Tag Archives: future of music

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Ian Rogers Talks to the Music Biz

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Ian Rogers, who helped found Nullsoft, creators of Winamp, and moved on to Grand Royal, where he shepherded the Beastie Boys onto the internet, is now General Manager of Yahoo Music. He was invited to talk to the music industry at their big convention in Aspen in December, and now he’s got his presentation, Talking To The Music Industry Again, The Aspen Live Conference online:

Our kids are going to watch exactly what they want to watch, not necessarily what’s marketed to them. I understand this is threatening to large media businesses which are accustomed to owning the means of distribution, but I am certain it’s very good for our kids and for culture writ large. We’re all in the same business now, the business of making things people really love.

Like David Byrne, Rogers is optimistic. How about you? How are you feeling about the future of music?

Previously: Yahoo Lyrics Database (2007); Yahoo selling DRM-free MP3s (2006).

Shorties

Saul Williams Update: The Numbers

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The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!We previously posted about how Saul Williams and Trent Reznor were collaborating on a project that was one-upping Radiohead. As a fan of Saul Williams, I had been excited about this idea, happily paid $5, and downloaded the 320kbps MP3 version of the album.

A couple months having passed, Reznor now offers up some Saul Williams follow-up and facts:

As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay. […]

If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul’s last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K – five times as many – sought out this new record, that’s great – right?

I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct – that most of the people that chose to download Saul’s record came from his or my own fan-base – is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage – primarily from fans – seems disheartening.

Little media coverage? Oh really?

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David Byrne: Survival Strategies for Musicians

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David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars:

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

Great article from Wired that delves into six different music distribution models that an artist can choose from today, ranging from the “360/equity” deal where the label essentially owns the brand to the total DIY self-distribution plan like Radiohead did with the initial round of In Rainbows. “Of course, not everyone is as smart as those nerdy Radiohead boys,” admits the former Talking Head. “Pete Doherty probably should not be handed the steering wheel.”

MP3: David Byrne – “Ex Guru” (Fiery Furnaces interpretation) from Plum.

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Freakonomics Quorum on the Future of the Music Industry

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What’s the Future of the Music Industry? A Freakonomics Quorum:

As has been widely reported, sales are down. According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales fell 18 percent between 2000 and 2006, after accounting for paid digital downloads from online stores like iTunes. While these numbers are not good, other industries have experienced similar downturns. For example, new car sales are down 22 percent for U.S. automakers.

It is important to remember that sales downturns are not atypical in the music business, and that investors remain interested in selling records. The current situation closely mirrors the post-disco bust in the early 1980s. Specifically, real revenues fell by the same percentage during the years 1979 to 1985 and 1999 to 2006. The record industry also continues to generate profits and attract interest from investors. For example, a private equity firm just last month completed a ₤3 billion takeover of EMI, and an investment group purchased the Warner Music Group in 2004 for $2.6 billion.

Facts, schmacts. Facts can be used to prove anything that is even remotely true…

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Articles

This B[r]and Is Brought To You By…

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Enjoy DystopiaDuring a trip to Las Vegas last week I saw one of those things that is both initially startling and subsequently blindingly obvious. The Luxor hotel and casino, a massive, shining black pyramid on the Strip (who’d want to stay in such a funerary structure outside someone with an interest in the novels of Ann Rice and was hoping to get lucky?), had on one of the faces of the 350-foot high structure, an Absolut vodka ad. At first it seemed odd that the MGM Mirage people would give up that space for an ad. It sort of seemed a bit tacky. But then I realized where I was.

And it led to the idea: In the future all surfaces will be advertising.

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Articles

The Cost of Money

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Whitby Busker - by Dave-FWhat is puzzling is how those who decide to pursue music as a full-time endeavor will be able to support themselves in any way that would allow them to have a roof over their heads that won’t be corrugated and to eat things that don’t contain dodgy ingredients from China. Certainly, there is a bell-shaped curve as regard the amount of money that can be made as a musician. This ranges from those who are generating busker-like incomes to, say, the Rolling Stones. There is, perforce, the bigger middle.

But now the economies have changed and are changing.

With Radiohead and the Charlatans announcing that they’re going to an alternative income-sourcing model for their latest releases by putting them online for download (the former asking for a pittance at a minimum; the latter going out there with whatever the downloader deems fit), does this portend a situation wherein there will be sustainable full-time musicians or will this become the purview of, say, hobbyists?

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Spoon + Radiohead vs. RIAA + [Bad] Bands

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Greg Kot examines how Radiohead’s ‘customer is always right’ approach contrasts with music industry’s hardball tactics, and gets a fine quote from indie rock’s poster boy:

“I think what will happen is a lot of people will download the album for free,” says Spoon singer-guitarist Britt Daniel, “but when it goes on sale, I bet it’ll still be No. 1 [on the album chart]. The bands who get hurt by free file-sharing are [bad] bands. The good bands are going to do fine. Ten years ago, a label could say, ‘Hey, kids, buy this,’ and there was no way to judge if it was any good or not. You’d hear a song on radio or MTV, and that was it. You’d spend $15 for a CD with one good song on it. Now the Internet has made it easier for people to be discerning and decide what they want to pay for.”

Anyone got a guess as to what word Daniel actually used that Kot had to replace with “[bad]” for suitable publication in a family newspaper?

Articles, Shorties

New Radiohead Album, Business Model

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Enter...How much would you pay to hear the new Radiohead album before it is “released”? Because, no, really, Radiohead wants you to set your own price. On October 10, you’ll be able to download In Rainbows from the band’s website for a cost of your choosing. So “x” out of Soulseek and give the band at least a penny; even if you don’t love ’em, isn’t one cent worth seeing an archaic business model crumble?

The album, self-released, will drop in tangible forms “before or on December 3.” You can pre-order a “discbox” which includes the CD and LP versions; a bonus CD of new songs, digital photos and artwork; and will come encased in a hard book. They’re not playin’ around. Pre-orders also include access to the digital download, so you’ll already know all the words by the time you’re pouring over images of crazy bears. The most vanilla of you could just wait until the regular CD comes out sometime early ’08.

There’s just so much to appreciate here. By releasing the album only through their website, they control it in all aspects. Instead of announcing a release date months down the road, only to have the album leak anyway, the band will get at least some cash out of the ‘net hounds. And the notoriously loyal Radiohead fanbase will still pre-order the loaded deluxe package. Meanwhile, fans who weren’t expecting a new album until at least next year only have to wait nine more days.

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Rick Rubin: The Music Man

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Glorious Noise reads the 8,000-word New York Times magazine feature on Rick Rubin so you don’t have to.

“The most important thing we have to do now is get the art right. So many of the decisions at these companies have not been about the music. They sign artists for the wrong reasons — because they think somebody else wants them or if they need to have a record out by a certain date. That old way of doing things is obsolete, but luckily, fear is making the record companies less arrogant. They’re more open to ideas. So, what’s important now is to find music that’s timeless.”

Actually, you should still read it. It’s good.

The rest of the good quotes after the jump…

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Stars Discuss Early Digital Release

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Even before Arts & Crafts sent out promo copies of the new Stars album to the media, they made it available for download from their digital store. Indie-Pop Band Stars Want You To Steal Their New LP:

“I stole my friend Leslie Feist’s album off the Internet because I was too lazy to go down to the office and pick it up. It’s that easy to steal music off the Internet. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I also think there are people who love the band and genuinely want to support the band and have 10 bucks to spare. If you don’t give people the option at least to buy a record, then you can’t blame them for stealing it.”

This clearly makes a lot of sense. But will the strategy backfire? Coolfer expects “practically no press” on the album because of this.

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