Is this the last waltz for the music biz?
The nostalgia for vinyl is up, but CD sales are in double-digit freefall. With every genre taking a hit, sales were down 20 percent in 2008 from the year before -- and that’s the seventh decline in the last eight years.
The once venerable “album” has basically become a thing of the past, as consumers, via iTunes, Amazon and the like, exercise their right to cherry-pick only the songs they want. File sharing is still taking a huge bite out of the profit pie, as fans prefer the nice but illegally downloaded price of free.
Even touring, which has thrived in recent years, took a dive this summer. Behemoth promoter Live Nation said sales were down as fans felt the recession pinch of soaring ticket prices.
It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better -- but here at TheWrap, the beat goes on, with a few suggestions that that might, just might, provide the blueprint for a brighter future.
Take a listen.
1. MAKE IT FREE ... OR ALMOST FREE
It’s hard to tell people -- even if you try to appeal to their law-abiding tendencies -- to pay for something they can easily get for free. The Recording Industry Association of America may be trying to scare consumers by pursing them in the courts for sharing songs online, with defendants like Jammie Thomas Rasset of Minnesota being ordered to pay $1.92 million for getting 24 songs off the Kazaa site … but that genie is just not getting back in the bottle anytime soon.
So, if you can’t beat ‘em or catch ‘em, seduce ‘em.
Presently iTunes sets the price for individual tracks at around 99 cents, which is cheap but not free. But what if the industry started selling tracks for less than 10 cents? And what if, using the proven successful market model of peer-to-peer services, they got the fans involved in the process -- rewarding them for passing new tunes on to friends and family?
So I recommend a track to you via text, you buy it for 10 cents, and I get a portion of that -- or something else like an iTouch, depending on how many tracks I help sell?
Sure, 10 cents isn’t 99 cents, and sure there are lots of people who’ll complain it is just more bloodletting -- but that’s because they act like it’s 1989 not 2009. Lower the price point, and you undercut the very foundation of illegal downloading. Think of all the people who will be overjoyed to be assured of tracks that sound good, don’t contain viruses and are what they say they are.
Think of all the music fans suddenly willing to participate in the process again? That’s billions and billions of dollars suddenly re-injected into the industry.
And you know what billions and billions are? That’s real money. Seriously.
2. THE WHITE GUY
Jack White is becoming not just the voice but the vehicle of his generation.
