The Issue of CD Burning/Internet File Sharing

[Dave Shore]

Hi,

With the ease with which people can burn CDs now (and due to Internet file sharing), some people are predicting the end of the Music Industry. Others say that the exact same prediction occurred when blank cassette tapes became available - yet it turned out to be just another false alarm. However, most agree that the notion of 'CD-burning and Web File Sharing' will have a larger impact than the notion of 'taping to cassette' due to obvious reasons. Also, there are already changes currently occuring - for example, these days I see CD stores in the Sydney CBD closing down, yet I haven't seen a new one open for many years.

Which of the below do you think will happen?


(1) There will always be enough true music fans, who CHOOSE to pay for the music (even though they could get it for free). The revenues may be less than previously, but it is just a matter of Record Companies trimming the fat, reducing costs, and the Music Industry will stabilise and continue.

(2) The trend of paying for recorded music will end. The only profit-generating role for Record Companies will be in touring/live performances.

(3) Record Companies will get more serious about the technology used on their units (CDs, DVDs etc) and somehow make them impossible to burn, and impossible to load on to the Internet.

(4) People stop paying for music, and for live shows. The Music Industry ceases to be a profit-making business. No revenues mean Record Companies close down. All Artists are independent. With no revenues going to the Artists they cannot afford Producers (Recorders/Masterers etc). Music quality drastically drops. People lose interest and stop listening to music. Eventually, music gradually stops being a trendy artform and goes the way of 'sculpting' or 'stamp collecting'.

(5) New (incredibly strict laws) will be passed, prohibiting any form of music sharing. Eg. if you're caught burning a CD you go to jail for 2 years. Though it continues in small doses, it is kept in check, and the problem does not worsen any more than it is today


Or do you think a different scenario will unfold?

Thanks,
D.

[tunetown]

Paul McGuinness U2's Manager made a good speech about this at MIDEM this year.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_ ... ce70427dc6

There's no doubt the music industry is evolving and it is increasingly difficult for new artists to extract development money. I think the ones who will suffer the most are the writers who generally don't perform. Bands and entertainers can earn a nice living with live gigs especially in the myspace age.

It's virtually impossible to stop sharing and the industry needs to develop another model. I wouldn't be surprised to see music given away for free in the future with some form of advertising attached. The ads can pay the artist and the consumer gets the tunes for free. Commercial Radio and Television have been doing this for ever.

Just my 2 cents

Peter

[Thirteen]

It is absolutely impossible to use protection schemes to stop music sharing, eventually any sound file has to come out of a line out or a headphone jack or a speaker lead, and at that point it can be re-recorded and dumped onto the net, CD's etc. I think that the music industry as such has already ceased to exist, and music is becoming a cottage industry where artists make what they can from playing live and doing merchandise. The motion picture industry will follow, where income will come from cinema release and merchandise, and of course, just like the music industry, budgets will scale down and computers will be relied on for cost cutting. Is this a good or bad thing? Don't know. At any rate, the concept of intellectual copyright is fading, anything virtual such as music, photographs, the printed word and film are now effectively public domain, if we want to make money from our creative endeavors we need to come up with new models for ourselves.

I think that the software manufacturers are doing this by moving towards the concept of leasing time in a web based application rather than buying the application. You can't crack it because you never have it in your posession to crack. Too bad if you don't have a 24/7 high speed internet connection. Thank heavens for open source!

[Text_Edifice]

or
[6] internet file sharing is tracked the same way that radio and tv airplay are currently, isp's are required to levy a small monthly 'service' charge which enters a pool (much like apra) which is then distributed to copyright holders. Dunno if it'll happen but this is the most interesting 'new' music business model I've seen so far.

[rick]

i do a lot of work from china an album every two weeks or so , they sell hundreds of thousands and well into the millions sometimes , this is because of the impossible to grasp size of the chinese market even 2 million is a very small drop in the ocean with the chinese population , and if you still think China is all rice and peasents , just take sometime to check it out you would be very wrong on that account err... times 100 !

our Turtlerock chinese booking agent said to me once , you must remember that China invented piracy - its part of the Chinese process it goes back to the 10 century , you sail your boat in our seas and we will jump on board take your stuff and thats that it becomes ours.

in China today in the music industry you have about 6-8 months to make all your money then they just assume it will be pirated 100 % , so the guy with the goods at the starting line gets a half a year head start , the Chinese record labels also own the tour companies so they put a cd out as a "promo " device , and put the band on the road to make money for them and they pay the artist wages .

that is not so different to what Michael Gudinski has been doing locally with mushroom / liberation / frontier touring / harbour and premier for decades !
maybe the chinese system is heading our way who knows ..?

in China though within a year even the stage show could be pirated with another band claiming they are the "real rock stars".

their model is nuts but it means if your a first idea guy and you understand the system you can make big money .
our music label system was always dodgy and i have never known anybody who actually understood it ( err except perhaps Michael Gudinski !)

it seems it is well and truly hurting time for the big labels right now, nobody i deal in the local labels seems to enjoying their job for fear of losing it !

i figure , its music at its heart and music is not going anywhere , i believe strongly in the idea that if you are smart enough to come up with a unique idea you should be able to get paid everytime somebody uses your idea , and that is the basis of copyright and i am sure that idea will stick around for a while yet .

so i guess if what you do is entertainment and it is entertaining the population then you should get paid your worth..
but the real question is just what is your entertainment skills worth ? surely it is more then nothing , but less then snoop dog gets !

i am having the busiest time of my career so from my point of view plenty of people are still making music around here
i think there is no need to panic about this stuff , as they say water always find its own level , even the water in snoop doggy dogs bowl.

