Today's music industry is in a middle area. The artists are confined by the labels and the labels are confined by the customers. The labels control every aspect of the artists they sign, just like the trends and purchase rate of the fans control every aspect of who the labels sign, drop, and pay.
Pirating music is illegal, no doubt about that, but it isn't wrong. Some of the bands I spend the most money on, I downloaded their first cd. Piracy is a way for artists to be heard. CD sales do not mean anything anymore, the artists make more money on their merch sales and touring. Piracy is a necessity in todays music industry and if bands cant see a way to make a profit other than CD sales then they are doomed.
Bands need to find new and creative ways to give their fans the music they want and also give the fans something different they would want to buy.
Björk recently released her album as an interactive application over the Itunes store. The app sold for $12.99 and was the first time that an album was sold as an interactive application. The album did extremely well and I think that was due to the fact that how she released it was both creative and different. This encouraged fans to spend the cash and support the artist to get something new.
In 2007, Radiohead released the album In Rainbows in a revolutionary pay-what-you-want online digital download. You could pay $0 for the album or $100, it was totally up to the buyer. In the first month, 1 million fans bought the album with about 40% of the people paying an average of $6 for it. This gave the band almost $3 million. Not too bad for a band that skipped all label involvement and all the money going directly to them. Also, the band owned the master tracks, so they were able to sell the album to a label to have it pressed on CDs too. This successful experiment was the first of its kind and now more and more artists are following this approach.
Jack White, from The White Stripes and The Dead Weather, currently owns a record store and label called Third Man Records. TMR are constantly doing creative things to sell records and gain support for the label. They sell exclusively vinyl records of the bands they sign and are pushing the boundaries of what vinyl can do. Recently, for record store day, they released a liquid filled vinyl record. TMR are giving fans the music they want in collectable, and creative packages.
In short, piracy is not going away. It will always be here and bands will always lose money from it. Instead of punishing and putting more restrictions on the internet, bands and labels need to find creative ways to get the fans to want to buy the product again. Instead of hurting the fans with restrictions and DRM and other password protected files, artists can give the fans something new and creative.
I think you addressed a very interesting topic that most people don't think about. Times have changed. People don't buy CD's nearly as much as they used to in the 90's. I can remember when I was in middle school I probably bought over 30 CD's. There was no such thing as iPod's. This was simply the only way to have the freedom to listen to your favorite songs whenever you wanted. Now with all of this new technology, raised prices, and piracy websites, musicians are losing money. The government has tried to stop piracy but I also don't think it will ever go away. Think back to a year ago when Limewire went through a court order and was ultimately shut down. This site had millions of users but did this end piracy all together? No. Yes, it stopped a large amount of people from stealing songs but it also created more piracy websites. There comes a time where we all need to realize that piracy is not leaving anytime soon. That's why I think it's a great idea for bands and labels to find creative ways to get the fans to buy their products.
Interesting topic, for sure, and I basically agree with you. Also, good illustrations! I'd have liked some more direct connection with class discussion though, and more cultural analysis--the impact music downloads have had on the music industry, perhaps, or maybe on what people listen to, and how and why. Mp3 mixes are a very different experience, for instance, than albums, or even mix tapes.
I think you addressed a very interesting topic that most people don't think about. Times have changed. People don't buy CD's nearly as much as they used to in the 90's. I can remember when I was in middle school I probably bought over 30 CD's. There was no such thing as iPod's. This was simply the only way to have the freedom to listen to your favorite songs whenever you wanted. Now with all of this new technology, raised prices, and piracy websites, musicians are losing money. The government has tried to stop piracy but I also don't think it will ever go away. Think back to a year ago when Limewire went through a court order and was ultimately shut down. This site had millions of users but did this end piracy all together? No. Yes, it stopped a large amount of people from stealing songs but it also created more piracy websites. There comes a time where we all need to realize that piracy is not leaving anytime soon. That's why I think it's a great idea for bands and labels to find creative ways to get the fans to buy their products.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic, for sure, and I basically agree with you. Also, good illustrations! I'd have liked some more direct connection with class discussion though, and more cultural analysis--the impact music downloads have had on the music industry, perhaps, or maybe on what people listen to, and how and why. Mp3 mixes are a very different experience, for instance, than albums, or even mix tapes.
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