Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Recording Industry and MP3s

Author:Greg Pierce
Posted:5/5/1999; 6:33:58 AM
Topic:Recording Industry and MP3s
Msg #:5677
Prev/Next:5676 / 5678

In todays' DaveNet you make some valid comments on the record industry. It's a system that desparately needs change, not just because technology is changing...but because of what it has done to the music of the country.

I'm a musician and I love music. For a long time I thought I wanted to work in the Music industry...I did my undergraduate work at NYU in their renown Music Businesss program, working and doing internships at record companys and also MTV. But I came to realize that what was going on in the hallways of those businesses had nothing to do with music I loved. It had to do with physical product, and moving that product in anyway possible.

That's why MP3s strike the core of the industry. Even the copyright laws are structured around the distribution of a physical product. Record labels will eventually try to move into this market, kicking and screaming as you say, but they will also fail because they will have a similar vision to what describe...they will try to treat MP3 (or any other electronic format) as physical product.

Copyright laws already have the framework necessary to change this. Performance royalties. Mechanical royalties are what's paid on CDs, records, other physical product. ASCAP, BMI and several other organizations represent artists in the collection and distribution of royalties based on the performance of their material...that includes radio, clubs, restaurants that play music in the background, etc.

These agencies should be the wave of the future, as far as I see. Develop tracking mechanisms and streaming technology, it would not be difficult to develop statistically valid samplings of what music is going where and how often it's being played. Collect fees on usage in commercial settings...divide it up.

Give the music away!!! Get paid when people listen to it!!! It's not that radical a concept. Artists should be all over this, because as it is, the record industry has already seen to it with clever accounting, advances, charge backs on studio and video production costs and such that artists will not make any money on their records, only the record companies will (unless you're a multi-platinum artist--but how many of them can there be). Most indie artists that are making a go of it professionally make their money from touring and merchandising.

The other benefit of this, is that people can truly judge music again, and not be forced to consume that music that the record companies see fit to package for us. The cost of entry is dissolved just as the web has done for publishing...anyone can make their music available...anyone can be a rock'n'roll star!

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