Posted on 08/23/2004 12:17:34 PM PDT by Radix
Three judges on a federal appeals court in California made it official last week: The traditional recorded music business is doomed.
Yes, there's still the US Supreme Court, one last way station on the road to the abyss. But it's unlikely that those nine justices will undo the work of their West Coast colleagues. Last week's ruling in the Grokster case was lucid, logical, and unanimous. Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Grokster, Kazaa, LimeWire, and all the rest, used by millions worldwide to exchange pirated copies of music and movies, do not violate federal copyright law. The users of these programs may face prosecution for swiping the files. But the makers of the software are in the clear.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The "music industry" no longer adds any value to the supply chain. Anyone can burn her own CD, and anyone can distribute her own CD today.
30 years ago, you needed a company behind you to do those things.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
I'm curious....how much in royalties does an artist get for, say, an oldie that goes back 30-40 years and sells an occasional copy? Anybody?
oh well there hasn't been any good music since "air supply"
In short, South, what the music industry does is to play the role (that all managers play) of information screening: rightly or wrongly, they screen out (usually) terrible "talent," and, usually, "find" the good talent. Admittedly this is not true in all cases. Nor is it true in publishing (see Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October"). But if you had to determine, on your own, out of ZILLIONS of songs "out there" on the net, what stuff you liked, you would listen from now til doomsday before you found the songs you liked.
They do miss it, a lot, but they also "get it" a lot, and I think the demise of the major labels will remove one TYPE of quality control that will hurt us all.
Exactly. They are trying to preserve a dinosaur of a manufacturing and distribution industry when they should be developing online music shops and ways to prevent unauthorized copying and sharing.
I agree, but the Power of the industry is still daunting. Just as an example, think about how "American Idol" just creates a recording star based on the folks watching and voting. I agree, though, more and more I expect to see band's selling directly to fans via the web, and no longer paying a cut to "the Industry".
FReegards...MUD
Nowadays, the record company is nothing more than a partner of the broadcast radio company -- which is nothing more than the marketing tool of its sister record company. There was an article here on FR about a month ago, in which it was pointed out that the decline in the record industry is now being followed by a decline in the broadcast radio industry.
This can't come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I suspect that one of the reasons for the growth in talk radio over the last 15 years is that FM music radio stations all seem to sound the same.
In general, depending on the contract, the band as a whole gets between 50 cents and a buck for each CD sold. That's the entire band, not each member, so an 11 piece band like Oingo Boingo the guys each will get between a nickle and a dime, and of course that will vary depending on how the band arranged their cuts, song writers will probably get more than individual members of the horn section.
For the artist the source of money has always been the tour where artists get between 25 and 50% of the gate.
It's a convoluted business. You can get a pretty good idea of it at http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties.htm
I don't know that the anti-pirating measures are even the way to go.
The existing *business model* for the music industry is obsolete. The Music Industry itself is no longer the only way for a fledgling band to produce, manufacture, and distribute music.
In the past, the Music Industry used that monopoly on the manufacturing and distribution of CD's to justify its role as "filter" of talent and product.
As LS points out, that filter is now gone. The Music Industry is now obsolete. It's business model no longer adds value to the supply chain.
It may be that in the future, that the new Music Industry operates like venture capitalists...funding bands at their startup and then getting a piece of the action from concerts and online song sales and uses in ads.
Or it may be that music goes the way of broadcast radio and TV, intermixing ads in with the entertainment. If that's the case, then you don't *want* limits on copying the music.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Sorry, but they have been missing it for years. I haven't heard anything worth buying in a long time. Oh, there's an occasional CD that I might like -- but 95% is pure garbage. The assumption of the music industry is that people stop listening to music (and BUYING it) when they turn 30.
?
American Idol has a better business model than does the existing Music Industry. American Idol has its viewers paying to phone in votes, and it has its advertisers paying to show their ads during the entertainment, etc.
So American Idol doesn't have to control the distribution of content (e.g. CD's) or of the manufacturing of content (e.g. CD's). In fact, the more people who watch American Idol for "free," the more money that American Idol makes.
The Music Industry, however, has an outdated business model. It no longer adds value to the supply chain. People aren't willing to pay to have their options pre-filtered by Music Industry execs.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
No doubt, file-sharing in the late '90s and early '00s put a dent in sales, but there have been numerous studies that say file-sharing has actually helped sales.
Me burning a CD is no different than putting my favorite songs on a cassette tape. Get over it, RIAA!
I have no sympathy for the major record companies (and I work in the industry). Because they refused to change with the times and promote quality artists, rather than shoving pathetic music down our throats, it's come back to haunt them. Now they think they can bully us (with RIAA's lawsuits).
I can buy movies now for $3 a piece, but I can't find even old music for less than $9 a CD. There is price rigging going on somewhere.
Are they already NOT advertising? I don't buy music CDs (except for mostly Christian rock) but the few "dance" tracks that I have purchased to mix for my wife's spinning/aerobics classes have advertising in them, I think!
Good point -- and here's why there is general failure: Many stations now use the automation to play the music, and they RARELY if ever identify a song. I heard the Winona Judd cover of the Foreigner song "I Want To Know What Love Is" at least a dozen times before I could even find out who was singing it. That doesn't speak well of the broadcast media giants that own all the stations here in Raleigh. What a joke!
The music industry will not die, but it will change. If I knew how that will happen I would get rich, but industries do change. Control may shift to some kind of organization that does not currently exist, but the functions you speak about will continue.
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