Musicians Need Business Models, Not Charity
from the not-this-again dept
You have to give the new website LaLa.com credit for one thing: they know how to generate a ton of publicity for nothing special. When they first came out, we noted how they got a lot of big name publications to write about them, with not a single one noting that the company's idea wasn't even remotely new, and that other companies in the space had come and gone, because it just wasn't that appealing. A month later, they got a nice, but absolutely bizarre, writeup in the NY Times, suggesting that the startup (which has raised $9 million from venture capitalists) had a strategy that involved not making a profit. The company isn't doing anything new. There are tons of CD trading sites out there, and there were a bunch in the past that failed. The worst, part, though, was the positioning that this was some sort of "legal alternative" to file trading, ignoring that plenty of people who would use the system would probably first rip their CDs into MP3s before getting rid of the CDs. Since then, whenever we write about the RIAA, one person (always from the same IP address) comments on our site trying to position LaLa as some sort of anti-RIAA service, which makes no sense. Today, the story gets even more ridiculous. LaLa has officially launched, and is getting plenty of press coverage for announcing that the company is starting a "charity" for musicians, and will contribute 20% of revenue to this foundation. Beyond being a cheap publicity stunt, this is sending the wrong message. It suggests that musicians somehow need "charity" to survive. What musicians need is not charity, but to learn how to embrace one of the many different new business models that some musicians have figured out. For those musicians, they seem to be making out quite well -- without the need for some random "charity" from a site that seems unlikely to make enough money to make much of a difference anyway.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.
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Can't put my finger on it
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Shocked!
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Art and business
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Art and business hand in hand !
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No charity required
There are literally thousands of us out there that have not only embraced new venues and means of distribution - we have come to enjoy it. Never before have musicians been pour their soul, sweat, tears, and time into a work - then have it distributed to the world in minutes. I love the thousands of "listens", comments, and downloads I have gotten - and I'm not even one of the really great independent musicians out there. It's great to be heard and it's even cooler when folks buy your indie downloads/cds/merch to support you.
What do musicians need? Encouragement, support, kind and constructive criticizm, and FANS, FANS, FANS, and FANS - not a charity.
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Somewhat Agreed
I also question the advertising that says trade CDs for $1. The cost is really $1.49, which seems to be buried in the middle of most articles. In reality, the cost or 1 CD = 1 CD + $1.49. This is still better than trying to trade in a brick and mortar, though.
Even though I'm currently ignoring the questionable longevity of lala's business model, and the facts that some of the CDs I've gotten seemed like the previous owners stored them in steel wool, I have to say that trading CDs on Lala is pretty addictive for the price.
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its not just music and art, its business !
everyone starting up in business must at least visit www.x7.com at least once. follow the links and look out for news articles.
Brilliant !
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music is a business respect it like one !
everyone starting up in business must at least visit www.x7.com at least once. follow the links and look out for news articles.
Brilliant !
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sorry
and if you need to know about it
visit www.x7.com
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Charity Sells
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Musicians make their money from touring anyway. Damn, I guess that means I have to get up off my ass and tour... I'd could (or would) never be a pop princess anyway, I have too many thoughts.
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but you never really explained why lala isn't anti-RIAA. do you really think that the RIAA wouldn't stop a business like lala if it could? I've swapped over 100 cd's on lala and probably 30% or more have gone on to other users.
I'm quite sure that the RIAA would claim that my 30% re-traded represents piracy and would they would also assume that the next person in line would have bought all those CDs at full retail so the industry lost $xxx because of lala.
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They can solicit their fans to "demand" concerts in any city in the world. Musicians can negotiate with the fans on the venue location, work out a ticket price, and completely bypass the whole music business.
So why aren't they using it?
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