Poor Record Labels
For whatever reason, the world does not stop while I’m on vacation. I’m still scratching my head on this, I may register a complaint. But anyhoo - several major recording artists have decided to move off fully or slightly from the labels. At a time where the industry is furiously trying to keep itself relevant by vigorously railing against the future and suing it’s consumer base, this can’t be good news for the labels.
Radiohead was the first I happened to see, with their crazy name your price digital download and super fancy boxed version with extras. Of course, they’ll work with a label for the subsequent mass market distribution of plain disks, but clearly, this was a strike against the labels. Then there was the Nine Inch Nails announcement. And then the Madonna one.
Arguable, I think it’s the major stars who get the best deal from the labels - they have the most power to get themselves the best deals. The smaller acts it is my understanding, get - more or less - the shaft, financially speaking. So if these towers of pop culture power don’t see the benefit of the labels what does that say for the llabel’s business model? Yeah, it doesn’t say very much.
What the labels offer - ultimately - is massive distribution and promotion. So, to some degree, these massive stars have their own hype machine and their own gigantic fan base so they may not need help anymore. Perhaps the smaller acts, while getting a crappy contract, still benefit from the marketing and distribution that labels provide? The goal, I guess, is to get to the point where you are famous enough to negotiate a better contract with the label?
First, how many of these acts ever get to that point? Yeah, not many. The labels are sorta like web2.0 venture capitalists, they spread a little money around to lots of acts and hope that one of them becomes a megastar. And while it may be premature to say that the internet is just as good as getting your album in music stores, it’s clear that that time is probably not too far off. The Arctic Monkeys are a great example of this happening from the ground up, they started, they gave the finger to the labels and are selling out their shows.
There’s a new distribution model in town and it has nothing to do with printing shiny platters and shipping them off around the world. No matter with the RIAA does or who they sue, before too long there won’t be enough space in town for the two of them. The sooner they wise up to that and embrace it, rather than fight it tooth and nail the better it will be for all of us.
