Facing The Music
from the say-goodbye dept
As if we haven't had enough stories about the entertainment industry lately... However, Michael Wolff's latest piece for New York Magazine is a great read. He predicts that the music industry is going the way of the book industry. While there were big writing "stars" 70 years ago, there are much fewer today. The majority of "successful" writers just get by. Wolff thinks that's going to be the model for music. He looks at the business model issues, and points out that the folks who run the music industry aren't exactly known for their smarts. He describes them as "thugs" with street smarts - but not necessarily the intelligence to realize what's actually happening to their industry. That's as good an explanation as any I've read as to how they can be so blind to not realize the opportunity they may have already missed. He also mentions that, in reality, the music industry has always been about technology. They've never really been selling music. They've been selling CDs. Part of the reason the music industry rebounded over the past decade was that everyone had to replace all their old records and tapes with CDs. It was the technology. And, now, along comes this new technology - and the music industry doesn't own it - and doesn't know what to do.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Rock is dead. Long Live Rock!
In short, as long as there are teenagers, there will be a music/culture market for music, movies, games and other mall product. The Internet will not kill music/movies/games. It will add an additional channel to monetize those products. Didn't we figure this out already?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Rock is dead. Long Live Rock!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Rock is dead. Long Live Rock!
Not that it matters, but I'm in a band called Gnome Attic. We're just starting out(we're five months in the making). I'd like to hear what you think. We have a couple of real rough cuts of some of our songs. Check out www.gnomeattic.com.
"I thank the lord there's people out there like you."
--Elton John
[ link to this | view in chronology ]