“The Internet has wreaked all sorts of havoc on the traditional recorded-music model. For decades labels have been signing bands, paying for their first record and video, moving the music to radio and retailers, organizing concert tours, and helping to peddle merchandise,” Bachman reports. “But for many fans and artists, that model has become grossly anachronistic. If the music is flowing digitally, why allow a corporation to get between an artist and the audience?”
MacDailyNews Take: All together now, “Eliminate the Middlebronfman!”
Bachman reports, “It doesn’t help that the same companies have been antagonizing music consumers for years with pricey CDs, rights-management restrictions, and file-sharing lawsuits.”
Bachman reports, “One of the casualties is the industry’s fundamental economics. A record label used to play an important financial role because it fronted the money to record an album, which could cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now any 14-year-old can pick up a copy of Apple’s Logic Studio for $499 and make respectable recordings. All that’s needed are generous parents or a babysitting gig.”
Bachman reports, “Digital is the new paradigm. Who needs a record label to handle marketing and public relations anymore? Musicians can just set up a MySpace page and talk directly with their fans. Record labels used to help court radio stations, too, to get music on the air. Now you can zip MP3 copies of your first single via e-mail to anyone in the world.”
It’s hard to see “how the Big Four can boost their sales and income much in this new era. Manufacturing and distribution costs stand to fall in the digital transition, and record companies will handle numerous business and administrative functions for artists. But the profit bonanza of an $18 CD? Those days are gone forever,” Bachman reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The music cartels have ripped off musicians and music consumers for years. It’s time for the labels to feel some real pain.