|
Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Since its inception, the Internet
has spawned a lot of new business.
The multi-billion dollar success of
Google is evidence of the entrepreneurial
power the Internet's global
scope provides. But the Internet has
also felled some giants along the way
- most notably the mighty Goliath of
America's record industry.
Once a symbol of corporate greed
and the ease with which the bottom
line can ruin a band, the record industry
has been hobbled by the rise
of fi le sharing, iTunes and - thanks to
social networking sites - the ability of
bands to market themselves.
Record company executives are
now on the outside looking in, wondering
how they can compete in a
technological age that has literally
passed them by.
According to Lynn Hirschberg,
in the New York Times Magazine, Columbia
Records is staking its future on
Rick Rubin. Rubin, who Sony recently
hired as co-president of Columbia to
revitalize the struggling music division,
is the legendary progenitor of the
Def Jam label. He is also responsible
for producing hit records by some of
the biggest stars of the last 30 years
including the Beastie Boys, Neil Diamond,
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny
Cash and Jay-Z, to name a few.
Rubin's main role at Columbia is
to fi nd and produce new talent - talent
that will, above all else, sell. But
these days, talent is not the problem.
Even if a label discovers new talent
and records or a Grammy-award-winning
album, there is no guarantee the
effort will be worth it. With compact
disc sales down, iTunes and other subscription-
based services are diverting
revenue from labels and millions of
people with an Internet connection
and the will and knowledge to do so
are downloading their music for free.
"Columbia is stuck in the dark
ages," Rubin told Hirschberg. "I have
great confi dence that we will have the
best record company in the industry,
but the reality is, in today's world, we
might have the best dinosaur. Until a
new model is agreed upon and rolling,
we can be the best at the existing paradigm,
but until the paradigm shifts, it's
going to be a declining business."
Like daily newspapers, which
have found themselves undermined
by online sites and the 24-hour news
cycle, the record industry is at a crossroads.
It can either radically revamp
the way it produces and delivers its
product - in essence making music
so cheap and accessible that consumers
won't want to steal it - or it can
slowly slip into oblivion.
Making music cheap might deter
some would-be thieves, but the bottom
line is that somewhere, somehow,
the latest hit can always be had
for nothing.
And the problem of fi le sharing
isn't likely to go away either. Unlike illegal
online gambling sites, which involve
fi nancial transactions that can
be traced through banks, fi le sharing
sites are typically set up by anonymous
administrators and may consist
of nothing more than a bank of servers
in a basement in Bangladesh. Not
to mention the fact that users - the
real culprits - are millions strong and
just as anonymous.
But don't worry - none of this
will ever affect your favorite band.
Advancing technology has made
it easy for bands to record, produce,
market and distribute their music -
all without ever talking to a corporate
big wig. Besides, bands have traditionally
made most of their money from
merchandise and touring, areas that
record companies have traditionally
avoided. Columbia has kicked around
the idea of getting their artists to give
Columbia 50 percent of their touring,
merchandise and online revenue, according
to Hirschberg, but it's hard to
picture any band agreeing to a deal
like that, especially bands with established
popular appeal.
The record industry is on the
ropes. It's the fi nal round and the
fi ght doesn't look fair. Perhaps some
of us will look back some day and
wax sentimental, bringing out from a
dusty box those plastic discs and cassettes
- bought from a store no longer
in business - that introduced us to
good music in the fi rst place. But for
those born this side of the digital divide
- forever bathed in the pale glow
of their computer monitors - the loss
of this tangible side of tune-making
will most likely elicit no tears.
|
|
|
