Words By MZ
The music industry as we know it is coming to an end.
Slowly but surely the physical distribution system (Vinyl, Cassette, & CD’s) is moving toward digital distribution. As CD sales continue to fall year after year, even the staunchest supporters of the industry status quo are beginning to see the end is near. The meteor is headed toward the dinosaurs and they have two choices: adapt and evolve or become extinct. After years of fighting change, rappers are beginning to warm to the idea of music being distributed digitally. DMX, Joe Budden, & Lil Wayne have all secured deals for their music to be sold online. Soulja Boy used Myspace and YouTube to create a buzz before obtaining his deal. And Jay-Z, two months removed from refusing iTunes the right to sell his songs from American Gangster individually, is rumored to be starting a digital record label with Apple.
Up-and-coming artists looking to break in are now forced to find their way in an uncertain environment. Everyone is speculating what will happen in with this new business model, but few are actually giving solutions and offering suggestions on what to do. One person offering a solution is Andrew Dubber, a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University in the UK. He also runs the website New Music Strategies, which in his words: “… is a website devoted to helping small-medium music businesses and independent artists use new internet technologies and strategies in order to make money and thrive in the new environment.”
He has also written an e-book entitled “20 Things You Must Know About Music Online,” which is a collection of posts that first appeared on his website. The book can be downloaded for free or purchased from his website. This 96-page book is a good read for anyone pursuing a career as an artist or interested in the evolving face of the industry period. It is easy to follow and chock-full of great advice. More importantly, it just produced in June of 2007 so the information is relevant. After reading the book, any artist would do their self a favor by adding his website to their favorites list because he continually updates his site like it was a blog.
For more information, visit newmusicstrategies.com.
U.S. Album Sales Down, Digital Sales Up [Wired]
“British music industry boosted by online sales” [ZDNet]
David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars [Wired]
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ima have to grab that
good looks tss crew
Deuces, and good morning all, who the fuck is awake right now? I’m not.
Digital my ass! Look, cd’s ain’t going nowhere ya heard? The sales may go down but why would a person in their right mind pay for a fucking digital download of low-resolution music when they can download it for free. Regardless of what these “business gurus” think there will always be people who like to have a tangible product with artwork that they can own, not a fucking low-resolution zip-file for $3.99
^ you know, I held on to tapes for THE LONGEST time, swearing never to buy CDs.
As much as I agree that diehard music fans & packrats across the globe won’t up & migrate to becoming totally digitally minded, the buying public will eventually.
Last week, I dump a shitload of cds & dvds because I didn’t need them anymore. Why? Well, I’m about to move and why would i take up storage space with hundreds of cds & dvds, that I can just as easily store on a hard drive or iPod and then burn whenever I really needed a hard physical copy.
I love album artwork too but I think there’s a change a’coming yo.
I believe one day internet will be free (wi-fi country) and i believe that file sharing will be limited not to far from how if you buy a song off itunes it can only be shared with 5 computers. You never know though. I wouldnt underestimate the computer wizards out here now a days. If they can bring me almost the entire final season of “The Wire” before the first episode drops, Im sure a few mp3s shouldnt be a problem.
Either way sometimes it seems that the world of media is headed in a downward spiral due to file sharing and piracy. The art isnt the problem and doesnt appear to be effected yet much (with the exception of artists goin a lil cheaper on production perhaps due to bootlegging cutting into their profits) but distribution has changed dramatically and I don’t see it going back to the way it was. Good bye cocoanuts & Bestbuy cd departments. Hello iTunes…..
What I see happening is cd’s being offered for “a limited time only”, and digital downloads becoming the norm. Case in point the recent BlackMilk “Caltroit” project, it was offered as a digital download for months until BlackMilk decided to make it available in physical copy for a limited time (I own a copy). Gotty, how could you toss your collection!!! I hope those were burnt copies and not originals man, my heart is weeping right now!!!
Good read. The meteor is coming for sure.
You can always tell by looking at the bootleg market, where in NYC 2 years ago a bootleg CD would go for $10.
Now its down to 2 for $5. All the while, the RIAA is trying to say bootleg CD’s are worse copies than the original
(isn’t it all digital?)
Soon a bootlegger willl be on the corner with a laptop burning custom CD’s with whatever songs you want for $3.
It’s all about pricepoint.
The Russian music sites had it right (allmp3.com):
25 cents per song. $2 for the whole album With those prices, its less of a hassle using rapidshare (illegal) or Itunes (legal)
To further prove the point, Napster turned a profit last year.and Jayz managed to sell 11,000 downloads of his album WITHOUT Apple.
When he announces his deal at MacWorld next week, the hiphop industry will take notice and change., and the dinosaurs walking around with a cd booklets, and shuffling through them in your cars will become extinct.
