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The Decline of the Hit Culture
Review By The Stig
Simply, it is the business of record companies to find talented musicians, offer them a recording contract and provide professional expertise that facilitate international development opportunities that otherwise would not exist. Like any business, they operate with a view to producing maximum profit, and therefore ensuring longer term sustainability. Their power, role and influence should never be undermined, given the fact that their contributions are underpinned by the traditional concept of the music charts, their infamous relationship with the mass media players of television, radio and print, as well as within regulatory bodies such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America & the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), and not withstanding their historical legacy of maintaining one of the greatest forms of human expression. Any questions?
The traditional method for a band to get noticed was to play a gig, become popular with a local audience and then to attract the attention of an A & R (Artist & Repertoire) representative, who could assist in securing a publishing contract. This system operates on the sole premise that there is a non-replaceable cost factor involved in the production & marketing of the physical item, i.e. a record, tape, or compact disk, and that the record labels have an exclusive relationship with the production, distribution & retail businesses which contribute to the economy of pricing, volume & profit distribution. To date, record companies have provided the majority of the financial backing to break and establish an artist, but have not shared significantly in the revenue created from concerts, merchandise, sponsorship and so forth. As this is a purely subjective affair as to how much money one person deserves as opposed to another, I will refrain to comment, but I will say that it depends entirely on what interests you have more at heart!
Despite the home taping / Sony Walkman debacle of the 1980’s, the rise of the digital download (MP3) represents a significant change in the distribution & the nature of discovering and nurturing fresh talent. This is because file sharing mechanisms on the internet have eliminated the traditional physical costs associated with the manufacturing and marketing of the “ copy ”. The profit margins of the labels are now decreasing whereas new media revenue streams are growing at an unprecedented rate. As an example, the legalisation of Napster (http://www.napster.com) and the emergence of Qtrax (http://www.qtrax.com) within the “ music licensing ” arena have induced a new age of music marketing, which has yet to be fully standardised, with the industry scrambling around for the largest piece of the pie. This new open system of distribution is currently manifesting itself throughout the different forms of media, with interesting developments emerging from the Asian market.
This means that major record labels now need to change the way in which they sell music, and re-define the function that they fulfil as part of the Mechanisms of the Music Industry. They need to protect their central position within the coming stages of Web 3.0. This is not an easy task, given the fluid nature of technology & the internet, but re-assuringly the labels have, and will continue, to develop different ways of delivering music to the general public. A perfect example of this would be the appointment of top Google executive Douglas Merrill to drive digital growth for EMI Music Publishing.
The bottom line is that the industry needs to be open minded, flexible and pro-active in its approach to changing technology and consumer trends, and the most crucial challenge for the record labels now is to continue to sign and encourage the superstars of tomorrow, and to set new standards for the publishing of music in the future.
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