More Singles
Fans buy albums.
Casual buyers purchase singles.
The major labels got away with it for a while, before Napster, before the iTunes Music Store, because the ONLY WAY to get the single was TO BUY the album. There was no Internet back in the nineties fanning the flames of the story that as soon as a single caught fire, it was deleted, and you HAD to buy the album.
And then, since people continued to buy the album, just to hear that one track, the labels ONLY FOCUSED on that one track. It’s a rare Top Forty act that puts out a listenable album these days. There’s too much on the line. If a label signs you to go on the hit parade, they focus on a couple of tracks at most, since Top Forty DOESN’T PLAY ALBUMS! They’ve been doing this for a decade. And THAT’S what killed the album, not the Internet, not digital music. Everybody on the street knew the track was the only good thing the act did, why PAY for the album?
But there were still artists putting out more than one good track. But, as time progressed, major labels released the records of fewer and fewer of these acts. Because there was NOWHERE TO HEAR THEM! Check terrestrial radio formats. Show me the free format rock station. Hell, show me the station that plays more than a limited number of tracks! Oh, there ARE a few. But SO few, that kids stopped listening to the radio. The mainstream learned about the hits from MTV and now buy the singles from the iTunes Music Store. And THAT’S fucked. That’s a way to go out of business.
Yes, here’s reality. Only CASUAL music buyers frequent the iTunes Music Store. No FAN would use it. Because they consider singles a RIP-OFF!
Come on. Back in the sixties. Even the seventies. YOU stopped buying singles. Because they were a raw deal. If you liked the single, you bought the album, figuring there would be more great tunes ON IT! Maybe you even heard a few of those songs on FM radio. That whole paradigm is dead. Replaced by one wherein the average consumer distrusts the music industry and will only purchase the track he wants. Whereas fans want EVERYTHING! And everything doesn’t make economic sense at the iTunes Music Store. Which is why it’s a sideshow and is aiding in the marginalization of major labels. Now, the average person buys LESS music! Is this a solution to the major labels’ economic woes?
A fan ain’t getting everything he wants by an act at the iTunes Music Store. He uses the Net. Whether it be P2P. Or IM. Or newsgroups. Or, he gets a friend to burn him a CD of what he wants. Or bring over his CDs to rip. Or bring over his HARD DRIVE to transfer maybe ALL his tracks. THIS is technological reality. THIS is what the major labels want to deny. THIS is what is going to kill them.
Take a look at photography. Read today’s story in the "New York Times"
Kids are snapping self-portraits CONSTANTLY! They’re PHOTO JUNKIES! And you know why? BECAUSE PHOTOGRAPHY IS FREE!
The entertainment industry just doesn’t realize this. The younger generation places a value on TOOLS, not software. They think THEY construct the end solution. Until the music companies and movie companies and TV companies allow kids to use their wares and build their own stuff they’re going to fall further behind the curve. Because people can do it anyway. There are snippets OF ALL of these media on the Web. But rather than charge for this use, rather than authorize it, the entertainment behemoths believe they can quash this usage. How fucking ignorant.
First and foremost, you’ve got to get into the head of the consumer.
The consumer may think the iTunes Music Store is a joke, but not his iPOD! The iPod is his MOST TREASURED DEVICE! Allowing him to take THOUSANDS of songs with him whenever and wherever he goes. THAT’S the paradigm. You must charge for the enabling. Do you think everybody’s iPod is empty? No, they’re FULL, and the labels AREN’T BEING PAID FOR THIS!
So they go into business with someone like Amazon.
Amazon might have the credit cards of parents, but not kids.
Then, Amazon has to convince parents to lay down fifteen bucks a month for music that’s evanescent when NOW the kid’s music budget is far less than that, and he gets to KEEP the music. And kids must convince their parents, because KIDS don’t have CREDIT CARDS!
Sure, you can see a music subscription like a cell phone subscription, but a kid NEEDS a cell phone. He doesn’t NEED a music subscription. He can already get just about everything he wants for FREE! Or, if he’s a casual music fan, he’s spending SO LITTLE at the iTunes Music Store that it’s not CLOSE to fifteen bucks a month.
Isn’t this a ridiculous situation. We had the original Napster. Which made EVERYBODY a music fan. It was cool, it was a community, it had EVERYTHING! And now that system has been replaced with one that DOESN’T have everything and DOESN’T allow you to try before you buy AND charges the same aliquot price per track as a CD. SO, casual fans buy and listen to LESS music. While REAL fans get their wares via illicit means.
We’ve got to make people fans of acts once again. This singles business is KILLING the major labels.
Then again, who gives a shit about the major labels. The new paradigm is an all-in-one company. Building a culture around a band. Hits are irrelevant. Fan devotion is what counts. And with this devotion comes a willingness to buy EVERYTHING the act has for sale. Tickets to shows, merchandise AND the CDs, even though the music is available for free. FURTHERMORE, these people sell the band via word of mouth.
Nobody is selling the singles act. They might e-mail the track, but they won’t go to see the band. There’s nothing TO see. Check Jessica Simpson’s grosses. Why see her? She’s a CELEBRITY, not a MUSICIAN!
The musician is going to rule again. And if you don’t realize this, you’re going to be marginalized or made irrelevant all together.
Satiate the core. Make this core believers. And don’t do ANYTHING to alienate this core. Fuck MTV, fuck radio, fuck the press. They cheapen an act. Just use the Net to serve the fan with no intermediary.
License P2P and you’ll build MORE fan bases. With easy acquisition of tracks, people will check more stuff out. Hell, CD sales were at their HEIGHT in 2000 when the original Napster was RAGING! Do you think that’s irrelevant?
AND, the number of tracks sold of classic rock acts is DWARFED by those traded. Because people believe in those old acts. They functioned OUTSIDE the system, not WITHIN IT!
The song remains the same. Be a renegade, be truthful, be a musician, don’t do what Clive tells you, don’t write with Diane Warren or Max Martin, and people will believe in you.
Music is the mass medium of the outsider. It’s cheap to make and easy to sell. The fact that the major labels have jacked up recording and marketing costs does not deny the paradigm. More music for more people. That’s the way out of this mess.
