In May 2004 PBS Frontline documented the decline of the music industry over the last 30 years. It is an interesting show, but as Barry Ritholtz pointed out, they spend a lot of time following a couple of artists and fail to address a lot of corporate stupidity that’s responsible. It’s sort of a VH1 Behind the Music combined with some insight into how the industry works.
Link to Video
The money quotes:
1) Micheal Guido, music attorney:
“Any kid that is a proponent of downloading will say within 30 seconds that they bought a CD because they liked a song, they paid all this money, they took it home, and the rest of the album was junk. That’s a result of creating a business that only cared about the ‘hit single’.”
2) Michael Williams, OutKast’s manager
“The public will buy good music when you give them good music to buy, and that’s what it should be about. We should get back to putting out good music.”
3) David Crosby’s whole interview.
Obviously, the days of this model of music distribution are numbered. Steve Jobs has started turning up the pressure. Even the majority of music industry execs agree the current DRM is too restrictive.
I like the Aime Street idea. Anyone can post a song, and anyone can download it for free. However, as a song starts to get downloaded, the price starts to rise. The more popular it is, the more you pay to get it.
