Big Record Label 'Innovation': Actually Release Songs For Sale The Same Time They Hit The Radio

from the this-counts-as-a-step-forward? dept

I can’t quite figure out which is more amusing: the fact that record labels are just now thinking that maybe it makes sense to release songs for sale the same time they’re sent to radio stations, or that it’s seen as newsworthy as a strategy to “beat piracy.” I mean, it’s a good sign that the labels are finally realizing that a lack of availability is often a driver for unauthorized copies making the rounds, but the fact that they’re only coming to this conclusion in 2011 suggests just how out of touch these labels are with the world. People were making this point over a decade ago.

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Comments on “Big Record Label 'Innovation': Actually Release Songs For Sale The Same Time They Hit The Radio”

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54 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Release Windows

Depends to whom you are selling.

Sales to the public this is laughable but to make the illusion of value for other companies this worked well for many years.

Those windows are not for the public they are for other companies, other third parties that they want to extract money from, they don’t think of the public as their biggest consumers, they think of retailers as their consumers they don’t want to deal with the public because it is messy and unpleasant.

This is what file-sharing vanquished. Those 3rd parties are now history or at least this is what they think, the problem is there is still 3rd parties out there but they don’t want to deal with them because they are smarter than they are and will rip all of the benefits(i.e. Apple, Google, Intel, Nokia and so on).

Convergence is the game.

Justin Olbrantz (Quantam) (profile) says:

Epiphany or Token Gesture?

So the big question is whether this is because the record labels have finally realized that the internet has made it impossible to absolutely control the supply lines as they could in the past, or whether as was pointed out this is nothing more than a token gesture that they’re trying to give fans what they want to satisfy lawmakers. If it’s the former, this is a HUGE change (and progress) in corporate paradigm.

I’m counting the minutes till somebody comments that this is “surrendering to piracy” and shameful.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Epiphany or Token Gesture?

How many times does it have to be repeated?

Nobody cares if geeks, nerds and dorks steal content.

Wouldn’t want to stop how all of you gain inner fulfillment in your empty, worthless lives, now would we? That’d just be mean.

The idea is to stop it from being so easy for normal people to do so.

Gabriel Tane (profile) says:

Re: Re: Epiphany or Token Gesture?

Interesting… ‘repeated’… hmm, that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that.

Now, if you’re done making childish attacks at other people, the adults would like to get back to talking. Run along now… I think I saw a Pok?mon go that away… if you hurry you can catch it!!!

Cute lil whippersnappers.

Anonymous Coward says:

I think The Mighty Buzzard might have something with the million monkeys theory.

Some of the biggest problems with entertain industries today is that the lawyer and the accountant seem to be running the show. Their only solutions are moves that either legate a solution or cut something off to save money. Over time you get what you have now as the face that the public sees. It’s not an attractive one either.

Before all this came to be, you had actual musicians running the music labels and they understood that culture was an integral part of music.

Today’s group management doesn’t have a clue, only a series of bitches. (wonders whom will get the double meaning of that one)

herbert says:

this has always been about the ‘industries’ being in control. file sharing meant they lost control, despite being warned that it would happen if they continued to go down the road they were. bringing back this sensible practice, one that was practically begged for years ago, is their attempt to regain that lost control. may work now, may not. they have lost the respect of the public through their total ignoring of what was asked for and the treatment customers received. file sharing gave (and still gives) control to the customers at the industries expense and not just financial, either. they have a lot to do to win back respect. i hope this is the start of that happening, but i think they will continue to be despised for a long time to come because of their attitude, the backward thinking as far as failing to adapt to the digital world, charging way too much for media (keeping too much for themselves) and keeping old fu**ers in charge!

Anonymous Coward says:

I know of a record label that beat pirates to the punch.

Jamendo just kick their a. every time.

What I get:

– Free music to listen to, not to use it though..
– Low prices.
– Lyrics.
– Art, fan art
– My RIGHT(that is right) back to show the music I like to others. That is right I can put that on a filesharing website for others to listen to, no music police knocking on the door.
– The pleasure to say to copytards “I don’t need you baby, go beg elsewhere”

fogbugzd (profile) says:

Reason

There actually was a reason for the old policy. The labels would release to radio first so that demand would build up and and when the song was released it would jump to a high position on the sales charts.

Position on the sales charts isn’t as important as it used to be, so it makes a lot of sense to drop the policy. Of course it would have made sense to do this a long time ago. In a free market this kind of delay would have been punished, but when you are running a government-protected business little things like rationality and market demand don’t matter very much.

AR (profile) says:

Re: Re:

What a scary thought If that were the case. While we are zipping around in fancy cars, our bus system would still be horse drawn trolleys, the TSA would be suing anyone going faster than the trolleys, and they would be groping the horses. Instead of this announcement, one would be made that they were going to privatize the manufacture of buggy whips to allow all to purchase “at a good price”.

mrtraver (profile) says:

Back before the big labels killed my love of buying shiny plastic discs, this used to drive me crazy. If it was something I liked but was’t very popular and wasn’t being played any more by the time the CD was released, chances were that I would forget about it and never buy it. If it was by an artist in whom I already had an interest, I was going to buy the disc when it came out regardless of when (or whether) it was played on the radio, so it did not build any additional anticipation for me – just frustration that I could not listen to a finished product because of the whim of some label fatcat. I always felt like it was just them showing me that they, not I, had the power. Well, I showed them, didn’t I! I used to buy an average of one or two CDs a month, but as my frustration with the business process grew and my awareness of other sources of music grew, my purchases tapered off. Since 2005 I think I have bought four CDs in total; two by the same artist.

techflaws.org (profile) says:

Reminds me of a DJ friend of mine who was trying to buy Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”. He said the drone at the retailers was already sick of people lining up asking for that song all week cause he had to tell them they’d have to wait a month or so till the CD was released.

Of course not only was it on the radio but also on the net so there’s that.

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