Monday, October 08, 2007
The day the music industry died
Times Online: "Having waited four years for their heroes to finish another record, Radiohead fans were understandably excited last week to learn that the band’s seventh album, In Rainbows, will finally be released on Wednesday. But what really rocked the fanbase – and heightened the air of gloom enveloping the global record industry – was the news that In Rainbows could be preordered and downloaded perfectly legally for as little as 1p at Radio-head.com."
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7 comments:
I think this article cheapens what Radiohead is doing. I would hate to think that their motivation is to make more money in the long run with their paraphernalia. I always hoped they were just laid back guys trying to play some music. When I first saw the article I was like "nice, democracy". But when I read the whole article it was more "oh, marketing".
Although it is sad to see the death of the physical "compact disc", one has to remember that in no way is the recording industry and recording artists fading with it. Artists will continue to record albums and recording studios will continue to produce them. What I'm saying is, the price we pay for exterminate the cd is a small sacrifice in order to overall enhance and revamp the music industry.
This is becoming more and more common these days. The last Nine Inch Nails album was "leaked", supposidely by Trent Resner himself, and available for download before the CD was even released. If you look at the break down of profits for a band they get relatively little money for their albums. The real money is in touring. By giving away their music they are essentially promoting themselves without giving up much money. This is really a giant F-U to the record companies, producers and promoters who take a large part of the profit. It shows true artistry to be willing to receive nothing for your work, even though they wont be losing much of their overall profits.
Making money off concerts is nothing new in the music industry. The '96 metalica tour was able to pay for their entire tour off of the t-shirt says opening night [and if you think 20 is a lot for a t-shirt, try 35 for RHCP]. Selling records gives little to no financial gain to the artist, and often times can actually make them bankrupt [ie- a tribe called quest].
Record companies are the ones losing money. The large conglomerates had their chance to save themselves with napster by making an agreement back in '99 and decided not to. Apple was smart enough to mainstream legal downloads before the distributors. Radiohead in my opinion is doing nothing other than trying to give their fans a good deal, see how loyal the base is, and give some affection back to their old-lable.
What Radiohead is doing is pretty admirable and I think an incredibly good idea. It will financially impact the recording industry if this becomes an industry standard, but right now the prerelease download is a pretty abormal idea. One band trying something new will not affect the industry as a whole unless this turns out to be a big hit and the idea is used by many more artists. I would say that iTunes has a greater impact on CD sales than the Radiohead download preorder option.
This article keeps taking about the music industry “dying”, but only one sector of the music industry is really getting hit. The record companies are the only real victims of the internet/Ipod/MP3 revolution. The musicians that are giving away their music are smart. In today’s culture famous musicians are rarely actually musicians, look at Britney Spears. Most times the music is not very important when it comes to a bands sales. A lot of the time its about people wanting to be into the music coulter and know a lot of different band names. I’m not in the least surprised that t-shirt sales are more lucrative than CDs. Everyone gets music from their friends for free, but to let everyone know they know and like that band they have to get their own T-shirt, and spend 60 for a concert ticket. The market has changed, while CD companies like Virgin are going under Apples Ipod and Itunes are flourishing. All computer companies that sell CD burners are doing well, the music industry isn’t dead it changed and the industry is refusing to adapt.
Well i don't think this article gives the group the credit they deserve. i can see the points it is making but in the end i just see five guys who care more about making the music then the money. as far as the death of recording, i would have to disagree. there will need to be records for sometime for mixing collecting, etc. i think they are definitly starting a new trend, but it is just the beginning.
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