A Little Piece of Advice for the Major Record Labels
This is two nights in a row that I’ve tried to quickly get through my blogroll and have been forced to write a post.
A post tonight that got me motivated was “The New Economics of Music: File-Sharing and Double Moral Hazard.” It’s a pretty heavy discussion about the transactions that take place between a consumer and the record industry.
In a nutshell, the concept is that, in the past, we as consumers paid a certain price for music because we understood that the price paid for the discovery of music was the responsibility of the labels. It was their job to find us good things to listen to and we in return paid for it.
Now, as the industry grew and they began feeding us the same crap, we discovered that on the Internet, we could find whatever the hell we wanted to find and have it for free. We’d didn’t need the labels to discover new music because we could now do it ourselves.
So the thing the industry needs to do now is figure out how to return to a place where they become responsible for the discovery of good music. Unfortunately, they may be too late because other people are already doing it.
I’m already doing it. Hundreds if not thousands of other blogs and social networks are doing it. They are creating a community of people who read, listen, and watch their content everyday. They turn these people onto new sounds. They have become the new record labels. And they will have that same ability to charge their community for these services.
The “charge” may come in many different business models. It might be an actual charge to download a track or album. It might be banner or contextual advertising they have on their website. It might be an audio ad in a free streaming radio station, or a commercial in a live video performance. Merchandising or subscription services. Whatever it is, they will monetize it, because not only will they have the ears listening, they’ll also have their eyeballs too.
The record industry used to have those. They used to have our ears because they controlled the radio. They eventually grabbed our eyeballs too after they created MTV.
The problem is, no one gives a shit about either of those anymore. We only listen to the radio when we forget to bring our cd’s or Ipods into the car. And MTV isn’t about music anymore. So how are they supposed to nurture our attention?
There’s no engagement with you, stuffy suit record execs. There’s no community. Split yourself up into as many niche brands you can think of, get those who live and breathe that music behind the keyboard, and start building communities about as many specific styles of music as you can.
Build a strong community of fans and listeners, let them engage with yourself and the acts involved, and you just might get some of that power of influence back.
Hopefully if you do, you won’t take advantage of it a second time around.
