How compatible is music and business? This is a question that could be answered using examples of musicians dealing with almighty music labels. All sort of situations have emerged from this relationship: musicians “selling out” to the wishes and requirements of labels in order to make music more “commercial” to sell more or labels retiring support to musicians who do not give in and have to move from one label to another. Additionally, labels have always been criticized for absorbing most of the profit generated by the sale of records.
Nevertheless, a new reality that has changed the way we live and make business has been created by Internet and big labels and artists have not escaped from this new environment. The advent of the World Wide Web has maximized possibilities for the artists and labels and also for other undesired markets, such as those benefited from piracy, through an innovative distribution channel of unpredictable magnitude.
In regard to musicians, artists such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor (frontman of Nine Inch Nails or “NIN”) have already taken the initiative. Accordingly, Radiohead announced on its 2007 Web-Site that fans could pay whatever they want for the band´s new album for that year “In Rainbows”, as long as they purchased the digital version. Additionally, the band offered a deluxe box-set including two 12-inch LP´s and two CD´s with artwork enclosed in a customized sleeve for about $80. EMI used to be the label of Radiohead until 2003, when their contract expired.
In relation to Trent Reznor his non-conforming position about the way music reaches the audience and how the business is handled is so determined that he even told his fans in a concert in Australia to steal his music.
As Radiohead, Reznor uses the Internet to deliver his music to fans. Hence, anyone who wants to get a copy of his most recent release (a LP) “The Slip” only has to access NIN website and download the free tracks. Additionally, Reznor offers limited digipacks in the conventional physical format but also including a DVD, extra tracks and the traditional booklet.
For label companies the new Internet distribution channel offers obvious advantages, allowing them to reach more customers using digital formats (.MP3, .MP4, among others). Naturally, the digital advantage has caused the disordered spread of files in the Web and has led to file sharing, person to person distribution and illegal copying and burning, among others, opening a huge door to piracy.
The music industry has tried to counteract this by selling “protected discs” which set limitations for copying the tracks, which has resulted in consumer dissatisfaction since the access to the CD files is totally restricted, limiting the transfer of the tracks to devices such as iPod´s.
Piracy has also flourished in third world and poor countries, since the prices of records and movies are so high that make impossible for the average class person to buy original products. Again, label companies bear some responsibility on this matter, since they set the prices of the releases. In this regard, Reznor has also criticized the way labels set prices. He claims that after visiting a HMV store in Australia and noticing that the price of every NIN release was six, seven and eight dollars higher than other albums and DVD´s he spoke to a few executives of his label to get an explanation about such this surcharge. The executives stated: “[NIN has a] core audience that’s gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy it. True fans will pay whatever”.
All these cases depict situations in which the weak intermediary got expelled out of the distribution channel. This time, it was the turn of the powerful and almighty music labels.
Thats true, labels are nothing but brands and companies charge for their brand rather than the content. As mentioned in my block not just the developed countries but even the third world countries are suffering due to this. U.S loses $12.5 billion every year and 71 thousand jobs every year. Piracy not only harms intellectual property but also consumers and taxpayers.
ResponderEliminarIt's an innovative idea to create "protected discs", but somehow it's a disadvantage for the buyer who has the right to move his/her songs to the devices necessary to enjoy the music. However on the other hand this promotes piracy.
ResponderEliminarThis is an endless dilemma, but I think that the fight against piracy is impossible.
The industry should come back with better offers than what piracy could give. But, what´s better than free music? Maybe huge quantities of songs already downloaded (which saves time of download to the customer) for a price. Sean Parker, the head of what once was Napster is already thinking about it, but still has to figure out a couple more factors to keep his business alive.