{"id":984,"date":"2007-10-24T08:21:44","date_gmt":"2007-10-24T16:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/10\/24\/the-revolution\/"},"modified":"2007-10-24T08:21:44","modified_gmt":"2007-10-24T16:21:44","slug":"the-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/24\/the-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s be clear.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the BEST of times for music and musicians.\u00c2\u00a0 The stranglehold of big radio and big labels has been broken.\u00c2\u00a0 AND THEY DON’T LIKE IT!<\/p>\n

The majors’ power comes from a monopoly on physical distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 But physical distribution’s days are history.\u00c2\u00a0 And anybody can purvey their wares alongside that of the majors’ online.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, you don’t even have to employ the majors’ business model.\u00c2\u00a0 You can give the music away for FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 You NEVER have to charge for it.\u00c2\u00a0 You never have to play live.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t have to play by any of the majors’ rules AT ALL!<\/p>\n

But don’t you want to get on the radio?<\/p>\n

The people making the music, who are rejecting the majors’ game, DON’T LISTEN TO TERRESTRIAL RADIO!\u00c2\u00a0 Why would they want their music alongside Britney’s and that of the other posers?\u00c2\u00a0 It would be DEVALUED!\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t listen to the radio and neither do their FANS!<\/p>\n

But what about TV?\u00c2\u00a0 You want to be on TV, don’t you?<\/p>\n

No.\u00c2\u00a0 TV shortens acts’ careers.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, major labels can still find people who want instant fame.\u00c2\u00a0 But more acts see that Pearl Jam is the only band broken on MTV that still has its bona fides and a career intact, and they won’t go on the boob tube.<\/p>\n

Our money.\u00c2\u00a0 You want our money.<\/p>\n

Some do.\u00c2\u00a0 But that cash comes at a price.\u00c2\u00a0 And that price IS EVER GROWING!\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t only don’t want to pay royalties, you want a piece of touring, merch, all 360 degrees of revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 And when it’s all said and done, YOU still own the record, even though sales paid for it.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a business proposition?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe acts will take it when there’s no other game in town.\u00c2\u00a0 But those days are through.<\/p>\n

The majors’ game is based on control.\u00c2\u00a0 And a narrow sphere of availability.\u00c2\u00a0 Neither of which is in existence anymore.<\/p>\n

So, we’re living in an era of chaos.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only is the future incomprehensible, SO IS THE PRESENT!\u00c2\u00a0 But it won’t last forever.\u00c2\u00a0 But those making change are not those who WERE in power.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re not willing to take chances, not willing to INNOVATE!\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n

(Read Seth Godin for edification: Radiohead and the mediocre middle<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The majors made music free, not the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Napster offered to pay.\u00c2\u00a0 So many people offered to pay.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Verizon.\u00c2\u00a0 But the labels wouldn’t take the money.\u00c2\u00a0 They wanted to protect Best Buy and Wal-Mart, who have got NO LOYALTY TO THEM!\u00c2\u00a0 (Meanwhile, they continually fucked the indie retailers in the ass.)\u00c2\u00a0 They wanted the CD economic model.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era where people buy iPods capable of holding thousands of tracks, computer hard drives have the capability of holding TENS OF THOUSANDS OF TRACKS!\u00c2\u00a0 To deny this reality is to try and get everybody to do their word processing on IBM Selectrics!<\/p>\n

The future is here.\u00c2\u00a0 The only ones not embracing it are the old wave players.<\/p>\n

Songwriters…\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t bitch at the public stealing your wares, scream at the labels who wouldn’t embrace new business models.\u00c2\u00a0 Who turned down every innovation the Silicon Valleyites came up with.<\/p>\n

Oh sure, it wasn’t this simple.\u00c2\u00a0 Napster wanted to make money too.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was clear the labels had to do SOMETHING…but what did they do?\u00c2\u00a0 NOTHING!<\/p>\n

They killed Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 They killed Kazaa.\u00c2\u00a0 Today they killed Oink.\u00c2\u00a0 Did ANY of these efforts increase legitimate sales?\u00c2\u00a0 NO!\u00c2\u00a0 A failed strategy, wouldn’t you say?<\/p>\n

So what do the labels do?\u00c2\u00a0 As delineated above, ask YOU, the MUSICIAN, for a bigger piece of the pie.\u00c2\u00a0 FOR WHAT?<\/p>\n

The majors are out of touch.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is no longer about videos, but the live experience.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why concert tickets cost so much.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d think labels would invest in touring acts.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re too hard to break.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t anyone give the labels a break?<\/p>\n

WHATEVER you do, don’t give the labels a break.\u00c2\u00a0 They just want to put a drag on the future, control you, milk more money before the inevitable decline occurs.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the decline has been going on for almost a DECADE and now it’s getting worse and they’re doing NOTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they’re suing Usenet.\u00c2\u00a0 Usenet was more popular back in 2000.\u00c2\u00a0 Hadn’t they heard of it then?\u00c2\u00a0 Why didn’t they sue it THEN?\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that those plotting strategy are too busy going to lunch and playing golf to be net-savvy?<\/p>\n

Yes, the future is controlled by those familiar with keyboards and mice, not radio payoffs.\u00c2\u00a0 If you make the music, align yourself with new, honest businessmen.\u00c2\u00a0 With transparent accounting.\u00c2\u00a0 Who love your MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 Fans…keep acquiring the music the way you want to consume it.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the ONLY WAY change will happen.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels don’t want to lead, they follow at best.\u00c2\u00a0 A buck a track is bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 Ten bucks a month from EVERYBODY is a better business model.\u00c2\u00a0 But the labels will only allow this if they’ve got CONTROL, if it’s a RENTAL MODEL!<\/p>\n

There IS NO CONTROL!\u00c2\u00a0 Face it!\u00c2\u00a0 The genie can’t be put back in the bottle.\u00c2\u00a0 Deal with reality old farts.<\/p>\n

The field is wide open for young entrepreneurs.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’ll control the filter, what to listen to, as radio continues to falter, and will control sales, when music is paid for once again.<\/p>\n

Revolutions don’t happen without revolt.\u00c2\u00a0 The public has been revolting since 2000.\u00c2\u00a0 And those in power have continued to sit in Versailles.\u00c2\u00a0 The beheading has begun.\u00c2\u00a0 CD sales will sink even further after Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you see Apple’s numbers?\u00c2\u00a0 Once you get an iPod, you don’t WANT a CD!<\/p>\n

What do the majors say to this?\u00c2\u00a0 Apple is the ENEMY!<\/p>\n

Apple is not the enemy.\u00c2\u00a0 People love their iPods more than they love your labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Because iPods enrich their lives.\u00c2\u00a0 That hasn’t been the label’s mantra for decades.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about theft, about rip-off.\u00c2\u00a0 The public’s moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to chase people, play by their rules, because they’re NEVER COMING BACK TO YOU!<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s be clear.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the BEST of times for music and musicians.\u00c2\u00a0 The stranglehold of big radio and big labels has been broken.\u00c2\u00a0 AND THEY DON’T LIKE IT! The majors’ power comes from a monopoly on physical distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 But physical distribution’s days are history.\u00c2\u00a0 And anybody can purvey their wares alongside that of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-fS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}