Where did the music industry go so wrong?

55 Comments

Apple Store“Wasn’t it all so gloriously simple back when people listened to top 40 radio and obediently paid $20 for discs at record store chains? Labels set the deal terms for artists; managers handled the “biz”; the touring circuits were maintained by well-mannered warlords that politely divvied up the venues; and everyone had their place in the pond,” Patrick Faucher writes for CNET News.

“So where did it all go wrong with the music business? Somehow, the pond became stagnant over time, mucked up with greed, laziness, contempt and excess. People got bored with music. Then, someone threw a rock into the middle of it called “The Internet” and nothing will ever be the same. Today, anyone can hum a tune, mix it with a rhythm track and some samples on their Mac at home, put it up on MySpace, and end up with a publishing deal from Moby who will then sell it to the next Superbowl sponsor,” Faucher writes.

Faucher writes, “The labels–or their successors–need to get down to sea level, pick up an oar, and help row with the artist into this new ocean of opportunity.”

Interesting full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bev M.” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Piper Jaffray: ‘less than a 25% chance’ music labels will heed Apple CEO Jobs’ call to drop DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple inks deal with big four labels: iTunes Music Store prices stay at 99-cents per song – May 01, 2006
Record labels look to raise iTunes wholesale prices, music industry fears Apple’s market domination – March 04, 2005

55 Comments

  2. The problem now is that the ‘Labels’ are no longer necessary, but they still have a lot of power, since they own much of the music. At some point, distributors like Apple will recognize that they can deal with the artists directly. When the do, both Apple and the artists will make more money. The problem will be getting the old music out of the hands of the Labels.

    MDN Magice Word – dead, as in: The Labels are dead, it just isn’t obvious yet.

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  4. Perhaps everyone would be better off if the big-time recorded music biz just went away. (including iTunes) Once upon a time (100 years ago) a musician’s means of support was live performance and that’s how consumers got their fix. That and playing instruments at home. Music was a personal interactive medium and there’s something to be said for that.

    Obviously this isn’t going to happen and I’m not throwing away my thousands of CDs and 3 iPods but if I didn’t have a choice I know I’d go to more local shows which would allow more local musicians to pursue their art.

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  6. Free distribution of music would help encourage live performance, tbt. There is too much money in the sale of plastic boxes and not enough in creating a good show. Some artists can still pull this off, but that’s not where the industry throws its money. Not when it’s so easy to make J-Lo a star and collect gazillions from album sales. Real artists aren’t supported or encouraged to perform any more, and it’s a damn shame.
    Of course, local governments do their best to shut down smaller venues whenever they get the chance, too. In Bremerton Washington there had been a healthy local music scene growing for years, but all the best venues that the kids loved have been shut down and they don’t have anywhere to go any more. This is under the guise of ‘keeping kids safe’ and ‘public good’, but the result is that they don’t have anything to do, so many of them just sit around at home and get high. Yeah, they’re so safe now.
    What needs to happen is that we need to embrace music as a society again. No one sings any more, hardly anyone owns a piano or a guitar. We as Americans have given it up, for the most part, and it’s sad. It’s not required in school (and it was up until the 80”s when I was in school) and of course it doesn’t fit the standardize testing model that we’ve been saddled with. And the result? Every child gets left behind. This beautiful medium for culture and communication and political commentary is dying right in front of us, and nobody gives a damn.
    The music industry is just a symptom, and thanks to iTunes and digital distribution, it will collapse very, very soon. The real problem, the disease, happens every time you let your kid listen to Britney Spears and don’t tell them anything about The Beatles.

    -c

    MW: ‘plans’ (within plans)

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  8. Chrissy

    Knowing you and knowing me
    you won’t
    Take a chance on me
    So I guess this is my
    Waterloo

    Another thought-
    There is a difference between musicians and entertainers.
    I prefer musicians. Dwight, Bela, Miles, Merle, Jaco, Elvis C. and Diana K., SRV., Alice N, STP, Allmans, Stevie W, Al G, Joni and Janis
    But that new video with Shakira and Beyonce is f’ing HOT!!!