[Kris]

Have to agree on the busy part. Although I'm more TV based I haven't stopped since July last year. With more and more channels being launched the demand for content grows with it. Some people hate me for calling music "content". But that's what it is to the money people. I'm building my business slowly.... doing what I do as an operator by day and by night acquiring rights to songs, hassling music supervisors on feature films and generally looking for ways to not have to work a "day job" at all. All I need is one thing to hit, then it's on for young and old.

Piracy is a fact of life. The problem the major labels have (as I see it) is they want everything to be big, first time round. Instant fame/celebrity a la Plain White T's "Delilah" and bands that have hit big first song out of the gate are doomed from the beginning. A slow steady build is what will make a band/artist have longevity. The labels aren't about longevity....well, maybe now they might consider it more of a priority now they're fighting for their lives.But historically they have never really been about building career artists. For years they have force fed the public a business model on their terms only and they have reaped the rewards of that. Remember when CD's were 30 bucks??? Well now the tables are turned and the public can get what it wants, when it wants for whatever it wants to pay. The person that can figure out a new way to monetise music/video so the public WANT to buy it and not steal it will be the person that writes the next few pages in music history. The reality is quality still sells. Labels have been making such crap for so long the public is starting to lose interest.

You only have to look at the past to see why the present looks so bleak for the record company execs and their bloated salaries.

Damn. Karma's a bitch ain't it????

[Kris]

and from what I've seen.... the only water Snoop needs to level out is his bong water.

[Text_Edifice]

Actually the music industry in Lao works quite similarly - the economics of album sales (at $1.50 a pop) don't really add up so the label I'm working with make most of their money through corporate (or other) sponsored events that are used to promote a particular brand or service and help the artists gain recognition. The label still sells a whole lot of CD's but with near 100% piracy rates they view the CD as more of a promotional tool. Similarly to China the industry is wide open for new ideas, though Lao is still too poor for their to be much money to be made from an international perspective.

The business model in thailand is that the record label owns the music, radio, tv, concert venues and magazines. GMM / Grammy is the largest and has a near monopoly on the production, promotion and performance of music.

One of the interesting points for me is that in these markets the 'show' rather than the musical performance is of prime importance. A lot of artists mime to a backing track (we had a major south-korean act tour here earlier in the year and only two of the girls could 'sing') but it's the stage show that got the fans going.

[heathen]

Getting music into foreign markets is the only way to make the big bucks unless your releasing the type of sickly pop all the parents will buy for thier kids. Our population is small and fickle. Just getting your music online and available can really help start to make an income.

I've got quite a few mates starting to turn a small profit from work we've done over the last few years, get it all on there as you never know what people will like. Even if it's only $100 bucks a month it can start to grow with a small amount of marketing to the right customer base, these sales are mostly from America so if they catch on it could really grow.

What you get out of it is what you put in. Also stepping back from creative endeavors to actually have a good think and listen and ask yourself is this stuff worth buying, who will buy it? If not move on to the next project. It's bloody hard to step back from a project and ask these questions when you think how could anyone NOT like this and buy it.

A few of the artists I've been working with have had some great reviews and interviews, some airplay and stuff but....when I ask myself the questions above I realise that these guys are not up to scratch from a large commercial perspective yet, but just maybe they will, gotta start somewhere.

Getting that 1 song that goes on high rotation is a stepping stone to bigger things and bigger income, hmmmm I can taste it.

My favorite quote is "there is no S in the word hit".

[Thirteen]

Maybe the mindset has to shift a little away from the "Rockstar" dream/myth also... People dream of being the next Bryan Adams or Robbie Williams or Pink, but in reality there are so few slots at the top, and they are all corporate positions anyway. The better mindset is to see music as a real job, that you aim to make a target income from each year, say $100k, and go to work to achieve this as an ongoing small business, with all of the work hours and paperwork and organization of any small business, and if you can achieve this you will have a pretty good life doing what you enjoy, and you will buy a house one day from it. If you do one day get huge, then you have won the musical lottery, but it is cream rather than the primary goal.

[tunetown]

My favorite quote is "there is no S in the word hit".

Perfect

[tunetown]

My favorite quote is "there is no S in the word hit".

Perfect

Unless, of course, If you've had hits.

[heathen]

Hehe, I reckon I get the hits at least once a day.

[Dave Shore]

Well then it sounds like the takehome message is positive.

The Music Industry will definately change in a big way, but it won`t be ending any time soon.

Some of the proposed new models sound fascinating. Especially for me. I`m one of those old fashioned people who still buy ALL their music, and sit and read every single word in the album sleeve and stuff... ;)

[Kris]

Me too, but that is a dying breed. Look at the singles charts... all Jay-Z and Rhianna. Ringtone bands, kiddy bands. Look at the album charts... Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay etc. Adults buy albums, kids by singles. Once that generation shifts from kids to adults the album as we know it is dead.

[tunetown]

Hehe, I reckon I get the hits at least once a day.

TimS had the hits the other day, but it was just something he ate.

:-)

[TimS]

Hehe, I reckon I get the hits at least once a day.

TimS had the hits the other day, but it was just something he ate.

:-)

Geez, didnt I what!!
Thank god it's over!!
Looking forward to friday nite Pete..
T..

[tunetown]

Looks like the Rudd Govt is looking at it.....

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/w ... 62778.html

Hmmm
Peter