Billboard article on how the music industry could thrive

[KingsGene]

What the Music Business Can Learn From the Gaming and Gambling Industries

"When it comes making money, the music industry – from labels, to artists, managers, promoters and venues – is stuck in the past. While the industry has embraced digital technology for production and distribution, almost everyone still insists on selling albums and songs. And while the industry continues to plod forward with its model of selling music "products," fans have moved on. They want music for free, but are willing to pay for music "experiences."

What can the music industry do to triple revenues in the next decade? Give away recorded music for free in exchange for fan data. The trick is to stop thinking like a record store employee intent on selling albums, and start thinking like a casino boss, who knows the best way to make money is to give free perks to the top patrons so they'll spend big at the card tables...."

 

[Justin G]

That's an interesting idea, though the author doesn't seem to take it much farther than a Kickstarter analysis. How would that work in the larger industry? Good read though. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Jasonic]

Larger bands have already embraced this.
Smashing Pumpkins actually won me back as a fan a couple years back when they started releasing songs for free downloads as they were recorded.

It is brilliant actually as they didn't release a song until it was ready.
What they churned out was like 12 great tunes over the course of like a year and a half or so.

So, in the end, SP had thousands if not millions of people worldwide regularly checking their official site for news or new tunes.

It helped with their name in the touring circuit as well.
a few years ago, they were back to playing theaters.
On their last tour, they were playing arenas.

Granted, once again, this is unique, as a band like SP who have the ability to do high quality home studio recordings can thrive.

Would be interesting to see how it could work for young bands, who do benefit from the promotional efforts of labels, etc.....

Regardless, this concept is hardly new in the music scene, so once again Billboard is about 5 years too late.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Granted, once again, this is unique, as a band like SP who have the ability to do high quality home studio recordings can thrive.

This is something I agree with. Some people have asked us why we don't give away our music for free, like SP and others. The difference is that bands who self-finance just don't have the money to put out high-quality for free. So this is a great strategy for bands who already have money/equipment/sponsors/ect, but maybe not so for smaller bands.

That being said, Dragonforce released their first songs online for free and that's how I came to know of them. I didn't realize until recently what a big difference their early (free) recordings were compared to their newer ones.

 

[nomisofsiman]

Larger bands have already embraced this.
Smashing Pumpkins actually won me back as a fan a couple years back when they started releasing songs for free downloads as they were recorded.

It is brilliant actually as they didn't release a song until it was ready.
What they churned out was like 12 great tunes over the course of like a year and a half or so.

So, in the end, SP had thousands if not millions of people worldwide regularly checking their official site for news or new tunes.

It helped with their name in the touring circuit as well.
a few years ago, they were back to playing theaters.
On their last tour, they were playing arenas.

Granted, once again, this is unique, as a band like SP who have the ability to do high quality home studio recordings can thrive.

Would be interesting to see how it could work for young bands, who do benefit from the promotional efforts of labels, etc.....

Regardless, this concept is hardly new in the music scene, so once again Billboard is about 5 years too late.

The problem with this you sort of hinted at which is, this works fine for bigger bands, but for smaller bands not so much. Also, the listening to each song as they come out requires a lot more effort on the fan. Mindflow for example did the same thing, and while I did download the first couple, I lost interest/forgot about it after a while.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Unimpressed. The author kind of tiptoes around his (or her?) thesis that the music industry should adopt a WDM model, but doesn't really explain what it should do with the model. Yet another "hurr I can change muzik 4ever with my radical 2deep4u theories" story that doesn't really saying anything with substance in the end. F, see me after class.

 

[adaher]

There's no surefire solution, if there was it would be the industry standard already.

Maybe we'll go back to the old model where rich patrons commission artists to make art. Isn't that how guys like Bach and Mozart used to do it?

 

[skyrefuge]

Hmm...

Whale = Sponsor
Dolphin = Gold Badge Holder
Minnow = Regular Ticket Buyer

It appears that at least one small segment of the "music industry" has figured out and implemented this strategy years ago.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

I mean alot of bands and their managers do this through things like VIP tickets for shows, fanclubs, etc. It's nothing particularly revolutionary, and it's not really enough to subsidize the costs of being a musician.

The WMD model works so well for casinos because the expectations for spending are so much higher. Individual spend hundreds or thousands of dollars there, and almost all of that money is profit for the casino. In music, not even "whales" don't spend as much (in comparison), and there are many hurdles to jump over before anyone makes a profit.

 

[No Username]

I like the article, simply because it provided an alternative viewpoint to an industry that seems, on the whole, to not want an alternate viewpoint and is suffering as a result.

I would not have a problem trading my email address and a little personal information for an authorized .flac download an album. If the record company was offering, say, a vinyl album signed by the band for a premium price to registered users, I would be inclined to buy it--even though I already have the downloaded content!

Many persons understand the value of a valid email list--if the record companies do not want to do it, the bands should. Music will no longer trace the majority of their income via the a brick-and-mortar industry. The music companies may not even make money with the music!

For hundreds of years musicians made their money by touring, because recordings did not exist. Now, musicians make their money by touring because recordings are free. It is time they got creative about generating extra income.