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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Free Music Model part II

You know how last post I promised to talk about the free model from the artist point of view?  I lied.
I did some thinkin'.  And decided I had totally forgotten an integral part of the whole.. uh... dealy.  Idk.  The Labels!!!  The go-between from the artist to the distributor!

THE LABELS
THESE are the guys you gotta convince.  These are the guys keeping the music stores alive.  Now that sounds evil doesn't it?  Wanting to take down the guys keeping the stores alive?  And it is.  You don't wanna alienate the labels.  Now I don't profess to know very much about the reaction of the labels.  So I would actually like to do a bit of crowd-sourcing!  Isn't that great!

I will offer these views:
- Labels offer security and stability to bands, who in turn are contractually obligated to the label.  This sort of symbiosis means that the labels have the most power when it comes to distribution

- At least from what I can see, labels don't generally care where the revenue comes from.  They seemed perfectly fine with the switch from CD to digital, as long as the money keeps rolling in.  For this reason, I am sure most major labels would be open to a game change if it meant they kept their profitability (and maybe gained more control over releases?)

Insight please.

7 comments:

  1. It's all about the all mighty dollar. When digital piracy became rampant, labels went insane. Now, it's a bit easier to police, but a lot of labels don't care anymore. They know piracy is going to happen.

    The biggest money maker is still the concerts. Albums do ok, but you can't pirate concert tickets. Or tshirts. Concerts sell albums. Whether it be at the 808 club, or the Staples center, a live show will make the labels a LOT of money.

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  2. So you think if labels can be convinced to allocate more resources to concerts etc., they would be open to a free music model?

    Makes sense to me.

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  3. This is not a problem, nice post

    + followed:)

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  4. I don't think the labels are progressive enough in their thinking to accept any real game changes.

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  5. What? you lied on the internet? how dare you!! lol

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  6. This is an industry I know absolutely nothing about, but I've got a friend in it that I wouldn't mind helping out if I could. Staying tuned for more info!!

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