A little respect for the Record labels and Radio Stations
by Stii
To change the future, we need to look at the past. Learn from its mistakes and success stories. Work together in some form or another. Let us not forget that these folks shaped the music industry. They made music in general as popular as it is today. Without them, we might not have had so much music today. We certainly would not have had this much exposure to it. They lured musicians into producing more. They offered them the one thing that makes the world go round. They had a fantastic way of doing it and at the time it was a brilliant idea.
Radio stations is still the best way for an artist to get noticed. Apparently there are more than 2 billion radio sets in use worldwide, or about one radio for every 3 persons. The reach is phenomenal. They introduced me to a lot of music and for that I am thankful.
I have sympathy with the record labels and radio stations. I do not think they are evil per sé. I think they’re trapped within a capitalist system and there are no easy way out. They have serious investors that demand returns. They cannot simply say “Oh, please bear with us. Give us about 10 years so we can sort out a new business model”. They can see the world changing leaving them behind and it must be a shit feeling.
Suddenly their brilliant business model is under extremely serious threat. They stand to lose EVERYTHING. We stand to lose a few new/future artists. Yes, granted, they became a little greedy. There are some labels that exploit their artists. There are horror stories. As we all know, you only hear the sensational horror stories and hardly ever hear about the good these guys do for their artists. Believe me, they do a lot of good for the artists. If they didn’t, you’d hear a LOT more noise from a LOT more popular artists. You simply don’t, because artists are generally happy with the way things are going. They commercialized music quite successfully, both to our delight and detriment.
If I were in their shoes I cannot categorically state that I would not do the same. That I would not try and protect my revenue stream. God knows, we all do it in one form or another. The short and easy route is to be ruthless and try and kill everyone threatening their livelihood. It is a quick fix for now. In the long run, it would kill them. Maybe they are simply buying some time. I hope that is their true intentions since they should know, their current model is going down the drain. The world is moving forward while they are standing still and the ties that binds us together will break at some point. They are big. We are bigger.
You make a good point Stii. We like to attack the labels because they’re the big guys, but this can be a knee jerk reaction. They do need to adapt faster though.
That the labels and the stations have sustained the music industry in not in doubt.
However, they have had ten years to transform and all they have done is fight a rear guard action against any form of innovation.
At the same time they have institutionalised playlisted radio and fired DJs who dared to try and play music that wasn’t on the playlist.
As a result we are forced to listen to the artists that the stations and the labels decide we want to listen to, not the best music but the music that they decide will be popular.
Saying we should have respect for the record labels and radio stations is like saying we should have respect for Robert Mugabe, he was really good once.
Damn, @Ben Kelly makes a good argument.
It is interesting that many big name artists, like the band Live (Action Front Records label), is attempting to steer away from the big labels and do their own thing. It’s much the same with books – anybody can publish nowadays. The monopoly on distribution that the record companies once held through their association with radio stations is dwindling fast. Music is made to share, and pay for the artist to continue performing his art.
So far big music labels have not been able to halt the avalanche of torrents.
Kat, I honestly do not think that they know how to move faster. Rather how to move faster and maintain their bottom line at the same time. I do not think they can break out of that mentality. They are blinded by money.
Ben, I’ll get to my point in an upcoming post, but as long as people keep buying into the (ridiculous) legislations and laws made and enforced by the labels (ultimately), artists would be happy as pigs in shit. It will take extremely disruptive innovation to turn this industry on it’s head. I don’t respect the labels and stations. I respect what they’ve done in the past. Now, they just look sad and desperate bullies.
Emil, very good point re the book publishing industry. Funny, but last night I was at the library and I was thinking that surely this is also like stealing from the authors? I mean, we can read PLENTY of books for basically free if we belong to a library. Why should authors be treated this different to musicians? Ok, maybe that is a bit apples vs. oranges, but still. At their core, they’re all artists.