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Posted on 10/13/2004 9:11:11 AM PDT by t_skoz
Given what I had written about them, I had no right to expect my lunch companions to be friendly. But apart from one fraught moment (of which more later), the spokesmen for the international music industry were perfectly amicable.
I had written several columns and editorials arguing that the internet had deprived the record companies of their purpose, that the bullying of teenagers who downloaded free music smacked of desperation and that the industry's only hope of survival was finding a new business model.
Determined to convince me that I was wrong were Jay Berman, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, John Kennedy, the entertainment lawyer and music executive who takes over leadership of the IFPI in January, and Barney Wragg of Universal Music International.
As we nibbled on sandwiches and take-away sushi at the London headquarters of the IFPI, I told its leaders what I thought their problem was. In the days when music was recorded on vinyl, cassette tape or compact disc, the record companies performed an indispensable service: manufacturing products and distributing them.
Now that consumers could get perfect copies of recordings over the internet, artists could reach their public directly. There was no need for an intermediary. If the music companies did not exist, would anyone think of inventing them?
Yes, my lunch companions insisted. Someone still had to discover and market stars. It had proved hard for novice performers to build careers on the internet without the aid of record companies. Mr. Kennedy said he had feared more artists would attempt to make their names over the web. "But careers are still made in the physical market place. The idea that we would have no role at all hasn't happened."
All right. So most artists still needed a music company to get started. But how could companies get consumers to pay for their music when millions of teenagers, and even their parents, saw nothing wrong with downloading it free of charge?
The IFPI's own figures showed how widespread internet piracy was. In France, 36 percent of people aged between 15 and 19 obtained music illegally. In the UK, 7.4 million internet users had downloaded music without paying. In Germany, the figure was 7.3 million.
I told the IFPI people that I fully accepted the music companies' moral and legal right to protect their copyright. What I contested was their ability to do so. With 800 million illegal music tracks on the web, how could the music business make a dent?
The industry's answer has been to sue the miscreants. As we spoke, the IFPI was preparing to launch 459 legal actions against European music pirates. I observed that this was not many, given how many pirates there were. Also, did not chasing youngsters through the courts make the industry look vindictive? It was at this point that my hitherto amiable hosts sucked hard on their teeth as if struggling to control their tempers.
"Look at how long it has taken us to plan these proceedings," Mr. Kennedy finally said, when he had settled back in his chair. "We are the nicest litigators in the world." The industry only pursued the most egregious offenders - the "major uploaders", who copied and distributed hundreds of files - and even then, it did so only after they ignored requests to desist.
Oh yes? What about the 12-year old American girl who was forced to hand over $2,000? "Could I point out to you that that particular 12-year old had a credit card, a broadband connection and thousands of illegal files?" Mr. Berman said.
Mr. Berman said the industry realized it could not wipe out all illegal downloading, just as it had failed to eliminate physical copying of cassettes and compact discs. What it wanted to get across was that downloading without paying was illegal and that there were lawful alternatives.
Was it not an indictment of the industry that it had taken an outsider, Steve Jobs, to create iTunes, the best-known of those legal alternatives? Mr. Wragg said that music companies were not best-placed to be retailers. Individual music companies' websites had not been successful, because they contained only that company's labels. People preferred to browse through a website that contained many companies' artists, just as they could in a record store.
I pointed out that in spite of the success of iTuunes and other legal sites, music sales were still falling. The best that the IFPI could say about the first half of 2004, was that they were falling more slowly. Didn't the industry have to come up with new ways of making money, such as promoting artists' concerts in return for a percentage of the profits?
Mr. Wragg said companies were increasingly doing so, but he added that the internet was in its infancy. New ways of doing business were still emerging. For example, South Koreans with personal weblogs wanted to offer a list of songs that visitors to their sites could listen to - and were prepared to pay a subscription to music companies to get them. (It takes all sorts.)
Mr. Wragg added that broadband providers used to imply in their advertising that the ability to download music illegally was one of the perks of the service. Broadband prices had now fallen, however, and providers, looking for new sources of revenues themselves, were asking music companies for the right to market legal music sites to their subscribers.
Did our 90-minute chat convince me? Partly. The industry certainly realizes that it was caught napping by the internet. It is hoping that legal downloading will become popular enough to sustain a profitable industry, even if revenues remain sluggish. Music executives will continue to search for new ways of pursuing those who threaten their profits. That will not make them any more popular, but, for all my lunch companions' civility, I do not think popularity is what they are after.
michael.skapinker@ft.com
The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor is part of this network... hmm it's called something like "See A Show / Buy A Show" or something like that.. basically they record the show and then burn CD's. I got a show that Scott Morgan's Powertrane played in July for $5 after the show!
There are other companies that do this, such as Instant Live, which is the first one that comes to mind. Superdrag put out a double-live CD on Instant Live that was really really good.
Louis Armstrong's performances made him legendary and improved his performance as well as keeping him healthy (a workout for his lungs).
Yet The Darkness is brought over to fill the "metal" niche.
The Hellacopters could kick The Darkness' ass!
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I read a great interview with Alice Cooper where he was surprised that the media did not see the Darkness as the outright joke that they are.
The Hellicopters are a "real deal" rock and roll band, no arguments from me. I've seen them a couple of times.
They will never get nearly the exposure although they could fit into many a hard rock station's playlist.
Maybe a band like that would make it too difficult for all of the industry's "wannabe" bands to be played anymore.
I fully believe this is why Americans only see bastardized edits of Hong Kong action films. When Americans see the incredible stuntwork in those films, they would never sit through another Lethal Weapon sequel or an American Jackie Chan film again.
It is much easier for Big Media if they can keep the threshold of expectation low.
Shows what you know about the music business. They probably prorated it to the "promotional expense" accounts of the three acts they talked about the most.
Real musicians will play because they have a need to express themselves.
Louis Armstrong may have just been the "house band" at brothels. There would still be some good music to seek out and hear live.
I don't know why so much of America thinks that it has to be "on the radio/MTV/magazine cover" to be good.
Have roughly the same number of LP's myself...plus about 400 45's...
Any specialty? I've got a wide range, lots of early R&R, classic rock and vocal standards.
Fun hobby!
"It is much easier for Big Media if they can keep the threshold of expectation low"
This was Scott Morgan's opinion, pretty much in a nut shell... I have to agree.
I think I have less than 150 45's... I have a ton of Motown 45's!
I have a lot of rock & roll records, from the 60's to today, but I also have country, jazz, blues, swing, some folk, and even a few deathmetal records.
I have a serious amount of classical records as well. I'm a tattooed rocker, but I have this weird thing with collecting classical music on vinyl!
Cool...
I have an old Seeburg G in my basement (jukebox) that I rotate my 45 collection on. Gotta keep the dust off of em'!
A long time ago, I used to live in North Tonawanda (near Buffalo) New York, home of Wurlitzer jukeboxes... someday when I hit the $1m+ lotto jackpot, I'm gonna buy one of those oldschool jukeboxes !!!
The Wurly's are nice...and can be found at fairly resonable prices, if you do a little searching.
I paid a modest $2500 for my machine - keep in mind that it's 50 years old and in excellent shape/working condition. Some of the boxes out there need a full restoration (lotsa $$$!), and then there are the reproductions (which I think Wurlitzer still makes with the 1015 "One More Time" Bubbler juke.
Sorry for the off-subject rambling:-)
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