Via Chris Anderson, Bob Lefsetz provides a reality check to those who think that music distribution needs a “business model”:
I’m positively stunned at the blowback from business regulars about that chap giving his music away for free. Oldsters can’t understand the economics!
I’ll clue you in, THERE ARE NONE!
This is your worst nightmare. People who can follow their dream on sweat equity. Who with their computer and the money from their day job or mommy and daddy can compete with you. It’s like the North Vietnamese, all our military might couldn’t defeat individuals who would fight to the death. Same deal in Iraq.
It’s an eye-opener. That your model is IRRELEVANT!
YOU need to pay the mortgage. YOU need to go on vacation to the Caribbean. But the new musicians? They’re willing to sleep on the floor and eat ramen. Hell, they’re in their twenties, they’re not on the corporate track, they’ve got different ambitions!
This flummoxes the old wave. Especially after the eighties and nineties. You’re supposed to go through the usual filters. Get a lawyer and a manager and then shop your demo to labels, who get to not only decide whether to sign you, but what your music should sound like. But the music coming from said majors…it makes the new music-makers puke. So they’re doing it their own way. They care as much about the old system as snowboarders care about skiers. In other words, NOT AT ALL! They believe they’ve got a better system.
The long-term threat to the music industry is not pirates, but musicians themselves. Many of them would rather be famous than wealthy, and will give their music away if that’s what it takes to get it widely heard. As dirt-cheap, Internet based methods for getting music to fans continue to improve, labels will have less and less to offer such bands. And if enough bands choose to give their music away, it’s easy to imagine music fans will start to eschew any band that demands payment for their music.
As I’ve argued before, the ultimate result may wind up looking a lot like today today’s blogosphere: giving away your work will be the norm, a lucky few musicians will find ways to parlay their success into paying work, (through live performances, corporate sponsorships, custom composing or recording work) but the big winners will be consumers who will get a vast universe of content without paying a dime. The music industry may be devastated in the process, but more musicians will get what they really want: an audience for their music. That doesn’t sound too ominous to me.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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