I wrote this post today at Havoc's site, sorry I haven't been providing all the links to the articles I write there on this blog like I originally promised. The truth is that I would love to make this blog more lively than I've ever allowed it to be, and I know I could make it awesome, but the Havoc opportunity is simply too great to pass up, and it has consumed all of my creative-internet-energy. You can check out and follow all my blog articles I write there, at this link: http://www.havoc.tv/profiles/blog/list?user=3ifa6mb8yv0uq
Here is the post, it ended up being wayyy longer than I originally intended, when I copied this into Word and made it double spaced, it goes on to the FIFTH PAGE! I am pretty proud of it though, it felt more like a college paper than a blog post, but on a much much more interesting topic. Enjoy:
Is Free Music the Future? If you ask me, the answer is definitely "yes" (and I'm referring to music being legally free, to all you who read that question and snidely thought "um, I haven't dropped a dime on music since the original Napster arose in 1999"). As the music industry continues its downward spiral of record sales, digital sales is the only current system of music distribution that is consistent with today's "on demand" culture, but even legal online stores such as iTunes, Zune, or Amazon compete against the mammoth culture of illegal downloading. In my opinion, too many people have been treated to being able to access all the music they desire for free, for too long now for them to accept going back to a system of having to purchase all of their music. And only more and more people are continuing to jump on the free illegal downloading bandwagon.
Obviously the major music labels are not going to let their huge profit source go down without a fight, and even though they still rake in money by the buckets (like, really really huge buckets), it's a battle they've been slowly losing for more than a decade now. The public opinion of the big labels will only continue to plummet if they try to take criminalizing young teens as a serious means to sew up the hole in their huge pockets. If you are not fully aware of how huge the pockets of major labels are, keep in mind that every single artist or band that is signed to a major label, is a part of one of only 4 major labels, they're just likely signed to a sub-label of one of those four. The "Big Four" consist of Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group. They make up over 80% of the music sales. Here's a more in-depth look at how it's split up:
If I'm sounding bitter towards the music industry (and straying a bit off topic while doing so), I'd like to make it clear that I only hold animosity towards the labels. I feel very grateful and supportive of the artists themselves, but I hate the idea that an artist on a major label only earns 4 to 11 cents per 99 cent download, while the business men in suits sit in their desk and pull in profits that would make even the most successful musicians jealous.
What I'm getting at with all this major label libel, is that ultimately I think major labels will suffer the hardest when music becomes free, but I'm okay with this. It is true, however, that the musicians will not be selling as much as they did when the music industry was in its prime, but I also hold optimism that with whatever is left of the record label system, their control over artists will be reduced and it will grant greater creative control back to artists signed to major labels, similar to what is currently allowed for artists on independent labels (what I mean by this lack of "creative control" is that at least in the genres that make up Top 40, major labels have a tendency to organize or even force upon what the singles will be for an artist, because those are what sells iTunes song downloads and ring tone purchases).
As for the new method of music distribution that will provide free music access to the public, well I can see it going a few ways. I wrote a post earlier today about folk artist Josh Woodward and how he chooses to distribute his music with a Creative Commons license that allows for anyone to download all of his 150+ song library for free, or consumers can name their own price for his albums if they would like to buy physical CDs or download his songs in lossless quality. This is the method that Radiohead chose to distribute their In Rainbows album, and may be the way of the future; giving the public access to all the music for free and if anyone desires a physical copy or a super-high quality download then they can pay for it.
Another potential system for free music (and I'm talking about having free music that you can have full control of, not free online streaming of music) has already been tried and failed, but a similar system might spring up in the future. The system that failed was called "TotalMusic", but don't grieve its failure too hard because it wasn't even that great of a method. It was created by Universal Music Group in 2007 and Sony BMG and EMI also jumped on board (leaving just Warner the only of the Big Four that held out). The idea was that consumers would have free access to download as much music as they wanted, but the catch was that major labels were getting a large cut of music devices sold. One model showed the TotalMusic format adding $90 to the price of the device, and exactly how much of the price would have been absorbed by device manufacturers to keep prices reasonable is unknown, but it seems hard to believe that a company would have kept the prices of their devices the same as they currently retail for and let the major labels take a $90 cut out of the sale of their device; so gadget prices surely would have raised at least some. TotalMusic never caught on though, and after an attempt to reemerge in 2008 with a pitch to Facebook for a system of music streaming at free cost both to users and Facebook (but in turn required Facebook to relinquish user data and advertising revenue to the labels) also failed, TotalMusic finally died.
