There is no doubt that the music industry is in a state of flux, and has been for some time. I’m still staggered, though, as to why it is taking them so long to figure out a new business model.
The following is from part of an article published The Australian newspaper on 9/2/2008:
Labels singing a new tune | The Australian:
“Leading Australian music lawyer Brett Oaten, who represents Powderfinger, Silverchair and Wolfmother, says 360-style contracts are being offered and signed in Australia, but so far are not all-embracing. ’That’s where they’re heading, though,’ he says. ‘I perceive difficult obstacles for them getting there. It could be a good thing, but so far I don’t think it is. At present when the major labels seek these extra rights they don’t offer anything to help you exploit it. They don’t have the expertise or ability in areas of touring and merchandising and other things. The interesting thing about the Live Nation-Artist Nation deal is that they do have expertise in touring and merchandising.’Oaten is dubious about the benefit to artists of some of the contracts being offered. ‘Their pitch is: ‘Our business isn’t going so well, so can we have some of your other money please’. I don’t believe that is a particularly compelling case.’”
.. and neither do I.
I have taken a bit of a straw poll here at work and overwhelmingly my colleagues believe that artists should be paid well for their efforts and that they should get a lion’s share of the revenue streams.
The problem form the artists’ point of view with the 360 contracts is that they sign over all the management of all the revenue streams (including such things as merchandise, licensing of their image, etc.) to the recording companies.
The recording companies are saying that they have the size and clout to be able to handle this sort of thing, but, are they doing it for the artists, or for themselves?
From the Record Company’s point of view, taking control over every aspect of the artist’s life is attractive. Consolidation wins. Once the artist gets used to having it all handled by the studio, it becomes increasingly difficult to move out of the stable. This is the equivalent of “Just CRUSH ‘em.”
This is neither good for the artists or the listening public. Remember when Prince went into battle with his recording label? What did we get? Crap. What did he get? Crap.
Instead of fighting with the artists and the public, record labels need to find new ways to engage with the process. Have a look on youtube or any of the thousands of similar sites. The artists are young. Their listeners are young and tech savvy. They will be found.
The record companies need to sit up and re-think what it is that they are offering.
