How will music-industrie change?

Johan Jansen · From: Europe

There will always be new Napsters. What will this do to artists? What do you think.. more live bands, less sales??
I really don't know.. Guesses? JJ

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Martin Abend · From: Berlin, Germany

Man,

that's hard to say. I was reading the Hughey-Threat over on Bar Chatter and I kept asking myself if it's not time for the record companies to reconsider their role. The technical improvement will cause a change of the medium. The medium can not be regulated whatever the record comanys will come up with, so I think it's time for the artists to organize themselfes and sell their stuff on their own account via the web. You don't need record companys anyway, there are some artists who sell their records on their own and have success (There is is singer/somgwriter who did this very successfully but I can't remember her name at the moment).
I used to work for Glitterhouse Records in Germany and saw a lot of things I never had imagined. (like, calling Polygram with questions about Hazeldine (GREAT band, btw) that used to be on GH and have to SPELL the name to the employee that is supposed to do the P.R. form them. Geez!)
It will be hard for small labels like GH, but on the other hand, there is a strong customer relationship with the small ones, so they might figure out a way to keep their work going.

The biggest problem anyway is the selection of "good" music. That's why MP3.com doesn't make sense. Who has the time to browse through thousands of offferings?

I don't think that in 10 years there will be record companies as we know them... It's the artists themselves that should use the moment and figure out alternative ways of selling their music. Maybe in 10 years, all you need is a P.R. agency that is it's monmey worth...

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Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Basically the continued trend in the record industry is the climb to major from an indie status.

A lot of the early record companies wereac tully spin offs from film companies, although the best ones weren't really.

Capitol, Imerial, Liberty and many others started pretty small.
As time goes on and labels get bigger they have a habit of being bought up by bigger comapnies, or merging with others. This i imagine is partially due to the fact that there original corporate structure is now too small, labels have a habit of growing to big and unweildy, I liken them to Baby huey, kind of like this obscene large infant, it's mind not fully developed, towering over the other infants and sometimes tepping on their heads.

I tend to think that a more independant approach is the way to go, labels like Bloodshot, Sub Pop, Dead Reckoning, HighTone, etc seem to provide some interesting new blood and yet respect for older forms and artists, even though they have house styles, they don't seem to be as generic or dogmatic as the majors.

There are still those in their Utopia of Personal Computers that think it would be easier to download files from Ecord sites, or through telephone link up, later downloading, faxing/printing the sleeve details while they burn their paid for copy.
A kind of high tech Do-it-Yourself approach.

Kind of alientates a lot of people, as most people with this sirt of outlay tend to think it's the way of the future, well I can't see the tiny little labels embracing that, or the older consumers, or the poorer ones.
There might not be new Napsters, if they get a decent legal preceident and shut it down, it would take quite a bit to get it all up and running again, especially as a series of spin-off sites start out, it would mean a disrtibution of the resources, without any legal backbone to keep them going, they might die out, but I imagine there'll always be something, I mean go to a record fair, there's always bootlegs at them.

Martin, I agree with your call on the MP3, that's in it's infancy, it's too time consuming and doesn't give you any real way to cross reference or find out more about the artists and styles in any real serious way.

As to live bands, well we have a small problem with generic clubs, kind of like the McDonalds or Starbucks approach where the pubs and clubs are turing into poker machine houses with a very similar outlook and next to no interest in any other form of entertainment. There are some larger venues in this ilk which have bands, but bad cover bands and sad reunion type gigs, where members of bands long dead reunite for some basic run through versions of their old hits. These venues don't have the time, appreciation or generousity to really give these sort of affairs any dignity.

One of the greatest live venues in my fair city is under threat of development, despite the fact that some of the greatest gigs I and about a zillion others have ever seen have actually taken lace within it's beer sodden walls.
I fear for the state of the live music industry, especially in this country where all they seem to fund or support is sport or gambling, entertainment for those who have deprived souls and no creative outlets.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

As long as you have brick-and-mortar record stores selling music, you need the recording industry. From what I can see, the price of a retail CD is divided into 3 roughly equal parts: the record company (who owns the artist), the distributor and the retailer.

When you start buying CDs online, you can reach the point where you cut out the distributor and save roughly 1/3 of the cost. Suppose you want a CD that's on the Sony label. You go to their retail web site and order it, and you have it in a few days.

Or suppose you could opt to just buy the music without the "real" pieces. You'd probably save about 10% more by replacing the manufacturing process with direct-to-consumer digital distribution. A combination of the two would probably be the most attractive option for people like me. I would buy the CD online, get immediate access to the broadband music, and get a package in the mail a few days later.

But the real beauty of this system is that it gives very small labels and even artists themselves access to the consumer. It's impossible for a new band to get on the shelves at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, but anyone can sell on the internet.

What the industry needs is a standardized player technology that gives the full quality of the original recording (MP3 doesn't, by the way), and prevents unauthorized copying of the original digital bits. The encoding technology has to be very cheap and eaisily available for people who make the music, and the decoding technology has to be totally free and unbreakable.

This would leave the old-school distributors out in the cold, but it would reduce the cost of CD music and encourage startup enterprises at the same time.

I think that this path is obvious to the RIAA, but they don't like the fact that it encourages small labels. They keep looking for a proprietary solution that would continue to freeze out the little guys, like the current distribution system does. As long as they continue down that path, they will fail.

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Janice Brooks · From: Pleasant Gap Pa

I look at MP3.com and I see royolty figures. How are these calculated ? Also if you pay the 7.00 they charge soes that mean you provide the cd ? I also don't want to loose
liner notes. Lyrics are not my main interest
but some folks write some interseting commentary about choice of material etc

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