Whatever the method is, and whether consumers pay some kind of extra charge on devices to allow labels to get their payday, I truly believe that the future of music will most likely be legally free at least after some initial fee has been paid. The only other options seem to me to be that people will continue on with widespread illegal downloading of music and the music industry will continue to exist as a hollow shell of its former self. Additionally, the internet could become a much more structured and policed area where people are actually punished for their actions online and therefore unable to easily download music illegally, but I don't see this happening for the same reason I don't see the music industry putting an end to free downloading, because I don't see the public relinquishing any freedoms they've grown accustomed to at anytime soon.
If you're wondering how music could ever be free and think this concept is ridiculous because if music was free then artists would make no money and so stop making music, then I should add that I expect concerts and live music to continue to thrive. Throw in other lucrative sources such as advertising deals or songs being used in TV shows and movies and I still see talented musicians making good money in the future, just not as much from album sales.
The only aspects of the current music industry that I find to be incompatible with this free music system, is all the mega-superstars who sell regardless of hard times in the music industry. I'm talking about artists like Eminem or Jay-Z, who do not do much touring anymore simply because they don't need to spend the time or energy since everyone already knows their name and their albums still sell well (although not nearly as strong as they would have sold a decade ago, going platinum now is roughly equivalent to going many times platinum a decade ago). However, if the rest of the music industry starts jumping aboard the free music system sometime in the future, then I can see these super-superstars eventually joining in on the free distribution and in turn they would make their millions with huge advertising deals.
As for when this ambitious change happens --if it ever does-- I do not have a clue. It all hinges on when the brutal war comes to an end between the major labels trying to stay lucrative, along with being too stubborn to adopt new methods of distribution, against the rotting flesh that subsists on the backside of the music industry which consists of all the free illegal downloading and diminishing record sales as of late. I mean come on, essentially every single album leaks in advance these days, if the focus shifted to embrace digital distribution more kindheartedly, then this problem could likely be eliminated or at least reduced.
In the words of Slug, the MC of hip-hop duo Atmosphere and pioneer of independent rap: "I still say f**k a major label 'til it limps".
P.S. For the record, I buy albums from the artists I enjoy most or that I think could simply use the support, but this honestly is only for about a dozen albums a year. Most alternative/indie music I legally get free from the college radio station I DJ for, KZUU 90.7 FM. And the rest of my music I gather from the wonderful world wide web.
Here is the post, it ended up being wayyy longer than I originally intended, when I copied this into Word and made it double spaced, it goes on to the FIFTH PAGE! I am pretty proud of it though, it felt more like a college paper than a blog post, but on a much much more interesting topic. Enjoy:
Obviously the major music labels are not going to let their huge profit source go down without a fight, and even though they still rake in money by the buckets (like, really really huge buckets), it's a battle they've been slowly losing for more than a decade now. The public opinion of the big labels will only continue to plummet if they try to take criminalizing young teens as a serious means to sew up the hole in their huge pockets. If you are not fully aware of how huge the pockets of major labels are, keep in mind that every single artist or band that is signed to a major label, is a part of one of only 4 major labels, they're just likely signed to a sub-label of one of those four. The "Big Four" consist of Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group. They make up over 80% of the music sales. Here's a more in-depth look at how it's split up:
If I'm sounding bitter towards the music industry (and straying a bit off topic while doing so), I'd like to make it clear that I only hold animosity towards the labels. I feel very grateful and supportive of the artists themselves, but I hate the idea that an artist on a major label only earns 4 to 11 cents per 99 cent download, while the business men in suits sit in their desk and pull in profits that would make even the most successful musicians jealous.What I'm getting at with all this major label libel, is that ultimately I think major labels will suffer the hardest when music becomes free, but I'm okay with this. It is true, however, that the musicians will not be selling as much as they did when the music industry was in its prime, but I also hold optimism that with whatever is left of the record label system, their control over artists will be reduced and it will grant greater creative control back to artists signed to major labels, similar to what is currently allowed for artists on independent labels (what I mean by this lack of "creative control" is that at least in the genres that make up Top 40, major labels have a tendency to organize or even force upon what the singles will be for an artist, because those are what sells iTunes song downloads and ring tone purchases).
