Major Record Labels Fear Chage, Water = Wet, Sky = Blue

Apple Inc and the “Big Five” of major record labels are once again clashing, with the center of the issue revolving around the hot button issue of copyright law. The record labels agreed with the owners of the popular digital music store iTunes, to remove copyright protection software as a compromise for allowing pricing options besides the typical $0.99 per song. This is an incredibly frustrating story to read, as I feel passionately about the state of the music industry. It is clear to me that this is another example of them clinging to a model that is both out of date and ineffective.

The idea of flexible pricing allows for the major labels to charge more for hit songs, bringing their popular tactic of living off back catalogs into the 21st Century. Instead of promoting new acts and attempting to create interest in a variety of projects it is much easier to find one or two hits and charge away. Finding a few big stars creates a security blanket for labels, as new and interesting talent becomes less and less common while mainstream music becomes progressively stale. With slowing sales the only concept of adaptation seems to finding new ways to gauge the consumers more than they already are.

While certain acts have come to embrace other methods of marketing, Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” went platinum despite being given away for free initially, it feels to me like the name of the game is still to find how high you can charge the consumers and ride it out once you do. It is a method that has been steadily dragging the recording industry down since the advent of digital piracy and none of their counter tactics have be successful. However, plans like these lead me to believe that we are going to see a crash long before any sort of embrace of free music. With the major labels so firmly rooted in their ways (despite progressively worse sales) such a radical concept will not catch on before such a crash comes. With such economically hard times in front of us as a country it might be a lesson that the labels will have to learn the hard way, much sooner than later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/business/media/02apple.html?_r=1&ref=business

Friendly reminder, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion is the best album of 2009.