Interesting development on the copyright front

Who cares, I can't find a new band worth buying their CD anyways...

It's a good thing when people can't make a copy of a Justin Timberlake CD. We don't need anymore of those things floating around. :lol:

I actually rather enjoy his new album...

Personal tastes aside, I think we are witnessing the death throes of the age of the "Big Music Industry"
They are becoming desperate because more and more "name" bands and new artists are starting to release material thru independent internet sites etc.

Really all the recording companys have to offer that artists cannot create for themselves at this point is the promotional machine that they still pretty much control.

Indeed - I read this morning that a CD price war is about to break out with some company or other halving the cost of most of their back catalogue (I meant to post a link this morning, but got distracted and I can't find the link now - typical :roll:).

Personal tastes aside, I think we are witnessing the death throes of the age of the "Big Music Industry"
They are becoming desperate because more and more "name" bands and new artists are starting to release material thru independent internet sites etc.

Really all the recording companys have to offer that artists cannot create for themselves at this point is the promotional machine that they still pretty much control.

The same thing sorta happened in the book/literature industry...recall Stephen Kings e-booK? Cut the publisher right out of the picture.....less overhead, less headache, more exposure...of course, only someone like Stephen King could do it.....

The thing is -- promotion and publicity is something that plenty of companies can provide at very reasonable prices.

Music companies can remain as important entities to the music industry -- but they will have to radically re-invent themselves as music promoters/publicists who:

a) are out to serve their client (the artist) and stop trying to screw them out of as much money as possible
b) are out to provide service to their client's customers (the music consumer) and stop trying to screw them out of as much money as possible.

The big music companies who figure this out will do very very well because the infrastructure they need to succeed is already in place.

But the era of "owning" an artist and their work is quickly coming to a close. The artists have been liberated.

On the promotion front -

Indie artists are doing it (have been) through the internet and locally. No, they won't get TV adds (at least not as of yet) and things of that nature but, it does give you world-wide exposure to a slightly lesser degree and I think that has it's benefits just as much as any marketing agency can do. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its better as of right now, but done correctly, it has its rewards.

I don't have a CD out yet but, just a little example. In my sig, I have a logo for my Indie work displayed on two sites and as of right now I have 1800 plays between 3 tracks and I've only been on myspace for 2 months. That equals out to @ 30 plays a day, not to bad IMHO. I've been getting some really good feedback and plan on doing a lot more. So, in time, if I grow a small world-wide audience, I'd be more than happy. :D

Plus, technology is so good and reasonably priced these days that I can, make my own banner/logo/ads, recordings, CD's, CD art and the list goes on. It's all in how much time you want to invest. The rewards are much greater when it is all self produced and supplied.

Then again, I'm not a money grubbing fiend. :lol:

So yeah, the music industry should be worried. 8)

On the promotion front -

Indie artists are doing it (have been) through the internet and locally. No, they won't get TV adds (at least not as of yet) and things of that nature but, it does give you world-wide exposure to a slightly lesser degree and I think that has it's benefits just as much as any marketing agency can do. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its better as of right now, but done correctly, it has its rewards.

I don't have a CD out yet but, just a little example. In my sig, I have a logo for my Indie work displayed on two sites and as of right now I have 1800 plays between 3 tracks and I've only been on myspace for 2 months. That equals out to @ 30 plays a day, not to bad IMHO. I've been getting some really good feedback and plan on doing a lot more. So, in time, if I grow a small world-wide audience, I'd be more than happy. :D

Plus, technology is so good and reasonably priced these days that I can, make my own banner/logo/ads, recordings, CD's, CD art and the list goes on. It's all in how much time you want to invest. The rewards are much greater when it is all self produced and supplied.

Then again, I'm not a money grubbing fiend. :lol:

So yeah, the music industry should be worried. 8)

Your operation is very cool.....

There's certain parallels to be drawn from this little story, I think. It's the transcript of a program about diamonds - long story short, the general populace is convinced of the rarity (and therefore value) of something that is actually pretty abundant, and could even be found lying around on the ground in some places. The power of marketing and monopolies :roll:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/1209.html

Mike wrote: They mean to say, I can't copy MY CD I bought? What happens if it breaks or gets scrathed because lets face it, they're not indestructable. They want me to buy another one?

Next they will start making them out of self-destructing material, to limit the amount of time you can use it before you have to replace it. :evil:

Margaret
Isn't that sort of what Microsoft is doing with Zune(coming out 11/14). Those things are going to have wireless that you can pass songs from one player to the next. You get 3 listens before you have to buy it. iTunes for M/S I suppose.

Who cares, I can't find a new band worth buying their CD anyways...

:lol:

It's tough balancing topping up the back catalogue and getting your mits on new CDs.
:D