Can we decide if the music industry is booming or on the decline, please?
Reading through the oceans of music industry blogs and through forests of tweets everyday about the music industry (read: across the board - live, distribution, marketing, online, merchandise, royalties etc), you’d be forgiven for being confused. 
Now, it seems this way to me. I could be wrong, but I am exposed to a lot of writers’ opinions on the internet, so I feel I have read a lot of these blog posts/tweets and have seen a trend here.
There are two parties/factions - those who believe that the sky is falling and those who believe that the sky is the limit.
I found these words in an article at Techdirt about Rhodri Marsden saying that there is no new business model for the music industry to adopt and that none of them work. Mike Masnick wrote this:
Every single aspect of the business is way up — except for the part that’s about selling plastic discs. The plastic discs with music on them business is in decline, but that’s not “the music business.”
It seems to me that the two factions could be split up in the following way as well. Sky is falling = old school music industry thought vs Sky is the limit = new school/digital/web 2.0 thought/business model.
Now, you might say that this is a very simplistic way of thinking about the whole system, but the divide really does seem to sit there.
The biggest example of this is the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger in the United States. The entire merger is currently being debated in the US senate, due to the fact that the company (and it’s subsidiary re-sellers) will effectively create a monopoly on the concert ticket market and drive ticket sales up, in a time of financial hardship. This ticketing system only benefits large-scale acts whose stadium gigs’ tickets are hot commodities and will be re-sold. Through Ticketmaster’s secondary companies. At higher prices. I saw an article recently that was basically about how house shows are becoming a much more viable option for independent and smaller touring artists. These shows are great, but in today’s industry, when an artist can self-promote, can manage themselves, can self-record, why can they not book shows at quality venues and ticket them through a reputable company without someone exploiting that to the nth degree through practices like re-selling and increasing prices (and artists not seeing a cent of the increased price)?
And then, have artists come on board and sing their praises after Bruce Springsteen criticises them? The artists all rushing to the “aid” of the company are all agents of the old school too. Artists who have failed to disclose that they have relationships/interests in the company. Artists who have seen commercial success during the CD/MTV era (read: the 80’s and 90’s). From HypeBot:
Eddie Van Halen, Seal, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and the four members of the band Journey have signed individual letters supporting the merger. Each is managed or co-managed by Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff and his Front Line Management. Azoff is also slated to hold one of the top three positions in the new merged company.
This type of large company, major labels, management houses and organisations are all now the ones who are crying foul at the fact that their CD sales are drying up and their profit margins are dwindling. These are the sky is falling people.
The web 2.0 people are the sky is the limit people. They are the hunters, the ones who are the early adopters of new technology, the ones who take up on the new opportunities as they come up.
After coming back from a coffee meeting with Dave Carter, a Lecturer in Music Technology from Griffith University this afternoon, I am reminded moreso of the divide between these sky is falling people and the sky is the limit people.
Dave’s experience is from his travel and works within the music sector all over the world. Just listening to him talk about the way that different countries approach the piracy/distribution/mediums was fascinating. Definitely a case of a Sky is the limit person.
We believe that the music industry is booming. There is so much room for improvement, but it’s certainly not the picture of doom and gloom stated by some. Let’s get on with finding ways of benefitting everyone!
March 16th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
There must be still some serious money to be made in the music industry. if Major labels are shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for Music Videos and Merchandise and web design and marketing they must be confident that the market still exists for consumers rather than limewire downloaders, to recoup their investments. I know myself as a “nobody-trying-to-be-somebody in this industry, it is very very expensive to even get heard or anyone to care about your craft. I am a the skys the limit person, if these stars are still earning millions of dollars a year with their big contracts, glossy videos, and mansions
March 17th, 2009 at 4:37 am
I’m firmly on the side of the upside!
The record side of the business is in terminal decline, although I think the whinge is too loud. Those guys have massive catalogues and if they downsize enough, learn how to build real relationships with fans and so on, they still have plenty of ways to make money. It does seem though that will leave less for new artists to go that route to get the funding for their mass exposure.
I’m not dismayed by that though, as there will be a whole raft of new ways for new artists to find what the majors call ‘a route to market’ - DIY, a sync in a commercial to kick it off, proper local then regional then national touring to build a fanbase (who’d have thought that might work - doh!), let alone the possibilities offered by social networking.
Look at the bands that have broken through in the last few years - almost without exception (unless they are pure pop) they have got a large part of the way under their own steam. That’s how it’ll be from now on for most bands. From that point on, it doesn’t matter who provides the cash injection. The days of being offended because a band was bankrolled by Nike rather than CBS should be over.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:09 am
They are trying to make up for lost sales from CD’s by charging more for concerts etc, but will soon price fans out of those as well.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Thanks for the great replies guys.
