The Year The Music Dies
from the it's-about-time dept
Wired Magazine is running an article talking about a topic covered here quite often. The music industry may be collapsing, but that’s different from music itself collapsing. The old industry refuses to change with the times, and so the times are changing without them. The article predicts that the music industry, as we now know it, will die off much faster than most people expect, and that what comes out of its remains might be a lot better for everyone. I tend to agree. I think that the old music industry had the chance to lead that revolution, but they missed it. I also don’t believe they’ll die as quickly as the article predicts. Folks like the RIAA will keep on fighting, even though it just keeps on dragging them down.
Comments on “The Year The Music Dies”
The Downward Spiral..
Seems like everyone has it in for the recording industry these days. While I too don?t believe that the industry will collapse in a sudden death lurch, I do think that its days are numbered. What will be interesting is what happens to these companies start loosing massive amounts of money. Will the parent companies, with their ever-so deep pockets, continue to fund them in spite of their loses? Or will Sony and Time Warner simply say ?enough is enough? and pull the plug?
Whatever happens, ultimately I don?t see the music industry going away entirely. It?s likely that smaller labels will find ways to survive on less revenue than their bloated counterparts. By utilizing technology such as digital production and distribution systems, will be able rise up and take the place of older, more deeply entrenched labels. The fact is, not everyone in the music world is clueless, and eventually someone will figure it out. These pioneers, who are willing to embrace technology instead of loath it, will be the ones that create the new music industry.
Re: The Downward Spiral..
And will this win go down as the best and earliest between the old and new?
Or will evidence suggest that it slowly started to happen in early 2003, with the Jon Johansen case, and Verizon winning the appeal against the RIAA. Rosen resigning. Wireless spectrum being looked at for a possible new way of allocating it, Tommy Mottola leaving Sony, etc.
Let’s hope that Lessig is wrong. The new wins out in the end.
That's because they compete with Internet
The whole job of music companies is distribution of music. Basically, making sure the CD with cover art and high-quality recordings gets to the customer. Once I have a color printer (and still care for cover art) and a CD burner, why would I ever need a music company?
The same thing happened to document distribution (I am much more likely to buy PDF that I can read immediately than wait for the report to show up FedEx’ed) and software sales (most of my software buys last year were downloads, not shrink-wrapped). Those guys just did not over invest in infrastructure to complain about shrink-wrapped sales going down. Once Internet eliminated need for a middle-man, there is no need for a label.
Re: That's because they compete with Internet
Point about PDF is wrong. It is cheaper and more cost effective to get a printed book than to get a PDF and print it out yourself. This is not true of CDs because they areridiculously overpriced. (and don’t mention e-books – paper rules and always will)
Re: Re: That's because they compete with Internet
I think that the bigger problem with CDs is not the price but the fact that they are in an inconvenient format. ie a disk that has to physically be put into the player in order to listen to it. Yes, multi-disk players (particularly the ones that taken hundreds of disks) help somewhat – but nothing beats a harddrive full of music that you can access from more than one place and stick on a giant, seamless shuffle.
Re: Re: That's because they compete with Internet
Do you live in North Carolina?