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David Byrne's look at the future of music is good online journalism

by biverson | December 31, 2007 at 11:37 am

1093 views | 17 Recommendations | 3 comments

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

This is a good story. David Byrne what he is talking about. The story is interspersed with audio clips, of music and of interviews. The charts included are clear and illustrate some of the issues of "what is the music business today." Musicians have more opportunity than in the past. There are lots of ways to make money. If you work for one of the big record companies, then your future might not be so bright.

Other stories related to this one that have caught my eye recently involve "push back" directed at the RIAA and its attempts to bully people into legal submission, as opposed to using the laws and justice system alone. From slashdot, is a story about Prof. Deirdre Smith at University of Maine, whose students are going to take on an IP (intellectual property) case involving RIAA and students at University of Maine. The student legal clinic is taking the case for a variety of reasons, including:

Since the clients in these file-sharing cases are so young, they may have little or no understanding of the legal system or their rights, and are usually overwhelmed by the prospect of being liable for statutory damages. Therefore, they are particularly ill-prepared to represent themselves.

Slashdot had previous stories noting that the 'data mining' done by RIAA is problematic, for one thing because they use unlicensed investigators, and they use heavy-handed legal tactics. Some colleges have stopped the knee-jerk reaction to RIAA suits of just giving all the personal information RIAA asks for. Will 2008 be the year that the RIAA gets bitten back by the legal system?

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ryan

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:47 on December 31st, 2007

biverson, interesting stuff. There are lots of ways for musicians to make money other than record sales, be it concerts or licensing their music to commercials. I think the business model will shift so that the actual records are more of a marketing tool to build a consumer base for concerts and other controllable income producing activities. Tough luck for the record labels though.

BigT

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:53 on December 31st, 2007

With flagging record sales it will be very interesting to see how the music industry evolves. It might be true that todays record labels will get hurt but new companies will sprout up with a better business model.