Some of my thoughts on the music industry.

The challenges that the music industry is facing due to the mass spread of digital content has always interested me because I got on the bandwagon of downloading music really early… 1997, which was the first year or so when Napster came out. My family started using DSL around this time, and I was just amazed that I could get all of this music for free. I was only 11 at the time, so I became hooked. From an early age, I knew it was illegal, but somehow the repercussions of committing an illegal act such as this seemed, and still does seem, intangible to me. The following post will be my comments on some of the statements cited in the article about digital music.
“Historically, the majors have controlled physical distribution of CDs. Yet that barrier to entry will erode as more music is distributed on the internet and mobile phones. Artists can, in theory, use the internet to bypass record firms, though few have yet done this. The principal reason most have not is that they need marketing and promotion, which the majors also dominate, to reach a wide audience.”
I think that this is a very true statement, and hopefully the erosion of the barriers will increase the variety of music that people become exposed to. The fact that it is so difficult to get into the music industry inhibits the expansion of a lot of different artists and music that’s available for reasons other than musical talent. There are plenty of bands out there that have no musical talent, but are marketable and thus successful. Perhaps this is because I have formal music training, but I appreciate the music rather than the entertainment value, so it’s hard for me to defend a system in which music industry fat-cats have power over what is popular and what isn’t.
I agree with Norah Jones when she said that the development of piracy in the music industry is actually good for it… it will prevent artists from just putting out lots of commercial crap. The landscape has become one of survival of the fittest. Only those with good music, who can develop a loyal fan base, will financially survive.
I do agree with record labels in that the advent of digital music has brought down their profits. I’m sure most people in my generation have downloaded music, or actively download music, and people in our age group, teens – young adults, are a huge part of the market for record labels. Do I think it’s justified? Of course not, stealing is stealing and I’m well aware that I’ve been doing it. But we do many things that are illegal that we don’t care about since we don’t think we’ll get caught. How many people change lanes in the middle of an intersection? How many people cut through parking lots to avoid a red light? I know I do all of those things too. The fact of the matter is that the face of music distribution is once again changing. Record labels thought they were going to go out of business when the cassette player developed and people could record songs off the radio and from other tapes. Instead, they figured out how to harness the technology and turn it into a profitable business. The same thing is going on here, just on a more extreme scale. There is a new technology, and it has created new problems, but like its predecessors, the problem can probably be harnessed with the right customer insights and the right business model.