How To Force Music Labels To Change

from the beat-'em-at-their-own-game dept

The latest column by Robert von Goeben makes some good points about the music industry. He says that the current record labels will simply never change. They're making too much profit the way things are going right now. Offering them a technology solution doesn't make any difference. The only way to force them to change is by starting newer labels that take advantage of the internet to beat the old companies at their own game. As the musicians themselves start to make more money and gain more fame with some new labels (who actually care about getting their artists' music out there), the old record labels will finally be forced to adapt or die. It's the typical disruptive technologies argument - and it's probably right. It does support my theory that the music industry is shooting itself in the foot by trying to resist and hinder new technologies.
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2002 @ 12:29pm

    No Subject Given

    unusually large number of news.com stories today - how about digging a little deeper and providing with some links that we can't easily find ourselves? Thanks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Mary Jaekl, 5 Jun 2002 @ 1:52pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      4 out of 15 is a little higher than usual, but isn't exactly excessive...

      Furthermore, part of the reason *I* read Techdirt is to get technology/business news all in one place. I'm trusting Mike et co to select the interesting stuff from news.com (not just the obscure sites) so that I don't have to go to the news places I can easily find myself and read the rest of the drivel posted there.

      :)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 5 Jun 2002 @ 1:57pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      Thanks for the feedback. We do appreciate it.

      However, I will explain my reasoning for the news.com stories - as I've done before.

      (1) News.com tends to get stories before anyone else. If they have the stories and no one else does - and the story is interesting and worth commenting on, I'm going to post it.

      (2) News.com also doesn't archive or get rid of old articles, so News.com stories are easier to look up going forward.

      (3) News.com doesn't use annoying pop up ads.

      (4) Techdirt isn't just about finding obscure news. It's about being a filter for interesting technology/business news. As such we post whatever stories we find interesting, no matter where they're from. There are other sites out there that focus on obscure news. We never intended to be one of them.

      (5) A lot of the reason people seem to like Techdirt is the way we summarize and comment on the articles - and not due to the specific links themselves.

      That said, we're always looking all over for news articles. On a typical day, we review in the range of 150 sources. If News.com happens to have the interesting articles (and they often do) then we're going to use them.

      So, I do appreciate your feedback, and we will keep it in mind. In exchange, please keep in mind the points I've made here.

      Also, if you're really interested in having us find something very specific for you, feel free to contact Techdirt Corporate Intelligence with your needs, and we can put together a very reasonable offer for you.

      Thanks.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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