p2pnet - rss feed: Big Music: the end of an era
p2pnet.net news:- “The record business is over,” says music attorney Peter Paterno, who represents Metallica and Dr. Dre. “The labels have wonderful assets - they just can’t make any money off them.” One senior music-industry source who requested anonymity went further: “Here we have a business that’s dying.
“There won’t be any major labels pretty soon.”
The quote comes in part one of a two-part a Rolling Stone feature slugged The Record Industry’s Decline.
It goes on:
So who killed the record industry as we knew it? “The record companies have created this situation themselves,” says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. While there are factors outside of the labels’ control - from the rise of the Internet to the popularity of video games and DVDs - many in the industry see the last seven years as a series of botched opportunities.
And among the biggest, they say, was the labels’ failure to address online piracy at the beginning by making peace with the first file-sharing service, Napster.
“They left billions and billions of dollars on the table by suing Napster - that was the moment that the labels killed themselves,” says Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of management company the Firm. “The record business had an unbelievable opportunity there. They were all using the same service.
It was as if everybody was listening to the same radio station. Then Napster shut down, and all those 30 or 40 million people went to other [file-sharing services].”
Correct, but the summation fails to take into account what’s possibly the primary reason for the decline.
Overpriced cookie-cutter ‘product’
The corporate record industry is to all intents and purposes EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) and in 2003, using their American ‘trade’ unit, the RIAA, as the spear-point, they launched a bizarre marking scheme under which they began using legal systems around the world to try to force people into buying overpriced cookie-cutter ‘product’.
But rather than having the intended effect, the ongoing action created a brand new consumer class: millions of people around the world who’ll do anything to avoid buying Big 4 product.
Typical of these people is Tanya Andersen (above right), a disabled Oregon mother who was once a loyal fan but who’s been literally persecuted for three years by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Her much-publicised experiences are all too typical of those of other victims whose stories are being told not by the traditional media, but by bloggers and independent sites such as p2pnet which are fast becoming the main source of online news and information, replacing the traditional media.
Andersen currently in the news because she and her lawyer, Lory Lybeck, are suing Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for malicious prosecution, and on the same bill is Safenet the owner of discredited online bounty hunter MediaSentry, and Atlantic Recording Corporation, Priority Records, Capitol Records, UMG Recordings, and BMG Music.
Also being sued is the so-called Settlement Support Center, the entity created by the RIAA to extort money from its victims, including students across America.
The Big 4 have attacked an estimated 30,000 American men women and children as young as Andersen’s 10-year-old daughter, Kylee, and who knows how many other people in other countries. This doesn’t even make a dent in the statistics: in America alone it’s been estimated that some 61 million people share with each other every year.
In other words, the chances of an individual becoming a Big 4 victim to virtually zero.
However, thanks to the fact the corporate music industry controls significant sections of the and off-line print and electronic media, the paltry figure of 30,000 has been blown up out of all proportion.
No longer the only game in town
By persecuting their own customers, the labels have created a new class of consumer: people who want nothing to do with the traditional corporate music industry. Instead, they’re tapping the free P2P networks and independent online music sellers - entrepreneurs, musicians and music lovers who’ve created their own sites - and the Big 4 are feeling the pain.
Because although the mainstream media are reporting successes for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s, the reaility is: thanks to the efforts of the RIAA and its clones in other parts of the world, the labels are now reviled and hated not only by former customers, but also by the artists themselves.
The corporate press is no longer the only game in town and for the first time in history, ordinary people everywhere are talking to each other using blogs, web sites, IM, email, cell phones, and all the other 21st century communications tools. And in the process, they’re completely bypassing traditional news and information suppliers.
The public is now well informed, an anathema to the corporate music industry which would rather see them dumb and compliant as they were before the Net gave them freedom of choice and freedom of expression.
But it all could have been very different had the Big 4 had started wooing their customers instead of suing them.