As for the new method of music distribution that will provide free music access to the public, well I can see it going a few ways. I wrote a post earlier today about folk artist Josh Woodward and how he chooses to distribute his music with a Creative Commons license that allows for anyone to download all of his 150+ song library for free, or consumers can name their own price for his albums if they would like to buy physical CDs or download his songs in lossless quality. This is the method that Radiohead chose to distribute their In Rainbows album, and may be the way of the future; giving the public access to all the music for free and if anyone desires a physical copy or a super-high quality download then they can pay for it.
Another potential system for free music (and I'm talking about having free music that you can have full control of, not free online streaming of music) has already been tried and failed, but a similar system might spring up in the future. The system that failed was called "TotalMusic", but don't grieve its failure too hard because it wasn't even that great of a method. It was created by Universal Music Group in 2007 and Sony BMG and EMI also jumped on board (leaving just Warner the only of the Big Four that held out). The idea was that consumers would have free access to download as much music as they wanted, but the catch was that major labels were getting a large cut of music devices sold. One model showed the TotalMusic format adding $90 to the price of the device, and exactly how much of the price would have been absorbed by device manufacturers to keep prices reasonable is unknown, but it seems hard to believe that a company would have kept the prices of their devices the same as they currently retail for and let the major labels take a $90 cut out of the sale of their device; so gadget prices surely would have raised at least some. TotalMusic never caught on though, and after an attempt to reemerge in 2008 with a pitch to Facebook for a system of music streaming at free cost both to users and Facebook (but in turn required Facebook to relinquish user data and advertising revenue to the labels) also failed, TotalMusic finally died.
Whatever the method is, and whether consumers pay some kind of extra charge on devices to allow labels to get their payday, I truly believe that the future of music will most likely be legally free at least after some initial fee has been paid. The only other options seem to me to be that people will continue on with widespread illegal downloading of music and the music industry will continue to exist as a hollow shell of its former self. Additionally, the internet could become a much more structured and policed area where people are actually punished for their actions online and therefore unable to easily download music illegally, but I don't see this happening for the same reason I don't see the music industry putting an end to free downloading, because I don't see the public relinquishing any freedoms they've grown accustomed to at anytime soon.
If you're wondering how music could ever be free and think this concept is ridiculous because if music was free then artists would make no money and so stop making music, then I should add that I expect concerts and live music to continue to thrive. Throw in other lucrative sources such as advertising deals or songs being used in TV shows and movies and I still see talented musicians making good money in the future, just not as much from album sales.
The only aspects of the current music industry that I find to be incompatible with this free music system, is all the mega-superstars who sell regardless of hard times in the music industry. I'm talking about artists like Eminem or Jay-Z, who do not do much touring anymore simply because they don't need to spend the time or energy since everyone already knows their name and their albums still sell well (although not nearly as strong as they would have sold a decade ago, going platinum now is roughly equivalent to going many times platinum a decade ago). However, if the rest of the music industry starts jumping aboard the free music system sometime in the future, then I can see these super-superstars eventually joining in on the free distribution and in turn they would make their millions with huge advertising deals.
As for when this ambitious change happens --if it ever does-- I do not have a clue. It all hinges on when the brutal war comes to an end between the major labels trying to stay lucrative, along with being too stubborn to adopt new methods of distribution, against the rotting flesh that subsists on the backside of the music industry which consists of all the free illegal downloading and diminishing record sales as of late. I mean come on, essentially every single album leaks in advance these days, if the focus shifted to embrace digital distribution more kindheartedly, then this problem could likely be eliminated or at least reduced.
In the words of Slug, the MC of hip-hop duo Atmosphere and pioneer of independent rap: "I still say f**k a major label 'til it limps".
P.S. For the record, I buy albums from the artists I enjoy most or that I think could simply use the support, but this honestly is only for about a dozen albums a year. Most alternative/indie music I legally get free from the college radio station I DJ for, KZUU 90.7 FM. And the rest of my music I gather from the wonderful world wide web.