“Look at the bands that have broken through in the last few years - almost without exception (unless they are pure pop) they have got a large part of the way under their own steam. That’s how it’ll be from now on for most bands.”
I firmly agree with this!!
March 17th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Great article Pricey!
The sky is definently the limit for those who want it badly enough and are willing to use the tools available to them. The big companies like the major labels only think the sky is falling because they’re losing money and thats all that seems to matter to them. In recent times it has been made clear that music fans are just as, if not more passionate about their music. Its about relationship building and value-adding. Something those big corporations don’t seem to understand.
They have to either adapt or fail. Those who are trying to make it for themselves know the value of hard work and determination. They go about their daily lives, with an interest in making money and developing a career, but more importantly a passion for music. They take up the opportunities presented to them, but also make their own.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
This is very much an example of a sky is the limit person. Thank you Sarah for the link to this great article!
http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2009/03/04/terry-mcbride-of-nettwerk-interview/
March 17th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
While THIS is very much an example of the Sky is Falling…also thanks to Sarah.
http://business.theage.com.au/business/music-industry-ponders-its-future-as-cds-lose-their-shine-20090315-8yzt.html?page=2
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I always feel tempted to throw a vaguely lateral oar into these debates… rather thinking just in terms of old and new school industry aproaches, how about we consider music a ’sector’, and divide it along different lines; art and industry.
If you view your music first and foremost as your ‘art’ then you will most probably be very happy with the current and evolving environment. Technology allows you the opportunity to produce a more ’professional sounding’ version of your music much more cheaply than ever previously possible. What’s more, it then allows you to make your ‘art’ audible to a potential audience of billions. At its core is this not what ‘the artist’ should seek, to produce good work, and allow as many people as possible to bear witness to it? If your music is ‘good enough’ and enough people hear it, then natural order of things will dictate that you recieve rewards of some sort. I could be loads of money, it could be that some girl / guy you like thinks your cooler than she / he might otherwise have, or it could just be the personal satisfaction comes from producing anything to the best of your ability as a result of self sourced motivation.
All that said, for a ‘genuine mega talent’, reduced recorded music sales means it is probably harder to become mega rich off music than it was in the past. If you then follow the food chain, it is also becoming much harder than it was previously for ‘big industry’ to get mega mega rich off those mega talents. This is good. As old style pop stars begin to run out of relevance, dinosaur companies will have less and less to feed on. Fast moving niche animals should propser in their wake.
But is the outlook really more positive for those in the more ‘musician - fan symetrical’ ‘new industry’? An answer lies in an analogy with another recreational / professional ’sector’, sport.
A hell of a lot of people play a sport their whole lives, always trying to get better at it, whilst knowing full well that no one will ever pay them to do it, but they are commited to practicing their sport because it is a passion. They are happy because their fun is derived from the activity rather than the result. Only a very small percentage of people play sport for money. An even smaller percentage consider getting well paid for playing to be a right… Pay most people anything to play a sport they like and they will be stoked, it’s gravy… The same applies to those who administer the sports sector… A bit of money at the top, but again, the majority of sports’ administrative activity is driven by passion…
Music and sport have a lot in common, they are both recreational activities around which both commercial and non commercial sectors and cultures have developed, with channels of cross over existing between the two.
If you are looking to do business in the music ’sector’ because you are attracted to the activities you wish to perform and the culture that encompasses them, then there is every chance you will be as happy as an ‘artist’ in the current climate. This environment is ripe for innovation, broken things are just opportunities waiting to be recognized. If what you do is the result of passion then the commercial results you achieve will be gravy. If maximising commercial results is your passion, then there are plenty of ‘industries’ where you would probably be happier. In this regard whether your business activities are compact disk or web 2.0 based is completely irrelevant.
What has happened is to music is that a noisy, democratic collage of niches is emerging from a chaos that followed the implosion of the old industry order. This has happened comparatively quickly enough to exhaust the definition of evolution and cross into that of revolution, and like many revolutions it’s a great time for artists and innovators, not so great for industrialists. Unfortunitly Internet driven or not, this revolution is still part of a cycle that applies to all human social constructs, the tightening and loosening of control. Today’s revolutionary is tomorrow’s dictator. Make hay while the sector loose, and before today’s innovative new businesses become tommorrow’s consolidated, angry dinosaurs.
In my humble if somewhat long-winded opinion anyway ; )
March 25th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
WOW!! What a great response and some very thought-provoking viewpoints!
Thanks Mike.
October 28th, 2010 at 5:03 am
my friend always sell concert tickets at a heavily discounted price, it is nice to have a friend like that*-`
November 13th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
i was able to buy some cheap concert tickets on ebay, i really love ebay for the bargain stuffs ;~*
July 3rd, 2011 at 3:23 pm
There are some great ideas on backlinking at that thread. You can also do a look as well. If you are signed up, you can additionally post a new topic, and you must get a reply inside of minutes.