The Changing Music Industry...

"In America, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the volume of physical albums sold dropped by 19% in 2007 from the year before—faster than anyone had expected. For the first half of 2007, sales of music on CD and other physical formats fell by 6% in Britain, by 9% in Japan, France and Spain, by 12% in Italy, 14% in Australia and 21% in Canada. (Sales were flat in Germany.) Paid digital downloads grew rapidly, but did not begin to make up for the loss of revenue from CDs. More worryingly for the industry, the growth of digital downloads appears to be slowing." - Quote taken from 'The Economist' -

... and yet Motorola has acquired Singapore's Soundbuzz and Nokia has recently signed a deal with Universal to offer music to handsets set to go on sale in 2008. A sign that music itself is set to get people thinking.

"Will they succeed?"

Online music boutiques are plenty, digital stations that play 'free to web' and 'free to phone' music are everywhere. Some are pretty decent too.

The rules of engagement has changed.

It's time to take the music to the people...by the music community.

The Arctic Monkeys got their break on MySpace and built an incredible fan base. This brings up the question of 'Who needs a record label?'. Sure labels help with the legal stuff, marketing, a budget for tours etc. But really, these guys have done it pretty much by themselves.

It was the community and fans that gave them the publicity they deserved. No one else. We also hear that Radiohead has recently dumped their record label.

So if you're a budding musician who has TALENT. Why not get recognised for your hard work aand remove the costs of everything else (the cost ultimately gets passed on to people buying your CDs - your fans).

Sell your music online, create a fan-base, stream live 'concerts' from your bedroom (or garage), send your music to the radio stations and just rock on.

There will be other things to consider like legalities, prevention of piracy, licenses etc...which you may need help on.

BUT what I am saying is the lines for a record label is going to blur. Soon, industry players like Nokia, Apple, Sony Ericsson and Motorola can (and will?) take that as part of their business.

Just like how Motorola has with Soundbuzz and Nokia with Universal.

In the club music scene, BeatPort has certainly got it going with avid dance music lovers and DJs buying their music online.

It is apparent that the music industry is moving on the bottom up approach (community) rather than the top down approach (music labels etc).

Food for thought....Music labels, it's time to do some serious thinking!



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