I am starting to notice that this blog is becoming a cry out to the music industry. Oh well…After reading about the “Total Music” initiative from Universal’s CEO I finally saw how stupid old media can be(and I though Ringles were as stupid as it gets). It’s seems the record labels are a bunch of dumb ass MBAs without a clue on what consumers really want (and I am sure they pirate music too).
Basically Universal is betting against Moore’s Law since they want to increase music playing product price by roughly $90 bucks. So I guess as component costs go down, content goes up? It would make sense if there weren’t easy ways to obtain music, but sadly for the labels, there are. TechCrunch put it really nicely in a picture:
What would a 19 year old college student choose? There’s the $149 4GB iPod nano, with unlimited BitTorrent music or a $239 “Totoal Music” 4GB Zune.
It doesn’t matter what device we are talking about, simply put: It’s Stupid!
The sliding sales faced by the music industry is kind of a fun one. I often challenge myself to think outside the box to resolve the problem and maybe even make a buck out of it. But after this Total Music idea it all became clear. I don’t think labels are going to find a middle ground and settle, they’re job is simply going to change. They are going to go from being begged by artist to take them, to actually be the beggars. The are going to become more like managers and event organizers rather than distributers. Artists will produce and distribute their own music (free or paid).
The music labels will squeeze the few artist they currently have and can get their hands on for the next couple of years, but the numbers will go down. And someday artist will simply go solo. Most money will come from concerts, events and other premium offerings that can’t be replicated digitally(yet). You will no longer need to be good with a guitar, but have a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit to make it in the music industry.
John Grubber points out that the article from Businessweek makes Doug Morris (the idiot CEO) seem like a genius. Shame on you Businessweek….that’s why I liked Business 2.0 better(and even that’s dead now).