Friday, February 03, 2006
Earth to Music Industry: It's so OVER.
Last Friday, I posted a link to a story about Nettwerk records backing a victim of the RIAA's smear campaign. A major industry player (at least in Canada) standing off against the 'industry' represents a critical turning point in the whole futile battle for control over the music industry. It's been over for a long time, but now, everyone knows it. Except the RIAA of course. Refusing to pull their heads out of the sand, they continue to sue people who don't even own computers.
Besides being embarassing and costly for the industry, it is completely counterproductive. It does nothing to address the reasons for people downloading music, and does nothing to prevent it. The overwhelming voice of consumers, analysts and surveys points to the fact that music is not just too expensive, but it sucks.
And it's not that people don't want to pay for music, given the chance they will. Last year digital music sales tripled! Suddenly the cries of piracy hurting the bottom line seem a little hollow. Of course, the industry, forever the idiots, have been lobbying Apple to raise its prices at the iTunes store and even want a slice of iPod revenues. The ridiculousness of this request cannot be overstated. I suppose, next, movie studios will want a cut of every DVD player sold? How about game developers? Shouldn't Sony be coughing up for every PSP sold?
Give me a break.
They've so utterly lost the plot that it's just sad now. People have changed their listening habits, their consumption patterns, and their opinion on filesharing. That can't be changed back. Instead, they fight a losing battle to hold onto an antiquated business model and in the meantime, are losing out on massive opportunity.
In the real world (where the rest of us live), there are a plethora of exciting options in the world of music. The iTunes Music Store, MP3 Blogs, Last.fm, Pandora, satellite radio - the list is endless. All these things are forging the future of the music industry rather than clinging desperately to its decaying past.
Wake up recording industry: it's so OVER.
Tags: music|mp3|riaa|itunes
Besides being embarassing and costly for the industry, it is completely counterproductive. It does nothing to address the reasons for people downloading music, and does nothing to prevent it. The overwhelming voice of consumers, analysts and surveys points to the fact that music is not just too expensive, but it sucks.
And it's not that people don't want to pay for music, given the chance they will. Last year digital music sales tripled! Suddenly the cries of piracy hurting the bottom line seem a little hollow. Of course, the industry, forever the idiots, have been lobbying Apple to raise its prices at the iTunes store and even want a slice of iPod revenues. The ridiculousness of this request cannot be overstated. I suppose, next, movie studios will want a cut of every DVD player sold? How about game developers? Shouldn't Sony be coughing up for every PSP sold?
Give me a break.
They've so utterly lost the plot that it's just sad now. People have changed their listening habits, their consumption patterns, and their opinion on filesharing. That can't be changed back. Instead, they fight a losing battle to hold onto an antiquated business model and in the meantime, are losing out on massive opportunity.
In the real world (where the rest of us live), there are a plethora of exciting options in the world of music. The iTunes Music Store, MP3 Blogs, Last.fm, Pandora, satellite radio - the list is endless. All these things are forging the future of the music industry rather than clinging desperately to its decaying past.
Wake up recording industry: it's so OVER.
Tags: music|mp3|riaa|itunes
posted by Pete, 10:16 AM
6 Comments:
Well said! (And 'plethora' is one of my most favorite words ever)
, at 11:09 AM
It's pretty simple, actually
They are doing this, so their "battle against piracy" stays in the media. The RIAA does not care about people or single lawsuits that go wrong, all that matters is that "your mother and her hairdresser" gets the subtle message that downloading is illegal and they are taking action - cause that is what sticks, not a single nonsense lawsuit - they can afford to lose, can afford to even get themselves ridiculed... they still get their message over to those people who are not so much into the subject - even better with things like that, cause more people write/blog/talk about it. That's what they want, nothing else.
They are doing this, so their "battle against piracy" stays in the media. The RIAA does not care about people or single lawsuits that go wrong, all that matters is that "your mother and her hairdresser" gets the subtle message that downloading is illegal and they are taking action - cause that is what sticks, not a single nonsense lawsuit - they can afford to lose, can afford to even get themselves ridiculed... they still get their message over to those people who are not so much into the subject - even better with things like that, cause more people write/blog/talk about it. That's what they want, nothing else.
Great story. Thanks. My family buys much more music now we all have iPods and iTunes than we ever did with our "stereo" systems and walkmans.
, at 5:58 PM
The music industry has tried for years to keep people in love with "classic rock" in order to sell them their record collections over and over again (cassettes, CDs, MP3s...). Now it's finally backfired on the real pirates-- people have woken up to the fact that music really did used to be better and that there are no new ideas.
, at 12:58 AM
The success of Pink Floyd, The Eagles, U2, and Nirvana from 1975-1994 left the recording industry with the idea that every group could be a superstar with a platinum album. When that didn't happen, they cut costs. Noob producers, noob techs, noob acts. If one CD showed promise, 20 just like it were released within a week. Everything now must fit the formula. I don't like the formula. Won't even listen. I need more originality. I find it online, at places the artists can be themselves.
, at 1:21 AM
I agree with you on pretty much all accounts. The only thing I would add would be that the most important thing that is missing from the music industry is that the majority of consumers believe that music should be FREE for consumption. Pandora fits into this category in some respects, but it is not a reasonable way for consumers to go and, say, listen to a full Beatles album on demand. With the current advances in wireless technology, the entity that will rule the music industry in the near future will be whoever takes advantage of the recent technological boom and makes music on-demand, convenient, and FREE to the consumer. I hope it's not Apple, because someone needs to give them a run for their money and nobody has been able to do it thus far...
Subscribe [RSS/Atom]