saying "They will squeeze the last drop of blood out of you and then some". Very true! However, they do have a lot of cash and very few ideas of how to exploit all their digital assets. We already have the software. It's called spotify, soundcloud, grooveshark, iTunes etc. The technology to pay the artists a slice of the revenue is in place. Except currently it's mostly used to pay the labels instead. I didn't mean software for end users, but software for the music companies to use internally to manage their assets. You'll be surprised (or not) to know quite how disjointed and hacked together their internal systems are. Every music company merger results in years of hacks in getting data from one set of archaic systems into another. Of course, the same software could also be used for managing other media, such as film, tv etc - there are small companies that have done very well supplying custom software to entertainment companies e.g http://www.ecteon.com/products-overview http://www.ecteon.com/products-overview

digispaghetti 15y ago

Shows like the X-Factor, and the endless tirade of crappy movies, prove this - big labels are essentially music/film factories that pump out the lowest common denominator, wrapped in a DRM bundle. Here we have someone who loves their craft, actually has some respect for the fans and proves that by willing to put trust in them, and it paid off. It's not going to work for everyone - if you're not established I think this model will be quite hard to work with at the moment, but it opens up spots for independent companies to step in and help provide the distribution channels needed (and we've already seen this work with music to some extent).