Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Sad State We’re In

(click links for the full stories) From The Jonas Brothers, to Tiffany, to Bobby Darin, if trends have taught us anything, it’s that there is simply no underestimating the buying power of the Teen Youth Market. In a society where people vote with their dollar, it’s always a disturbing sight to see were the public’s passion lies, yet one recent study has shown that overall youth consumerism is on a decline. Not surprisingly, CD sales are down, but even more startling, Piracy is on a decline as well.

What then does that say about your industry then RIAA, when even the temptation of having your product for free yields no takers? In fact much has been said of pushing new budget conscious business models based around the music industry. Take Google for instance, starting an ad revenue based free music site in China, a country where an overwhelming number of people get there music (and movies) pirated anyway.

But don’t get overexcited folks, this may be decades away from happening over here. Ads will never generate enough cash to satiate the RIAA’s greed. This is the same organization that chose to spend millions on frivolous law suits, that forced file trading to only become more efficient, and more community based, rather than figure out a “Cloud” business model that would satisfy everyone.

New innovations are must to promote a sense of acceptance that file traders never had till now as their community centered exuberance becomes acknowledged. Enter the ill fated MySpace, buzz word of the early 2000’s. I never understood the popularity of this site, nor the Face book counterpart. I never found a single one of those web pages to ever be informative, or useful in the least. I consider them the anti-wiki (ironically it can be seen that wiki is also the anti-wiki). I don’t want to see pictures of my stupid friends posing in front of mirrors, or be forced to listen to a Rascal Flatts song against my will, or see the quiz you took that proves you are a “Quagmire”, and I’m a “Cleveland”. In fact the only thing that seems to be growing steadily is the popularity of MySpace Music, which again is only useful to get the link of the bands “actual” webpage, unless of course that link just redirects you back to the same MySpace page.

They really need to rework the page format, and just plain remove the mile long nature of the comment crap, and make it a resource to inform fans as to the ongoing endeavors of that particular act, as in upcoming events, latest singles, and album release dates. Just stop bombarding me with crap I don’t want and never asked for, and it will become a much needed hub for small groups who need the word spread quickly and easily.

Ticket Alternative is also breaking waves for the little guy. Many artist are being turned off by the way large labels handle small acts, and are opting for personalized servicing in smaller companies where they can be treated as an individual, and not just lumped by genre and demographic. There’s nothing worse than being misrepresented, or poorly handled as Amanda Palmer knows well.

I mentioned in Ep 12 of our podcast that, while it’s wonderful a few lone acts are accepting the digital medium, and embracing the file sharing community, it’ll take real names to garner the attention and acceptance to push the industry to a new standard. It will take the Bruce Springsteen’s, the U2’s, and the Tobey Keith’s of the world who can make all their coin from touring, and could charge a nominal fee for a full album, with the option of ordering a physical disc. That’s why I’m so surprised to see the group Celebration announce via manifesto, that they will release their music free of charge, and if you wish, you can donate to the cause. I did BTW.

Despite the hippy-dippy nature of their ideals, and the tarot theme flash nature of the site, I find comfort in the ambition of those who choose their own destiny, and opt not to be lead, but to live and die by the decisions they make. Godspeed!

New episode of the KNMS podcast (ep 14) now available. Covered are these headlines and more, check the next blog for more info.

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