The (New) Music/Record Companies: Seriously What’s All The Fuss About?!
My insecurities about the industry and the search for what makes it tick drove me to writing this article.
In the course of the last decade we (the music industry) have been predicting and contributing to our own death- one for which never seem to come around. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying is all blossoming but is neither as gloom as we paint the prospects.
There is no doubt the industry and our civilization as a whole finds itself in transcendental times. Advances in technology, morphing of the human biology, changes in aesthetics all attest to this phenomenon. Commence us we sometimes fail to recognize is not an island, its part of the bigger WE (human). Therefore there is no doubt that as our attitudinal and aesthetic preferences evolve, so shall the institutions that seek to capitalize on them.
First lets not ignore the fact that music (record) industry is as much commerce as the art it seeks to distribute. Thus, the basic principles of economics apply.
My favorite basic principle for the free market is Adam Smith’s invisible hand theory. According to Adam Smith there are three propellers of the invisible hand: self-interest; competition; and supply and demand.
So hypothetically speaking: record consumers represent self-interest; industry institutions (production and distribution, record companies, streaming sites etcetera) represent competitors; artist and consumers together with industry institutions represent supply and demand side respectively.
Now, basing on the assumption that if each consumer is allowed to choose freely what to buy and the form of consumption (Cds, illegal or legal downloads, ad supported streaming, purchased cloud services, radio etcetera) and each producer is allowed to choose freely what to sell and how to produce it (DIY, indie or major), the market will settle on a product distribution (forms of consumption) and prices that are beneficial to all the individual members (consumers, artists and various institutions) of an industry, and hence to the industry as a whole.
Having made a connection between the invisible hand and music industry, I return to my initial stance. Time should not be wasted speculating on which App, business model and or service that will be the ultimate game changer saving the supposed “dying” industry. As a matter of fact I think there is not going to be a single game changer. So just focus on a segment you seek to serve, look out for your best (self) interest, be better than the competition (providing superior service), the rate of demand and supply will be appropriated by the market’s invisible hand.
The music industry is not dying nor is it in need of a savior, is just unfolding in a manner in which the gray haired execs couldn’t have imagined. Let it be and just be.