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  11. I have seen Elivs Costello perform live many times, that last was a solo show at The Ste. Michelle winery. He is a consummate artist, but he is also a natural born entertainer. SRV is my personal guitar hero (as well as his mentor, Albert King) and there are few musicians who could entertain like he could. STP… well, Scott should be in the encyclopedia under “Rock Star”. He’s amazing (at least when he’s not beating his wife).

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  12. @ChrissyOne – you are so right. You don’t have to go back more than a couple of decades (a lifetime in the computer and iIndustries but a moment in music history) to a time where most dance clubs had regular bands. The only places that had a DJ were those that couldn’t afford to pay musicians.

    If you go further back, records were used to support the sale of sheet music. People were focused on playing the music, not listening to it.

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  13. Exactly, and these days, the DJs are the stars. Not that I have anything against DJs, I know quite a few in this town. But the kids have no idea who actually produces the music they hear at parties, they only know who spins it. Actual musicianship has become almost a novelty in many circles.

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  17. Mudflapper-
    are you saying you’re not gay? ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”surprised” style=”border:0;” />

    Anyhow, the ABBA reference was a joke.
    those dam melodies get in my head and won’t go away…until I hear a BeeGees tune!

    And when I discern the difference between entertainer and musician, it is not a slam at entertainers.

    Many musicians can attest to a fact, one that I call ‘The Curse’, and that is there is always, ALWAYS, a tune going through your head, and one way to ‘exorcise this demon’ is to play music. Whether for money, fame, or pure enjoyment depends on the individual.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find a BeeGees cd…

    Reply

  21. With regard to the current situation, the music industry went wrong by choosing denial as a strategy in the early to mid 1990’s.
    The internet? A fad. Hard drives? Way to small to ever hold a meaningful amount of music. Digital music? Make a file formats exclusive to each label (I do have to give them some credit here in that there was an abandoned effort at cooperation on this first) with draconian DRM. MP3’s? No one will ever listen to those. Denial fed by the fact that, as many have pointed out, they were satisfied with their archaic system that allowed them to get rich off the backs of artists and fuck the majority of them right up the zune output orifice. This totally explains their mindset with regard to DRM.

    If these stupid ludites had embraced the idea, cooperated, and backed off the short term greed (wanting to sell a few songs at an inflated price vs selling a lot of songs at a price that consumers will jump at), they could have had their own successful version of iTunes. Of course, we all know that even in the face of iTunes, they want to fuck it up, so they never would have done this.

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  22. Where did the music industry go wrong? Easy question with an easy answer, DRM and greed! When they get so greedy they sue your dead grandmother who never used a computer in her life, that’s simply WRONG!!!

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  23. “The labels–or their successors–need to get down to sea level, pick up an oar, and help row with the artist into this new ocean of opportunity.”

    Ya, if they can get their heads out of their asses long enough to see that the boat has already left the dock.

    Reply

  27. I guess I swim in very different circles. I don’t see music dying as an art form in any way shape or form. The Internet has opened up the floodgates of people who, for one reason or another, couldn’t get past the barriers to entry set up by the old music business. That means there’s room again for the weekend musicians, the garage bands, and so forth, and that in turn propels the revitalization of the local music scene. In my state, local music is fairly big and it always has been as long as I’ve been alive.

    See that’s the great thing about technology — it makes room at the table for the professional, the talented, and the semi-talented, instead of merely reserving a chair for the virtuouso.

    The answer, as always, is deregulation. Make low-power FM legal. Allow pirate radio stations. Reduce the number of laws and then pounce on anyone who violates them.

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  29. Man, that Agnetha Fältskog is hot! And ABBA was a great band. I bet they paid more tax than most bands will ever make. Almost as creative but with a smaller market is the Spanish group La Oreja de Van Gogh. Great artists don’t need much industry support, especially nowadays.

