A Few More Music Business Model Suggestions

from the keep-'em-coming dept

Every time we talk about the economics of the entertainment industry, someone accuses us of not suggesting any alternative business models. However, we actually have suggested other business models all the time, while showing how other musicians have succeeded in embracing new models to make money while giving fans reasons to pay. Of course, part of the confusion is that many musicians are using slightly different business models to make this work -- which is exactly how it should be. No one is saying that all musicians are going to find that any particular business model works, but there are a number of different business models that all involve using the music to make other (scarce) things more valuable and worth paying for. Reader alex points us to a column from Pitchfork Media that has a bunch of other business model suggestions, mostly focused on giving people a reason to pay, rather than just complaining that they won't pay. Once again, it's important to remember that "free" isn't the business model -- but it's an important part of any business model involving infinite goods.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: business models, economics, music industry


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Mike, 8 Oct 2007 @ 11:00pm

    If the RIAA would look at the business models of the other countries, they would see that most artists are able give their CD's away fro free and make their money off of concerts and merchandise. When will these fucking retards see that $1.00 is way too much to pay for music.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2007 @ 11:35pm

      Re:

      The thing you are missing is that in the US anyway, the bands do not work for record sales, they work for merch. Bands make all thier money for the most part off the merchandise they sell at thier gigs, and little to none of that money (except music sales) normally goes to the label. For example, when you see that second and third band on a tour; they normally are not getting anything more than food, lodging and gas money. They only make money for things like toothpaste off merch.

      Record companies tend to only make thier money off of record sales. They do a valuable service to the bands and to the music listening public, which is they front the money for the cd to be recorded and then use established distrubution channels to get the product to the consumer. They may also make some money on the tours for what the vanue pays the performers but normally that is only repaying an advance and not profit.

      So the UK model wouldn't work for most record companies. It would work for unsigned bands and smaller indie labels but not the big boys.

      And no, I am not an RIAA supporter. I think it is stupid to sue people on internet based solutions unless you can prove who the guilty INDIVIDUAL is. The lawsuits seem to be more like saying that someone driving your stolen car ran a red light, and since you didn't know the car was stolen and taken for a joy ride and returned, you are liable for the red light ticket. It seems to me that when there are how many zombies on the internet, that this would be my defense if I ever did share music and was sued. Then I would sue my ISP who's security software came free for the damages incured from the RIAA suit.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Mike, 9 Oct 2007 @ 12:00am

        Re: Re:

        As I agree with you on all of your points except for one. Record labels do not do good for the bands, if they are not making money off of the CD's why do bands go to them? Why not just go to street vendors and make their own CD's to just give away for free, CD printing devices and making mass copies of disks is not that hard. A CD printer is a few 100 dollars and you can go to a company to make X amount of copies for you for dirt cheep.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          MadJo (profile), 9 Oct 2007 @ 2:06am

          Re: Re: Re:

          The artists do still rely on marketing (is expensive); how else does anyone know that you have brought out a new CD?

          But I'm not apologizing for the music industry. They should've seen very early on that all they should be are marketing bureaus for said artist.

          Too bad, these marketing bureau managers are too greedy to see that, and refuse to believe that they are nothing more than that, and want all the money they can squeeze out of their licensed artists.
          I wouldn't be surprised if they started demanding money off of the merch sales too.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Marc Cohen, 9 Oct 2007 @ 8:15am

    Free is the business model if it is paid for by advertising. Selling the time spent listening to music is THE business model. Check out the Ad-Supported Music Central blog: http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Willton, 9 Oct 2007 @ 2:17pm

    And the songwriters?

    I have yet to hear about a feasible free-music business model for the music industry that benefits songwriters that are not performers.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 10 Oct 2007 @ 11:07am

      Re: And the songwriters?

      I have yet to hear about a feasible free-music business model for the music industry that benefits songwriters that are not performers.

      Er. They get paid to write the songs? Don't see what's so complicated about that.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Willton, 11 Oct 2007 @ 9:25am

        Re: Re: And the songwriters?

        Er. They get paid to write the songs? Don't see what's so complicated about that.

        Wrong. Songwriters get paid for the songs they write that sell. Songwriters are not rank-and-file employees of a record company. They get paid solely through the royalties they receive based upon the sales and performance of their music. It has to be this way because there is no objective way to value a song prior to its performance to the public.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dayana, 18 Oct 2007 @ 4:44pm

    Im a girl I live in californa I have to brothers and a mom and dad I love my famil I want to be a model i love to danci

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.