A Big Old Recap
Published February 02, 2003
Let's suppose I'm a kid. I have a fixed allowance or a minimum wage job. I have $100 a month to spend on entertainment, if I'm lucky. With that cash, I can rent or buy DVDs, pay for my Internet connection, go to a concert, a movie, or a sporting event (at which I might buy some merchandise), buy a video game, pay my mobile phone bill, drive through the drive-thru, or buy a CD. From that list of options, what's the least likely thing I'm going to spend money on? I think the answer would be the CD, even if downloaded music didn't exist. I would argue that it's not the presence of a "free" alternative that has caused the decline in CD sales, it's the presence of competing choices offering more value and fewer hassles.
...."Why would you pay for a song that you could get for free? For the same reason that you will buy a book that you could borrow from the public library or buy a DVD of a movie that you could watch on television or rent for the weekend. Convenience, ease-of-use, selection, ability to find what you want, and for enthusiasts, the sheer pleasure of owning something you treasure."
.... I would argue that the future of music is multimedia, the future of multimedia is DVD, and the future of music companies is software. In five years, record labels will be software companies and I don't think they know that yet. The music business will be saved by someone from the software business who can impose a new business model on music assets.
....NARAS must not rubber-stamp what is quite clearly a self-serving position (as happened on last year's Grammy broadcast when Mike Greene berated and branded music consumers as thieves and shoplifters). NARAS must be the independent voice, a voice of objectivity. NARAS should be the "think tank" of the music business, not an enforcer or a PAC. What we have here is the potential to become a leader in the new frontier of intellectual property rights, artists' rights, consumers' rights, the future of music, and the power of the art itself. I say let's seize the day. In my opinion, there is a vacuum of leadership with respect to these pivotal and crucial issues and NARAS should step in and fill that vacuum. It is a golden opportunity. [Salon] Word.
- A Big Old Recap
- Published: February 02, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Books: News, Music: News, Video: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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On Venture last night, they looked at the mainstream record business. The general conclusion is that the major record companies aren't qualified to run a hot dog stand.
They had CRIA bleating about downloading, the prez of Sony Canada blaming high speed access (and she made sure to insult music buyers by calling them pirates) and how it takes time to get legal downloads happening, and they interviewed Loreena McKennit, who has sold several million records, which she owns totally. She talked about trying to find a distributor for her new album, and how none of the majors had proper accounting and audit procedures, or proper business processes which don't include fantasy or fraud. The bubble has burst, and the days of accepting an 80 per cent failure rate is over. Would you buy a hot dog if there was an 80 per cent chance it wasn't any good?
It amazes me that in the space of a little over three years, the major record companies have successfully created a negative brand equity for themselves.