“In the fall of 2003, the RIAA filed its first copyright-infringement lawsuits against file sharers,” says the Rolling Stone story, going on:
The RIAA maintains that the lawsuits are meant to spread the word that unauthorized downloading can have consequences. “It isn’t being done on a punitive basis,” says RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. But file-sharing isn’t going away– there was a 4.4 percent increase in the number of peer-to-peer users in 2006, with about a billion tracks downloaded illegally per month, according to research group BigChampagne.
Despite the industry’s woes, people are listening to at least as much music as ever. Consumers have bought more than 100 million iPods since their November 2001 introduction, and the touring business is thriving, earning a record $437 million last year. And according to research organization NPD Group, listenership to recorded music - whether from CDs, downloads, video games, satellite radio, terrestrial radio, online streams or other sources - has increased since 2002. The problem the business faces is how to turn that interest into money.
They’ll have to compete
And the solution is simple, as it’s been since day one.
The big four have to start treating people as intelligent, honest potential customers who are again exercising free choice, not potential criminals who get up in the morning bent on robbing the labels.
They need to be treating people as partners, not criminals.
They also need to lower their wholesale prices and fully open their catalogues, acknowledging they’ll never be able to dominate and control the distribution of music on or offline, as they were able to do in the past.
They’ll have to compete, with all that implies.
Meanwhile, the music industry isn’t in decline, nor is a revolution happening. It’s evolution and a day is coming which’ll resemble the way things were when it first became possible to record music.
The music industry will comprise a number of separate labels with a genuine interest and concern for the artists under contract to them, and respect the people who buy their product.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Also See:
Rolling Stone - The Record Industry’s Decline, June 19, 2007
much-publicised experiences - Tanya Andersen sues the RIAA, June 25, 2007
students across America - Another school caves in to the RIAA, June 27, 2007
estimated 30,000 - Ohio U failing students in RIAA attacks, May 25, 2007
10-year-old daughter - RIAA vs Kylee hits the mainstream, March 28, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 28th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I dunno–I think you guys overdo it on the “cookie-cutter product” thing. There’s some interesting stuff being made, and I’m not sure what it is you think is wrong with it. It’s typical, though, to hear people say things like that (”Britney Spears can’t sing!”) without actually giving any reasoning or warrants to back such a statement up. Saying something like that isn’t really putting forth an argument so much as it is making an emotional statement.
Let’s hear it, then: What actual reasoned critique of the talent of the RIAA and such (which folks are no friends of mine, mind you) can we come up with?
June 28th, 2007 at 10:32 am
10 years ago i would buy a album and it would have at least 90% decent tracks. now i find that they are filled with remixes/covers of previous songs on the album and interludes(skits) to make up track numbers.
note some remixes/covers are good but in general i find about 30% of tracks worth having so the money i am prepared to spend on a album is now about 1/3 of what i would have paid in the past.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Hmmmm.. let’s see…the beatles or Britney Spears? Who has more talent? If you were to say Britney, you need a LOBOTOMY!
The fact is, that if you cannot figure out WHAT is wrong with music of today compared to when groups like the beatles…
1. WROTE THEIR OWN SONGS
2. PLAYED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS
3. FOUND THEIR OWN GIGS (in the beginning anyway, nowdays people want to go on “american idol” and become an instant star…no struggle…no work…sorry, it just does not work that way.)
If you still have trouble asking yourself what has the music that is done today, has lost from the past….I would say a LOT!
The examples I gave, were only a few highlights of what you had to do to make it big back in the days before shows like american idol came along.
People today want everything handed to them. No work,no struggle….just let me sing my song (weather they can actually sing or not makes no difference…they can always overdub their voice) , look sexy and collect their paycheck. No wonder the big 4 music industry is hurting for talent. They are probably all on the small labels…where you still have to actually have talent to survive!
