Future of the Industry

[timbreman]

I apologize in advance for posting this in the mastering forum but I am seeking the opinions of people who have been in the industry for awhile and know it well.
We are all familiar with where the music industry is going with P2P, Torrents, RIAA, and artists such as NIN and Radiohead taking completely new approaches in marketing by giving away their albums for free.
The labels are corrupt and the industry seems to be in desperate need for a major change but there dont seem to be any great answers that have come around yet.
So what is your take on the situation?
Where will the industry eventually end up?
Where do you think it SHOULD end up?
Please post your ideas.

[lofi]

well there are two (or three) opinions right now

1. music indrustry and all around it was created by God (altho there are vast number of gods, bethoven, hendrix, elvis, zappa, the beatles, malmsteen...etc wich are mostly non-compatibile) and it was basicly always like that you have described. of course today is P2P yesterday it was cassete but ya get the point. it will end up in complete soon to be noisegeddon and only the really talented and honest and inovative musicians, producers and alike will live forever with their work imprinted on universe. the rest will be forgotten in the hell of myspace. (or the similar stories). there are number of different books about this you can read and belive in.

2. music industry slowly evolved from silence and primitive sounds, musicianship, teqniques, equipment and financing practices to this very state it is in right now. there are no gods and it got here by itself and its still slowly evolving to who knows what. its is self adapting to enviorment changes and vast amount of tech fossils and old music recordings prove that theory (on elcassetes, dats, minidiscs, LPs, etc).

3. (kinda) its all an illusion and there is no music, and no music industry, and no real musicians or real mixing or mastering engs, and we are all just posting on some kind of so called "jules internet forum" of some sort and its simply not real and it could end any minute. but only very small number of ppl really go with this one so it could be discarded as highly improbable.

Where will the industry eventually end up?
Where do you think it SHOULD end up?

i dunno. it seems its up to gods if you belive or it will evolve no matter what i or you think or belive "it should do".



(hope this helps altho i think it doesnt have anything to do with mastering and should be moved)

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by timbreman

I apologize in advance for posting this in the mastering forum but I am seeking the opinions of people who have been in the industry for awhile and know it well.
We are all familiar with where the music industry is going with P2P, Torrents, RIAA, and artists such as NIN and Radiohead taking completely new approaches in marketing by giving away their albums for free.
The labels are corrupt and the industry seems to be in desperate need for a major change but there dont seem to be any great answers that have come around yet.
So what is your take on the situation?
Where will the industry eventually end up?
Where do you think it SHOULD end up?
Please post your ideas.

"Back To Mono"

Phil Spector--1962

The Industry is really on a knife-edge and the world economy is not helping matters. The pirates have already won the game and if you are a new artist trying to get your foot in the door today, your ****ed.

It has become a stagnant pond, just turn the radio on and you can smell it !

peter


I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones. John Cage (1912-1992)

[Bob Olhsson]

P2P has forced the industry back into the singles business.

This means the emphasis will shift to being on the quality of individual songs and the quality of individual singers rather than the quality of self-contained singer-songwriters and groups of the album era which began during the late 1960s.

In many ways it will become more of a meritocracy again however there will be a pretty drastic reduction in what most people can expect to get paid because the sales and promotion expense of a single is every bit as much as that of an album.

[timbreman]

Many analysts have mentioned things like giving away more free content and relying more on advertisements and/or live shows. Others have mentioned giving away free content in the cd's artists sell....for example NIN giving away a personally signed copy of his cd.
Any thoughts?

[Bob Olhsson]

Most "analysts" have a financial stake in internet industry stock values while they know very little about the entertainment industry or its history. In the real world every artist always has to find their own unique audience and this has always happened in a wide variety of different ways. The first sign of a fool or a rip-off artist is anybody claiming to have a formula.

[narcoman]

Piracy hasn't done the industry in. That is a very naive viewpoint perpetuated by many of my industry peers because hey don't want to see the truth....

In the 60's 70's and even 80's music was cool, rebellious and you could shock the older generations. Nowadays most "dads" listen to more rebellious tunes than the yoof. There is still great new music out there, but the goal has become success and fame......

Further, there are far more things to do with your "leisure cash". Add to that the dreams of record people looking for the "way in" and you have a complex recipe for ten times as many acts sharing the same wealth pot - hence less profit and less investment (in markets and talent). Less investment, as any economist will tell you, kills an industry.

I think we all also need to consider that music as the multi million spinning medium has just run its course. Music just isn't new any more - now let's let it return to art. I WANT the industry to follow its current course....

[Watersound]

You know what? In America I think that a good, painful recession will be just what music needs. Like the other poster above said, people have way too many options to spend their cash on but if that goes away for a while, I strongly believe it can only help because first of all, it will flush out all these wannabees that aren't doing it for real- they will all be too broke to even attempt it. Of course we need great new artists to come out, but we can also do without 50 million myspace pages filled with garbage.

As for the future, it's internet and live performing. it won't be long before TV and internet merge and then all radio/TV/Internet will be a single platform...and when it gets organized and hopefully properly regulated, it will become a tremendous marketing tool.