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  32. Hey, I’ve got nothing against Indian tech instructors. But fercrissakes, I’m sitting about 10 miles from the Redmond campus at the moment. Couldn’t they just send someone over? 520, baby, takes you right over here.
    We’re talking about Create Process vs. Shell Executable now. I’m having more fun than a trip to the dentist.

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  33. Thank Metallica, they started all this shit. Nobody had heard of Napster till those greedy pricks blew the whistle. And what happened, dozens if not hundreds of mp3 P2P networks sprung up. Thanks guys, I have all your albums, but I don’t listen to them much. Thank God I didn’t pay for them.

    Reply

  37. 2. You know, I’m not sure. It certainly have a nice growl to it. Did he use a Rick? Kinda sounds like one.

    If it isn’t a keyboard I could believe it’s a Rick. My 4001 cuts through the higher frequencies but can still dig pretty deep unlike any other bass. Didn’t Electro Harmonix have a box called “Bass Balls” that had that funky phasor/envelope/distortion sound ?

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  39. Building a studio costs lot of money, so 1 hour in a studio usually costs a fortune. You have your own studio? Well then you don’t need those loan-shark-type-record-company-dinosaurs fattening their pockets.

    Ice Cube said it so clear: Record company’s the pimp, artist is the ho’ and the stage is the corner.

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  41. Stephen

    Before you go on another talkabout, matey, think about this.

    He is TEACHING, so apparently he is INTELLIGENT.

    There are many, many, Indians in technology fields in America.

    That was the jist of the HUMOR, which elitist don’t have any sense of.

    Like Thorin suggested, many doctors are Indian, also.

    So if I am making light of the fact that so many Indians are successful,
    I would think it would NOT be considered racism, depending on your definition of it.

    Your impliction that it is racist is WAY out of line, which shows once again, you don’t look at facts, you just try to bend words to your advantage.

    Now do you feel your comments were constuctive in any way?
    I doubt ANYONE else does.

    It doesn’t work with me.

    Yikes-
    yeah, plus she’s hung over and on the rag…

    Reply

  42. ‘Exactly, and these days, the DJs are the stars. Not that I have anything against DJs, I know quite a few in this town. But the kids have no idea who actually produces the music they hear at parties, they only know who spins it. Actual musicianship has become almost a novelty in many circles.’

    No kidding! I’ve been going to see bands play for a couple of decades now and I’m consistently shocked and awed that someone can bgain notoriety for basically playing someone else’s records (though that’s pretty broad as generalizations go-I know there are some talented DJs out there). But seriously. The DJ used to be the faceless guy playing records before the band came on. What a weird evolution.

    Also, it’s true about the sheet music! People used to enjoy songs by doing their own renditions of them once upon a time, before technology allowed one to turn on the radio or pop in an album, it didn’t amtter if you ‘could’ sing, everybody did. And look at how popular things like karaoke are nowadays . . . methinks people are ready to participate again.

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  44. @Towertone

    Yep, sounds rascist to me…

    Your rebuttal is, as ever, unconvincing…

    @yikes

    Are you condoning rascism? Do you have something against Indians too? Or are you just Towertone up to his usual tricks of making posts to support himself when he, inevitably, gets himself into trouble by revealing his unsavoury attitudes…

    And, as ever, when he runs out of arguments (which is immediately) he turns to juvenile personal insults.

    Reply

  49. Chrissy

    Here is one to try

    Joni Mitchell’s “Shadows and Lights” live album with Jaco on bass and Pat Methany on guitar, Lyle Mays on keys, Michael Brecker on sax, and another Weatherreport alumni, Don Alias, on percussion.

    The whole album is tight, but the Amelia/Pat’s Solo/Hejira song cycle is heaven

    Reply

  51. Sweet, I’ll check it out, iTunes doesn’t have it. I love Joni.

    Have you heard Golden Palominos? Anton Fier, Bill Laswell, Nicky Skopelitis, lots of other fantastic musicians. They ranged from straight up country to erotic spoken word arias, but their real masterpieces were Pure, This is How it Feels, and my favorite, Drunk with Passion. Get on iTunes and listen to “Gun” from Pure.

    Reply

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