Is ‘Australian Music In Tune’?

May 12, 2008

I don’t want to wade into a discussion of the merits of the Australian Music In Tune film, produced by the Australian music industry (original press item here), which features quite a few of Australia’s bigger names in music. However, I do want to draw further attention to the comments of Lindsay McDougall from Frenzel Rhomb. McDougall has complained of being ‘duped’ into the project and in his rejection of the film (from his own personal standpoint, as published in ‘Musician ‘duped’ into anti-piracy video’ in The Age) says:

I’m from a punk rock band, it’s all about getting your music out any way you can – you don’t make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem.

This hits a bullseye with the way things are moving in terms of music and its distribution and monetisation. The record company is dead, face it. Before recorded music, people made money through performance. With the advent of recorded music, record companies came to dominate the scene with their control of the marketing and distribution channels and exacted a huge fee from anyone involved. Now we are coming around again to where recorded music is taking a back seat to other aspects of the music industry.

The ubiquity of cheap or free downloadable music, whether it be illegal downloads through P2P services or legitimate online distribution models, such as that used by Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, is slowly strangling the record companies. Their bastions of distribution and marketing have been eroded by the open nature of the internet and they are not moving to adjust their position. With cheap bandwith for distribution and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook for promotion, the record companies are losing their grip on the artists and the consumer. In fact, they are quickly becoming the enemy of the consumer.

As McDougall puts it, ‘If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem’. Instead of making films defending an outdated business model, their energies would be better spent working out where they can add value in the industry and to the punter. Instead of ruthlessly defending a failing market position, they should be actively seeking a new position in the emerging markets. Now is the time. Start looking at performance promotion, online distribution, merchandising, endorsements, special editions, all types of other value-adds; these are where the new dollars are.

Give the music away, seriously. Let it act as promotion for these new products. The music will find its way out there anyway. The money is still there, find a new way to take it.

The record industry needs to come to terms with a new product, or else be stuck with the equivalent of trying to sell VHS tapes and 8-tracks to a consumer who despises them.

Posted in Music