Quick Thoughts on the State of the Record Industry
- The jig is up. For decades the major record labels had maintained an unmaintainable position. They have been the sole provider of supply on both sides of a market, and they have maintained high demand on both side. Bands wanted to get signed had to go through the record labels. Fans wanting recorded music had to go through record labels. As the cost of producing and now promoting a record fell through the floor, the market no longer needs the middle man.
- I hear record companies have a new Payola scheme with radio stations. Basically, a record company partners with a radio station to put on a concert. The record company doesn’t care about making money off live music, so the radio stations make the money. I have a sneaking suspicion that these deals involve a certain number of song plays and promotion from the radio station. How is that not Payola? (The Irony? Radio is probably almost as doomed as the record labels.)
- Madonna’s announcement may be the most interesting of all the big announcements over the past week (Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Jamiroquai, etc). Not because of Madonna’s size, but because of who she sided with. Madonna has essentially sided with the booking agents. It is kinda like the opposite of that Payola scheme above.
- I am thinking the average price of an album will be under $5 by 2010. This doesn’t bode well for Apple either (well, bad for iTunes, great for iPod/iPhone)
- There is an opportunity for someone to make a great service for selling, browsing, building community around digital downloads. (As I write this I think, “yeah, maybe the world does need the eBay of digital downloads)
- Since I am talking music, I have said it before but want to include it here. The charts at Last.FM are my favorite way to discover new music. If they can figure out the display and publicity of those charts a little more, they could be more influential than Billboard.