June 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I agree with you that there is some(not a lot) decent new stuff out their, but I don’t think you picked a good example with Britney Spears. As for “evidence”, I would suggest listening to anything Britney sings in her whiny voice, then listen to “White Rabbit” by Jefferson airplane(Grace Slick-singer) and “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Cass Eliot(Mamas and the Papas). Forget about style, just listen to and compare the vocals, if you have any hearing at all you will notice a huge difference in skill level. As a side note, Cass Eliot would never get a record contract now as she was obese and would not pass the beauty standard record companies now seem to have for female singers(IE - you have to look like a model or a porn star)
June 28th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Okay, but what about the music itself?
I’m not sure what I think about the comment on remixes and covers–I’m not sure I care for remixes all that much (though you’re only going to see those in a few genres), but I actually like covers, so that’s more a matter of personal taste than objective quality, I think.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
You’ve critiqued the fact that some artists today (most?) don’t write their own music or necessarily play instruments. That’s not really a statement about the quality of the music.
Do you have some statistics about this magical past where all singers wrote their own music and lyrics? And who’s to say that is desirable over against the alternative?
Not much here except the old “ZOMG Britnay suxx0rZ!” line. I’m not saying she doesn’t, but if you’re going to say she does, you need to provide substantive, objective proofs, not just bare statements that only stand up because they’re so prevalent that nobody questions them.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Now here’s some reasoned critique. Thank you for not settling for bare rhetoric!
How much do you think the difference between Britney (admittedly not the best example of contemporary music, but perhaps the most assaulted by those who hate the music industry) and Eliot is a matter of style? Perhaps there are those who like the whiny voice of Britney? I for one find myself increasingly wary of disliking new music just because it isn’t like the stuff back when I was younger.
Good point about the body requirements. It’s certainly a different world when it comes to the integration of audio with visual media. Perhaps that has had some noticeable effect on the quality of music in the industry?
June 28th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Really?
Some in the US are emotional about rogs companies such as Vivendi, Sony/BMG EMI, Time Warner) and their dogs such as the RIAA, trampling our constitution corrupting our governement, persecuting and trying to rip off 20k US citizen.
Some of them are dangerous and you guys are looking for trouble. Since your business is basically dead I don’t see the point.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
A reasoned critique of talent? You are asking people to make statements based in reason about a subject that is almost entirely subjective. People like or dislike music based largely on their emotional response to it. Looking at individual artists is not going to shed any light on the subject either.
My opinion?
(I’ll offer one even though I feel the question is somewhat of a red herring)
Looking at the combined output of the major labels over say the last decade, as a whole (with exceptions noted) there is a preponderance of music that sounds like it was created/vetted by focus groups and marketing executives. Lots of lowest common denominator pap and filler. “Safe” investments. I could go on…
June 29th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Then WHY DON’T YOU PROVE I AM WRONG SMARTASS?
If you really believe you are right, then try to prove it. And nobody said you had to write your own songs or perfom them on instruments.
But then again, If you want to harp about quality, do we even have the QUALITY of music they had when groups like the beatles started out.? NO! That was my point!
If you look at todays “hits”… they never last as long on charts as songs did,when artists DID write their own stuff. Mabye there is a connection there. It is called TALENT…look it up if you don’t know what that is!
So provide you OWN PROOF that I am wrong!
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Wow. Looks like some people got just a bit angry at having the party line of “RIAA product suxx0r!!!1″ questioned.
Note to you, pal: I don’t have to prove you’re wrong if you say “Britney Spears can’t sing.” To the contrary, as you are the one who has made an assertion, you are the one required to back that assertion up. And just so you know–merely repeating your position, even under the guise of other examples, doesn’t constitute a defense of that position.
It’s always fun to see people get angry when you ask them to back up their opinions–that anger you see is a manifestation of their realization that they haven’t any actual reasoning to backup their opinions. It’s never fun to be revealed as a sheep; doubly so when you’re the sort who purports to be a rebel and who makes fun of other sheep.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
No, you only want to act like a smnartass “PAL”. You want ME to prove something, while YOU don’t.
YOU are also required to answer MY question, or shut the hell up!
I REFUSE to answer YOUR QESTION until you answer MINE!