Selling Music

by Nick 01.31.10

I read this article about creative new music business models last week, which I was turned on to here, and it’s lingered in my mind ever since. Really fascinating stuff.

2 Comments

2 comments so far

Really interesting article, I’ll be sure to forward it to all my friends who frown on my piracy!

Joel - 02.03.10, 8:35 am
I’m not sold (no pun intended).

I think the reason that business methods like the ones mentioned are working right now is possibly because of the type of people that the new methods are targeting a different type of person than the old ones. The old method–the one that revolved around just recording music and selling the recordings–was geared to the Average Person, whose main ambition was to just listen to music.

I think the new methods aren’t really doing anything that the old one couldn’t have done as well. The difference is, most of them are satisfying the Average Person by giving their recordings away for cheap or free, and they’re just making their money off of a new type of person who was almost untapped before–the Collector, whose main ambition is to enhance their life through unique experiences or items.

The reasons I think the new methods may not hold up in the long term is that there are many more musicians than there are Collectors, so while a Collector might be willing to shell out the big bucks every once in a while for a cool item/experience from a musician, they’re not going to want to do it about one to five times a month for every artist out there trying to promote an album. Whereas in the past, the Average Person would be willing to spend money on about one to five albums a month, and artists could get by off of it, in addition to gigging.

Of course, now that less and less Average Persons are willing to pay for music, the old method won’t work anymore, so I’m not arguing for the status quo here. I’m just saying I don’t think the music industry has found its new direction yet.

Iron Clad Lou - 02.05.10, 4:59 pm

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