Posted on 08/04/2014 7:56:26 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
As record labels repeat tired formulas and watch their business model collapse, they should turn on the television to see how another outmoded industry came back from the brink.
Of all the lies told to musicians, here’s the biggest lie of them all: you have to give your talent away for free.
Creative people in a wide range of fields keep hearing the ridiculous mantra that “content wants to be free.” The music industry is the worst offender. Many label execs tell artists—maybe the execs even believe it themselves—that musicians shouldn’t expect to generate income from their recordings. But no worries, mate, you will make it all up by selling T-shirts at your gigs.
The experts who offer this bad advice need to watch some more TV. While record labels have been shrinking, TV networks have reinvented themselves by selling content via a profitable subscription model. TV has reversed the trend: households once got it for free, but now they are willing to pay for it. Yes, you can still get broadcast TV channels without paying a monthly fee, but only seven percent of American households go that route.
Not only has TV switched successfully from “giving it away” to a subscription model, but the shift has also spurred a new golden age of television. The same economic pressures that are killing the music business have led to the highest quality shows in the history of the medium.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Well, I don’t pay extra to get HBO, so can’t comment on the quality of the shows.
But, apart from HBO and their original programming, I would say that TV is still a vast wasteland. So many inane reality shows, sitcoms pushing homosexuality and bizarre behaviors, characters trading one-liners between laugh tracks. There just isn’t much on TV worth watching, in my opinion. It’s hard to call this a new golden age of TV in my opinion.
Would appreciate if anyone can address the original programming on premium channels such as Home Box Office and Showtime. I never felt the desire to pay extra to get those. Maybe I’m missing out?
So how does the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) feel about this?
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The loud home hi-fi system has mostly gone the way of the dodo. Adults will sit and watch a sophisticated program for an hour. I’m not sure a significant % will ever go back to doing that with music. Seems to me now, most adults look at music as something they listen to while they are also doing something else, driving, jogging, making supper. It’s just background noise, acceptable to be experienced through computer speakers while surfing the internet or earbuds or whatever you call them. So they produce and mix the songs with that in mind. It’s why they sound really bad on good systems.
Freegards
There is some good stuff out there.
Walking dead, Justified, mad men, sons of anarchy, vikings, sherlock...One just needs to look. Netflix is a really good way to find entertaining shows
Not exactly ... TV industry lobbyists have managed to create mandatory bundling where subscribe to a cable or dish have to pay for buckets of crap to get the drops of entertainment or information they desire.
As mush as I oppose government regulation, I would strongly support the congress and FCC mandating individual menu selections. We have a cable service with something like 130 channels and we watch about 10 of them on a regular basis. I bet most of the nation has a similar habit.
I think something like picking any channels you want for a fixed fee could be worked out to be fair to viewers and the servers as well. Maybe something like less than 16 channels $5.00 a pop, up to 22 channels $4.00, up to 35 $3.00 and all you want for $2.50.
The way it is set up now with the bundling we are subsidizing garbage that probably doesn't merit being on the air based on consumer interest.
With a couple of exceptions, virtually all of the high-quality shows are on either pay channels or Netflix. My own favourites are Longmire (A&E) and Arrested Development (revived by Netflix).
Done :)
That said, I do own the entire “firefly” series and my wife owns the entire “Reba” series. We heard about both, word of mouth.
The author is missing that music is not all that valuable compared to the video medium. I'm in three bands and, frankly, even playing live doesn't pay that well, but live is what people will pay for.
Music is not Video. It's why the rights to movie sound are separate from the rights to the picture. Sometimes you see songs in the credits of a DVD or blue ray that you don't remember hearing in the movie. It's because you didn't. They could not acquire the rights for the song on the DVD/Blue ray.
Music is a cheap commodity. Charging big bucks for recorded music was an aberration. Technology re-leveled the playing field back to where it was before the mid-20th century.
This may be the first Daily Beast piece I ever (mostly) agreed with...
I question how long TV will be able to maintain a subscription model with increasing amounts of free content hitting the internet.
The technology for audio was just a bit head of the video.
The BIGGEST problem I see with the “faltering music industry” today is that there isn’t any music.
Squacking
warbling
screeching
monotonous
grating
noise
does not music make.
Gimme the old America, the old cars, and the old music any day.
“So how does the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) feel about this?”
The RIAA does not care a whit about the financial welfare of the artists as long as the RIAA gets their cut! ;-)
I’m still old-school and actually listen to the music; the only “background” music I ever have on is classical (preferably baroque) because it helps me focus on my work. I really miss the days where one could buy an album with the confidence that every track is worth listening to. I won’t pay for an album where the only good track is the one that’s played on the radio 30 times a day, but I do pay for new releases from a handful of acts (Jarre and Ladytron come to mind), and I’ve also paid to download albums from Liona Boyd and the Baltimore Consort.
“But, apart from HBO and their original programming, I would say that TV is still a vast wasteland. So many inane reality shows, sitcoms pushing homosexuality and bizarre behaviors, characters trading one-liners between laugh tracks. There just isn’t much on TV worth watching, in my opinion. It’s hard to call this a new golden age of TV in my opinion.”
The History Channel, The Military Channels and sometimes the AHC along with a few of the other channels. But the rest is mostly a vast wasteland. Do not waste your time or money thinking about HBO and Showtime. They are liberal-pushing channels. ;-)
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There’s still a lot of good music being made, but you won’t hear it from the big labels or mainstream radio. One good thing about the technology available now is that one doesn’t need a lot of capital to produce a quality recording. Here in Toronto, a lot of bands produce their own CDs and flog them at their gigs; I’ve also seen a lot of buskers doing this.
Music is not bought one album at a time by discriminating listeners any more, music is now bought by the pound. I don't have a problem with this as the market is at work, but as one with a vast music collection consisting of many genres, there is very, very little music being made that is noteworthy.
And don't get me started on how hip-hop/rap turned bad rhyming and chanting into “music”.
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