In 2 years, CD’s will only be good to store data on.
Make way for the zipfile, pdf with artwork with links to an artist website, their TSS interview and youtube video.
Fresh for 2008!, you suckas!
Flea
I’m one of those people too, but times are changing. I swore I would never buy digital music and I still do unless something changes. I’d be willing to do it if they still sold me the cover art/booklet as well ($8-$10). That’s all we’re really paying for nowaday anyway.
yeah the thing is recently i downloaded the ghostface album off this website… swearing i would buy it… i go to zavvi (uk mans whats up) get the case, buy it along with other tings… take it home to find some one had stolen the disc… haha.. so i already had the music and all i was really buying was the case to begin with… but the whole situation stinks of irony… but surely if artist drops an album so dope that even if you download them you’d still get it eventually… i still buy old reggie (not reggae) albums and got it was written the other day too
oh and the american gangster album with ghostface instrumentals kills shit… could be mixed better but no hook, ignorant shit got improved the fuck up
this is so nescessary to be up on… the game is going to change. And making a living is going to be put into perspective. Maybe this can get the artists back.
Another good read about the same subject is Matt Mason new book called “The Pirate’s Dilemma”. It’s available for $16.50 on Amazon right now:
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Dilemma-Culture-Reinventing-Capitalism/dp/1416532188/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199729726&sr=1-1
One.
Can’t stop the hustle, and you can’t beat the ease of digital storage, but the only thing I worry about is the declining sound quality of the music.
not much to say but that I agree with Flea and Gotty. Roc-a-apple coming soon…
Know The Ledge – word, son!
I’m all for downloads and all, but I ain’t about to give up my cds for 128 to 160 kbps shitty-quality files with minimal base and even worse treble. I guess the reason I’m so adamant on the subject is that I’m a techno-geek and have a strong tech background, plus I’ve been listening to music so long I can distinguish between truly great sound and fucking abyssmal sound quality. Unless it’s 320 kbps I don’t wanna fucking hear it and won’t even download it, I’m too used to hearing only the best. My ears are spoiled man!
Roc a apple WTF is that anything like the short live roc box
^ ^ I agree w/ you Flea, but we’re dinosaurs in the regard. It’s kinda sad to think that the average consumer is probably thinking less about the sound on their ipod, and more about what color of their ipod is.
There’s no doubt that we live in a digital era but I think that the music industry will make the same mistake it did in the early 90′s when they moved to the CD format and ditched vinyl.
I just think that digital downloads purchases should be a strong option because there are still some like me who prefer
owning the physical object but I would be down to purchase individual tracks of artists that I like but wouldn’t listen to their whole album.
Cd’s should still be sold in stores but on limited edition basis and vinyl ep’s should be re-introduced as well on an even more limited edition.
As consumers,we should have alternatives not be forced in a format and everyone will win.
@ Robert D: That’s what I’m talking about, actual CHOICE. Just because some punk-ass 15 year-old doesn’t like cds and loves his fucking i-pod, I’m supposed to get fucked over? No way!!!
@ One Eye: That’s the problem, people get sucked into marketing hype and lose their concept of quality. One of my idiot friends asked me why I don’t listen to my music on the PC instead of owning a $2,500 home theater system. I turned it on and played him some music, he was blown away. I said that’s why.
Flea,
Couldn’t agree more…It’s all good to listen to mp3 files for the convenience on a Ipod or other mp3 player but listening to music on a very good system is incredible.
How many times,I didn’t feel a track listening to my Creative player then go to a club with a very good soundsystem and totally change my mind on that same track.
Yes,it’s all about choice for the consumers,we all deserve that!!
Right on to what Robert D sayin! Evrybody is different. If u wanna digitize do it but If homie wants vinyl he should have that choice and in a real capitalist society some one will supply homie’s demand.
I got moved to the digital age by some punk breaking in my house and still all my cds…so all i got left is like 5 cds and my ipod…Lupe-Food & liquor & The Cool, T.I. Urban legand choped and screwed, Bob marely rastaman vibration, & Ghostface supreme clientele…But i agree wit FLEA: HIPHOPFLEA AKA B-BOY FLEA i need something tangable and i like reading the credits and such…maybe they will start puttin out zip drives of the albums with art work included or somethin cuz there r alot of cd players with the usb plugin…but i guess we shall c…
@ B. Payton…you got the entire final season of The Wire?? LOL…I’m missing eps 3 & $…On the real, though…CD’s & DVD’s do deteriorate over time – especially the cheap shits that we tend to burn to…Hard drives are prone to crashes and ultimately, (significant) data loss – I’m a prime example. I lost all of the music that dropped from January to June 2007…I’m still replacing stuff. It was tragic.
anyone got the “Brown Album” Jay Z remixed by Kev Brown?