music business | The Industry Is Changing

The Industry Is Changing

At Croydon Music it is important to us to keep our readers aware of music industry changes. There has been a lot of talk of downloading, piracy, the destruction of the recording industry, but in some peoples eyes it is just scaremongering from the powers that be trying to hold on to their out of date business model.

In response to the government getting involved in the internet piracy issue, some individuals have stepped forward and suggested that the recording industry is trying to stop time, and hold on to the status quo as in the way music is sold and owned.

The argument is that internet pirates, or illegal downloaders are causing the destruction of the industry by not needing to buy music because they get it for free, but……..it has been argued and released in a recent Canadian study that downloaders actually buy more music than people who do not illegally download.

Now all of us creatives who make music and try to make money from this business of music automatically think, if they don’t buy our music they are stealing it and therefore should be flogged within a inch of their lives!! The truth of this matter may not be so simple, giving away music free over the internet may seem like the end of the music business, but it actually could just mean the end of the music industry in it’s current incarnation. The same incarnation that signs artists for what would seem large sums of money and then keeps up to 90% of your profits even after you repay the initial advance. The same incarnation that keeps the rights of the music you have created through traumatic experiences in your lives and shelves you, so not only are you unable to release music with the record company, but you are unable to release music with anyone else. Having experienced this industry first hand in different guises, it seems like there is an element of fear seeping out from the men upstairs.

One of the main complaints of many artists signed to major labels is they move to slow, it generally takes them a long period of time even up to two years to record, promote and release an album in some cases, why?

Someone told me once the larger the vehicle the longer it takes to turn around, which if you look at the statement it is simple logic. This is the reason the record companies went from spending it’s cash and energy on developing talent through A&R, to aquiring smaller independent labels who move quicker with the times and could spot trends or create them.

So if your business model has brought in billions, how do you accept it is all soon to be over and you have to change to survive.

No doubt industry insiders will come out shouting that it is plain and simple if you give music away then people won’t buy it, but is that true? A scary precedent has been set by supergroup Radiohead.

Releasing internet only product is not new, but what Radiohead did was give away their album FREE on their website, (mad I hear some of you say), but the sting in the tail for the industry is they released it for sale and it still went to number 1!

So what does this mean for the industry?

Well it contradicts the common held belief that if you give music away you can’t make money, but more importantly it blasts a big hole in the current regimes arguement and therefore shows them up to be out of date with the present much less the future.

What does it mean for artists?

I believe it means what ever you want it to, more control for your music, the opportunity for more profits, ownership retainment. For those who are not scared of embracing the future, it is time for you to research and leap into the somewhat unknown, there are examples of people using the internet to start trends an make quick moves just like the independent labels before who were aquired by the major record companies.

The internet has been called the great leveller, I wouldn’t say it has evened the playing field, but what I would say is it has given an opportunity to everybody to reach the world, a privilege formerly restricted to major record companies and the rich. So I believe it is time for us to take advantage of the opportunity because no one can stop change, and change is here for the music industry.