LOUD THINKING: What I think should be fixed in the music industry

Last week I read an article about Guvera and went online to register. I started the process by clicking register. Anwered a bunch of questions about who I am and where I live. I used from the two options (Australia and USA) my US address and registered. First I needed to build my profile. Traveling >> What do you like and set my preferences. This so a more contextual approach in serving me ads can be made. After going through this 10 minute process I got an email saying it worked and as soon as my region and account are activated I will be able to access free downloads.

Now this is whats going to happen. They will see that my IP address is in the Netherlands and will not allow me to download anything, but I will be spammed till I really hate them for offers on Safaris, diving trips and other trips they can sell to me because they have a client that wants to make me offers based on my self edited profile.

It will take them forever before the whole world is cleared and even with 30$ mio in funding they wont be able to make this happen. Why? Because its retarded to clear rights for music on the internet territory, by territory, label by label, publisher/collecting society etc.. The internet is a territory on itself and not fixing the broken rights issues will cause investors to shy away from music and support illegal use of music and so forth on the internet. This is the big problem out there today. Me as a humble music lover will shy away from services like this, Spotify and many others. 

On top of that I dont think that advertising is going to be the holey grail in music. It will get spread thin if movies, e-books etc. will also become available under this model. The it feels free ideas and future outlooks will in the long run never work. I think the industry should have a sustainable outlook as priority number one on their agenda. Its all about the music and how to make music available to the global audiences. I don't want freaking advertising every time I listen to a song. I love iTunes for what it is. Hassle free music. The price is an issue, but soon that won't be the issue anymore and if I look at the average price per song its ok. (Think through here ;-)

So how to fix this? Thinking about this I start with the people that create the music. From there it will flow to people that listen to music. In between we need a mechanism that is fair, fast and reliable. What is that mechanism? Not one solution that solves all misery will exist. This is an everything, everywhere, NOW era. So many businesses will be in the middle, facilitating the basic process of making music available. 

Today the writers and composers have their own universe and the performing artist have another. I believe we should look at bringing all artists interests together and allow one global license for music. All parties that represent, collect money or perform some kind of duty today should add value in the future. If not they should go away and leave more margin for parties that actually add value.

This brings another issue to the table. The issue of complacency. If you need to kill yourself to let other live will you do it? Maybe if it concerns your family or best friends. But in the though, impersonal business climate of today I don't think collecting societies, record companies, publishers will do what is best for the greater good, but will defend their position as long as they can. Some will reinvent, most will die and few will collaborate (on a global scale) to fix the things that are broken.  

Personally I don't have all the answers to all of these problems. I can only do what I think makes sense. That's why I run my own business and try hard to make a difference. Along the way I have learned that what is better don't always becomes a new reality. Our ability to innovate is constrained by ego's, personal interest and lots of other reasons of greed. The greater good is never a serious consideration in board rooms and business meetings. But I believe in the creative force in artists and trust that one day artists will understand the power of technology and innovation. Because I believe they hold the key to a new reality for their business and things could and should be simple again. Because at the end of the day the artist can not be touring every day. This because an artist is human in the first place. Wants to see his/her spouse, kids and have fun too and should get paid for the hard work they put in every day in making something enjoyed by many. Why should that feel for free? It just doesn't make sense. The internet should not disrupt good sense, but distribute good sense in a much more efficient way. Not just for music, but for everything we humans do on this planet. I foresee a future where the artists will adapt and become more business savvy. When that happens I fear for the existence of all those businesses trying hard to make a $ out of all the beautiful and ugly art created.

I'm am not saying here that all record labels are full of shit and all publishers and collecting societies should die. It's loud thinking and searching for a solution to make it work again and bring back prosperity in the business. I think everything that exist has a reason for existence and great companies have been created to deal with great artists and it all worked fine. But today and in the future different things are needed, reality changed. Its like thinking of a world with flying cars. Companies that make roads will be out of business if they don't anticipate on change. To be continued...

Comments

[Strategies]

Also ich denke dies war lediglich eine Trendsache

[Christian Louboutin Outlet]

Interesting. I had no idea that this even existed.t's cool and helpful but I didn't do it for a long enough period of time,I have never seen any amazing results from these private internet radio networks.