Music Biz Loosens Up

Posted on October 24, 2007
Filed Under Markets |

Take the business model known as FREE (try selling THAT to the hard-bitten “realists”), add a better distribution system than anything ever developed by the labels, and see what’s happening to the music industry now.

Bands Rushing To Ditch Labels And Embrace Free; Are The Floodgates Opening?

They get stuck on free and assume that if something’s free, there’s no way to make money. But, all of these bands are showing exactly the opposite is true. The Times Online has a story incorrectly headlined “The day the music industry died” discussing these exact changes, but as you read the details, the music industry is doing just fine — it’s just the folks in the recording industry who are in trouble. Musicians are raking in record revenue from concerts — and the artists are realizing that the free music only helps generate more interest in those concerts.

 

P2P vs Radiohead’s “free” Rainbows: why P2P can be a hard habit to break

Radiohead’s innovative digital distribution arrangement for their new album, In Rainbows, lets people pay whatever they want for the music, including nothing at all. Despite that, BitTorrent swapping of the album has been on the level of other major releases. Are people really so cheap that they won’t even register with the band in order to snag a free download? The answer appears to be yes.

 

The Fanning Effect

Then Apple, a technology company, swooped down into the wreckage, picked up the pieces and created a whole new shiny distribution infrastructure that proceeded to sell a couple of billion downloads - over which the studios had zero control. Whoops! And now Prince, Radiohead and Madonna decide they don’t even need labels anymore because they can distribute their own products and the business has changed so greatly that all the money is…

…in live events and merchandise. But let’s remember it all began because one young man had problems downloading the music he wanted. As the Doc says, “In networked environments, the demand side supplies itself.”

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