What you said does seem like the next step though. Soon enough we won’t even need our PCs to consume music. The industry is definitely in for continuous change in the years to come, and it’s for the better, I would think.

I have been telling people since 1996, freakin\’ 1996, EXACTLY what was going to occur and how it would happen! If you think the record industry is going to bend over and become \”obsolete\” and somehow impotent, think again! This is a repeat of what has happened throughout history in this business, and it is about to come full circle. I gave up on trying to help fools, closed my site (again, for the 4th year in a row)… Let them fall on their face.

Myspace is set up to keep tabs on you… The indie musician. No other purpose for \”allowing\” you to pretend to sell product. If anyone here sells any real music anywhere on MySpace… Show us! I believe is all talk. Since you are there \”pretending\”, they can keep you out of their hair to sign who they want to sign. Another tactic to suppress your possible success. (if you are a musician, that is.) Fans don\’t see the difference, and maybe to them it does not matter as long as they keep getting music. They are the ONLY ones who can really have a voice in this. Musicians will NOT rise against the establishment on this… Historically, they never have.

To the person who still loves CD\’s; I agree. MP3\’s are pure garbage and should be abolished! They served a purpose in the day, but times have changed. With broadband becoming more prevalent, why can we not sell compressed wave files with full dynamic quality? Because people will \”wait\” until record labels own that idea as well. It is \”monkey see, monkey do\” and no one is a pioneer these days. ITunes? Joke city! Another scam to trap market share from people who are convinced that they can only get their Ipods pumped at Apple\’s digital monopoly. Good scam mind you, but still a scam.

I believe there is room for more than one \”industry\” in the musical realm. The issue is organizational in nature. Independents will not truly organize for fear of losing their identity. The truth is that their identity will be enhanced by a sincere and compassionate convergence of minds and resources.

It is a mixed bag. Many artists are still romancing the idea of getting \”signed\”, the ones that are over that seem to be searching for some \”Holy Grail\”, yet when it is presented to them in an intelligent way, they balk! Every new person who comes on the scene touts they are they \”New Thing\”, when in reality, it is the same old garbage rehashed 50 ways from Sunday! People get tired of listening to people walk around talking about how they are gonna take the industry by storm, when in truth their dream is to sell out to Google.

Distribution is the illusion that record conglomerates want you to keep believing. The need to facilitate intrinsic product no longer exists. As long as we keep thinking in the past, then our expectations remain stagnate. When one individual can take one MP3 file, put it on one hard drive, and serve it to 1 billion customers, there is NO OVERHEAD!

That leaves us in a position to create the marketing strategies that have made giants like WalMart own the vast market share that they do today. Volume marketing is the solution to the independent dilemma of low volume sales proceeds. The record industry KNOWS this already, but they are gonna milk the cow for al she is worth, and once the cow kicks it, they will once again own this industry! At that stage it will be too late to do anything except follow the leader.

I realize that this message is somewhat esoteric, and I apologize for the fact that I cannot just come out and say what needs to be said here. But I really implore each one of you to really think about what I am saying here, and get a hold of me if you feel that you can work on the solution. Take the example of Linux versus Microsoft as a model of what can be. Microsoft has threatened Linux with multiple lawsuits for supposed copyright infringement, all in the name of keeping them down and preventing them from being equal in the marketplace.

If we independent musicians become complacent about developing our own marketing strategies, trademarks, and trade secrets, we will find ourselves a slave to the current regime for all time. It has happened before, and IT CAN happen again. Now is the only window of opportunity left.

Yes, there is more opportunity for the musician then there ever has been, yes, we have made some small steps in the right direction; but it has to be more passionate than just talk.

Leave it to the labels to kill what little is left of this business. Download don\’t lie!

The kettle calling the Pot Black! hahahahahah sour grapes!

My business model was 80% music image development. I watched the majors go out of business by sitting there with their complete lack of technolgy savy and history of owning the music game. My quote \”Steve Jobs did to music what Bill Gates did to Software.\” Game over! They reaped what they sow.

My two cents! I had to find a way to survive. I\’ll be watching them. The phone calls and emails that went unaswered and the lies told by the music employees. Revenge is a record best heard on the computer!

I am taking this in two sections, label business and consumers.

Label Business
The very first thing that needs to happen in music today is quality control. Hip Hop is declining because their music is noise (lets be real, its garbage) with empty messages. At the height of Hip Hop and top selling artist of today, make a connection to the listen, has lyrical impact and has stayed true to the art that is Hip Hop.

Labels need to clean out their artist rosters. Interscope has something like 65 artists they recognize on their website as label artists. What you don\’t see are the 170 artists they have paid but will never release an album. Is it really worth all the expense? NO! This is an Econ 150 basic, companies that leverage their money correctly will come out on top. For example, say Def Jam paid $1 million to sign 5 low level roster artists. What makes more sense; use $1 million to promote a popular artist with high demand or signing 5 new artists that history predicts 91% will be dropped from the label without releasing 1 song?

Labels should realize by now, the market has changed and need to rethink the way they sign artists. This I have put a whole lot of thought into! If I owned a label, every contract would be incentive based. I know 15 artists right now, who could sell 200 each. Under my contract structure artists make more and labels net higher proceeds selling less albums.

Consumers
Labels need to become a self sustained machine again. Labels should own the platforms where music is being purchased.

Again Econ 150 lesson #2, sell records at a lower price. For example, the demand for an album priced at $15 is 100k copies but the demand for the same album priced at $12 is 300k copies. The math is simple! You make 2.1 million more on a lower priced album. Don\’t be fooled people, no matter what they try and tell you, it is really that simple.

Lower DL prices from $.99 to $.69. We are talking about volume. Own the platforms that service DL and make a larger percent of the revenue.

Consumers want better packaged albums. If Def Jam put together something called say \”The ROC\” series, where two artists get together and make one album. You could release more content more often at a higher quality. Why? When an artist only has to make 6 quality tracks the product is better. When they are forced to come up with 14 or more tracks, you get a lot of filler music. Here is the kicker. Now you have two teams pushing one album, built on incentive based contracts, consumers get a better product at a better price, labels spend less to make more and artists are \”rewarded\” for their performance, not their potential.