Regarding the Crumbling/Rising Music Business
September 19th, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Business, Strategy |
Heard a music producer last week rant about how iTunes is killing the music business. He thought that the 99-cent download doesn’t float the traditional music industry, and that forcing consumers into $10+ full albums were the way to go. It reminded me again that we should be looking at the music business as a barometer of what’s to come.
iTunes recently became the #1 retailer of music (physical or digital), and everyone seems to be gunning for them. Amazon has its own download service, MySpace Music just launched, Best Buy is buying Napster to help them sell digital devices, and the big music companies are still trying to build their own portal/download service.
After almost ten years of digital music, the traditional music industry still can’t find a way to stop the hemorrhaging. That’s scary.
What does this say about the traditional TV and film business? Digital downloads and file-sharing hasn’t caught the mainstream culture like it did for movies, but big media is facing a squeeze. As hard drive sizes increase, and download speeds quicken… the barrier for trading/downloading/sharing/storing video content in high-quality (that’s the key) is getting lower and lower…
What can we learn from the music business to prepare for what’s about to happen in TV and film?
Indie labels rock. They reach smaller audiences, but the talent development is there. The niche audience is a fervent, loyal one.
Distribution matters, but sharing is better. People don’t just want to buy media, they want to experience it with friends. That “experiencing” used to be gathering at a friend’s house, listening to a record player, but today is trading notes and comments on Facebook.
Free media leads to other revenue streams. Many bands want to give away music for free (or for donation, a la Radiohead), because they know it leads to other revenue: touring, merch, gift sets, etc. By the way, their free media doesn’t come with an pre-roll ad (take note, video networks).
What else is happening in music that we should be looking at?
