Digital Music services doomed?

[Patrick]

Article written by Michael Roberston of mp3.com and Linspire fame:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/09 ... ic_models/

He doesn't address Amazon nor alternate route services like Magnatune. I think the heart of the problem goes back to the record labels. Basically they want to bleed us dry.

[MattKingUSA]

There are a lot more details and essentials necessary for an artist and label to succeed that effect how much the consumers are charged. It's not just profit driven greed that affects pricing for music, digital or hard copy. It has more to do with the cost of production, advertising and distribution of a product. Those three things are all investments and are recouped in most cases solely on record sales. Labels pay out large advanced amounts of cash to cover these expenses. They only make that money back when consumers make a purchase. So it can take time. And if there is an increase in digital music sharing than naturaly there will be an increase in the price of recorded works.

[jturning]

Personally, I think they're killing themselves. Lower the price of CDs, make digital copies available online at a cheap price free of DRM, and trust your customers. Stop killing the streaming sites with the fees because they actually help people find your music that they like. Stop engineering the music and musical artists, and just help talented musicians create their art. Stop paying radio stations to play your engineered artist and let actual musical art flourish based on merit. Then you can sign a wide range of artists and still enjoy making money as the art sells and the percentages pay. And if everything is priced low, easy to get, people won't bother to steal because it's too easy to purchase and get legitimately. I think consumption would go up, and you'd actually make more money. And people would like you without a PR firm.

My music consumption has gone down over the last few years because so much of what is produced today is crap. When I find quality artists, I end up picking up their prior releases. But I still have an appetite for more music, and I'm always waiting for the artists I love to put out a new CD. To pass the time I just listen to what is in my collection. The record labels are leaving a lot of my money on the table and I don't think I'm alone.

Sometimes people are so busy holding on tightly to the money they have they miss out on all the money they could have made.

Bugz

[MattKingUSA]

Personally, I think they're killing themselves. Lower the price of CDs, make digital copies available online at a cheap price free of DRM, and trust your customers. Stop killing the streaming sites with the fees because they actually help people find your music that they like. Stop engineering the music and musical artists, and just help talented musicians create their art. Stop paying radio stations to play your engineered artist and let actual musical art flourish based on merit. Then you can sign a wide range of artists and still enjoy making money as the art sells and the percentages pay. And if everything is priced low, easy to get, people won't bother to steal because it's too easy to purchase and get legitimately. I think consumption would go up, and you'd actually make more money. And people would like you without a PR firm.

My music consumption has gone down over the last few years because so much of what is produced today is crap. When I find quality artists, I end up picking up their prior releases. But I still have an appetite for more music, and I'm always waiting for the artists I love to put out a new CD. To pass the time I just listen to what is in my collection. The record labels are leaving a lot of my money on the table and I don't think I'm alone.

Sometimes people are so busy holding on tightly to the money they have they miss out on all the money they could have made.

Bugz

I agree. I think there are too many products and not enough artists in the mainstream of music in this country, the US and in every country. I think it would be great if more labels would run as support for artists and not as creators of sellable products. I mean, if it sells they'll do it. But maybe that's just not the reality of our tastes as a society. I think generally maybe we want a fine tuned product. Any record label out there can take an untalented person who has no singing voice and as long as they are attractive they can create a huge franchise behind them. Take Ashley Simpson for example. She's not got that great of a voice but she sells. And I think that maybe the majority of people in this country want that. I don't think it's going to ever really change. So you just kind of have to watch for those truley talented people who slip through every once in a while. But at the same time if a talented artists signs up with a major label they will eventualy sound like everyone else or atleast like their producer/sound engineer. But on the issue of pricing you are likely right.

EDIT: Here is a good study that is very interesting about music.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7598549.stm

I think it's awesome that there is a bollywood section. hahaha. I like bollywood. I like tere liye and tere bin and dil bara. If that study is right I'm creative and outgoing. But I think it's wrong. I'm depressed.