I’m going to have a go at being topical. Fancy that.
I was driving into work this morning thinking about how record labels can try and resurrect their shipwreck, blissfully unaware of the Pirate Bay storm approaching (pun intended). The thoughts had stemmed from a post that Guy had written talking about how The Streets (word to your mother – hat tip to Tim) were planning on giving away free tracks on Twitter. I’d made a comment on Guy’s post about live sales outgrowing record sales or something like that.
So anyway I was thinking about the whole industry and how it’ll all WIN or FAIL based on a few things… Here’s an attempt to explain what I think.
Labels
Labels need to offer more than the standard single/album. Now the chart has loosened its rules on singles and what you can and cannot include in the CD, labels need to get smart and start adding value. Music simply isn’t about singles and albums, it’s about the whole experience, man. Why don’t labels employ similar tactics to fancy advertisers and marketers? Sell albums that come in huge boxes filled with information, stickers, posters, access codes to secret sites, interview videos on USBs, rare tracks, live footage, branded memorabilia, booklets, additional artwork, karaoke versions, stripped down versions, remixes? You could probably charge £30 per box! Just add some value to the album and then see how album sales do. You can’t download added value from Pirate Bay – well, not in one go anyway.
Shops
Record shops are going to have to face facts; the only people that will remain record buyers are the ones that spend hours in little indie shops trawling through 70s bluegrass and obscure German techno. That is, unless labels get smart. I would imagine the obligatory five year cycle for vinyl being cool will probably help too – I still love vinyl, it’s a sound thing, but I can understand why people have moved on.
Bands
This is a great time for a band to start. They can pretty much control everything these days; they can market themselves, do their own PR, sell their own records, sort their own live dates, network with promoters… Everything! The best thing about the current music situation is that bands will make music for music, not for fame or money, and that’s the best thing that could happen for music.
Consumers
Consumers, from now on, will always win. Music hasn’t always been paid for, and just because some quirky fellas decided a while back that they’d sell sounds doesn’t mean it’ll always be that way. Creativity has always been in battle with business, and probably always will be. That’s why young bands talk about ‘not selling out the man’ and then a month later sign to EMI.
Piracy isn’t cool, but it does happen. Any music fan worth their salt probably downloads an album to see if they like it and then if they do they buy it in the shops the next day.
Now, I’m sure I’ve probably said some stupid things, I don’t work in the music industry, I’m not in a band (the world is missing out there) and I’ve never worked in a record shop, but I have collected music obsessively since buying my first Blur album. I love music, and love most of it (the exceptions being; comedy music, bad R’n’B, ‘donk’, gangsta rap and Blink 182).
Taking into consideration the fact that I’m only one quarter of the wheel, I’d like to hear what David Moynihan, Sebastian Mysko, Matt Churchill and Sue Keogh.
#Update#
Matt has stood up and declared his allegiance to music. I was really interested to see what Matt would say because he’s a musician as well as a social media Jedi.