New music business model

[nfotxn]

I wonder if a subscription model on a per-artist basis would work for digital distribution? Something like $1-5/mo right into the artist's pockets for rights to all the music they release, maybe a quarterly publication and other perks. Small indie's could have a cost for access to all their artists or something. It'd be like becoming an artist's proprieter only on a large scale nearly micro-payment basis.

It'd be like automating the fan club such that the band can get immediate and hopefully consistent cashflow. It wouldn't work well for new artists but established acts could possibly reap some hefty rewards sans-label.

But best of all it cuts out the middle men and creates a direct peer-to-peer relationship with the artists and fan. Much the same way eBay brings the seller and buyer together. Largely most artists already do this with the aspect of communication but tying the commerce and communication relationship of artist and fan could be really powerful if it's a good deal for both parties. If there's anything the internet and modern organization theory in practice is about it's disaggregation such that the path of least resistence can be found. This seems to be the most logical model in my mind.

Sharman Networks (aka KazAa) has already tried this but unfortunately their name is synonymous with illegal file sharing. A legitimate independant endevour implimenting the concept could work at least on a smallish scale.

There's loads of details to work out of course. Just an idea.

Comments

[wonderboynj.livejournal.com]

I think this Apple Music Store could have a great impact on the music/recording industry. "IF" it proves to be popular.

There are some artists I like who have literally hours upon hours of unreleased material just sitting rotting in a vault somewhere. I'd love to have the music industry make that kind of stuff available in a music on demand site.

I mean, it's stuff that they may not make a lot of money on, but there really can't be too much cost involved in selling it on a site like Apple's.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'm not one who subscribes to the Church of Jobs. So far Apple has *shock* conquerered their own niche market with their music service. But it's still what, 10% of the personal computer market? They are developing iTunes for Windows and hopefully they'll do a good job but if it's anything like Quicktime for Windows the nail is already in the coffin. Fact is Apple remains a luxury brand and they sell that brand. I highly doubt they're going to try and muscle their way into selling Wintel users music. Mostly because Microsoft could muscle them out with WMA at any momment.

What I was writing about was more of a marketing concept, the underlying technology is secondary to redefining how an artist interacts with their fans.

[cpratt.livejournal.com]

According to the figures I saw as an Apple employee earlier this year, Apple's market share is hovering at around 2.2% of the market and continuing to slide [as of March 2003]. Desktop sales have slid about 40% since 2001, for example. They're not doing particularly well; OS X adoption rates are still low, largely due to the simple fact that it doesn't run well on anything but the newest hardware, and a lot of their core market continues to migrate to XP. Sure, they're trying to stop that by buying software companies and killing their Windows products [Logic, Shake, etc.], but that's kind of missing the point: it's the desktop publishing markets that are the biggest and that face the biggest threat from Windows.

Given that the iPod is selling to Windows users, and given that Apple got one thing right and are promising to ship USB 2.0-enabled software in a month or two, it seems possible that there will be a market for iTunes on Windows... but "by the end of the year" is hardly compelling news on Apple's part. I'm still not convinced that there is ever going to be a huge market for paid music services, especially given the ease of using stuff like soulseek. Free and illegal is a heck of a lot more attractive than pricey and legal, especially if the stuff you want isn't on iTunes [and I'm guessing that's true for a number of folks; I somehow doubt they have a lot of the esoteric stuff I listen to, for example].

Finally, I don't really see Microsoft moving into the online music distribution space; it just seems like something MS wouldn't do. WMA may be a superior format to AAC at least with regards to audio quality and digital rights management, but it's up to third parties to actually do something with it. I understand some music publishers are going to start shipping CDs with pre-ripped WMA versions of the audio on them, but other than that I haven't heard anything yet. I guess what's partially frustrating to me is that Apple could open iTunes for Windows users today and start earning money, but it seems like they don't want to use the readily available, free Windows tools just because they want to do it their own way; they won't give up on MPEG-4/AAC for political reasons, even if WMA could mean immediate income for the company. All in all, Apple is still a hardware company at heart, and I think the thought of losing customers even more quickly scares them too much to consider radically redefining their business.

[ranger1.livejournal.com]

Could always go back to the medieval way of things. Artist patronage and all.

[cpratt.livejournal.com]

Well, to be honest, I've always thought that to be a really, really good idea. God knows I've donated money in the past to people whose work I really admire, eg Tristan Farnon, Tom Ellard, Max Tundra... and I know you've ordered stuff directly from Bob Mould...

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting idea. Means we'd get, say, Madonna writing nothing but panegyrics for Coke? Film studios would hire "name brand" artists to write music for films? IBM could commission a new album from Bjork and then they'd own it outright?

[cpratt.livejournal.com]

Well, Madonna's currently writing panegyrics for Mini Coopers, film studios are hiring name brand artists to write music [and giving them Oscars™; cf. Eminem, Prince, et al... Björk's a dedicated iBook user [at least if the pictures in her most recent CD set are anything to go buy], but even if IBM were to commission an album, who's to say they wouldn't at least give it away as a promotional device, or at least license it to another company to sell? Not that I've read it, but was "The Bulgari Connection" any better or worse than any of what's-her-face's previous novels?

I suppose I was thinking along the lines of current patronage systems that I already subscribe to. I spend money on self-released CDs, small press books, individual artworks; I occasionally donate money to folks whose work I really enjoy. And that seems OK to me. If I can do it, why shouldn't a corporation be able to do it? God knows I enjoy looking at corporate art collections...

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. I think what people forget is that most of the "art" produced in Europe during the last 1500 years was an advertisement for the Catholic Church.

[wonderboynj.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant it that way. Who cares if Apple is involved or not, if the recording industries start to see this as a viable way to get music to people, whether they are on Mac or Windows, would be agreat thing.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely, but most importantly is the relationship with the artist and their fans/listeners. It could become a much closer relationship henceforth making organizations like the RIAA irrelevants. Infact the RIAA and MPAA are already irrelevant and has been since Napster, that's the only reason Hillary Rosen or Jack Valenti make such a stink about sharing files. It may be illegal but the REAL threat isn't users sharing files. It's artists and studios moving away from their brand of copyright protection into something that's more marketable.

In the end the consumer has to be sold something they want. In the end I think kind and friendly DRM schemes along with quickly expiring copyright will both please consumers, encourage more innovation and generally make the world a better place. It sucks that everyone is so at odds these days. But now the light is beginning to shine at the end of the tunnel.