'Off the record' (Robert Sandall | Prospect Magazine August 2007

Good read: 'Off the record' (Robert Sandall | Prospect Magazine August 2007:

In recent years, the economics of pop music have been upended
This is a great read if you want to know what's coming (and not only because I am quoted in it ;): 'Off the record' by Robert Sandall | Prospect Magazine August 2007

My favorite nuggets (quoted here cause I could not have said it better myself):

"Record sales as we know them are in long-term decline," says music business analyst Keith Jopling. "Whereas the wider music market—live, merchandising, streaming video and music social networking—is in rude health. After seven years of gradual change, we are about to see a major shift. Record companies are, at last, in a hurry to transform themselves into proper consumer marketing companies."

My comment: reminds me a lot of what Don Tapscott is saying in his book "Wikinomics": In 2006 the successful companies launched open access platforms while the losers were building walled gardens. How true.

"...although Britons still buy more CDs per head than anyone else—2.7 in 2006—the market for recorded music is in rapid decline. In the first quarter of 2007, the market for the top-selling 200 CDs in Britain shrank by 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2006. In the US, CD sales in 2007 are down by 15 per cent, in France 25 per cent, in Canada 35 per cent. The German market, once the largest in Europe, is now no bigger than that of the Netherlands..."

My comment: Boy, is it URGENT to sell access not copies. Even a blind person can start to see this now. License ACCESS. Share revenues. Read Muserati!

"...Rather like the "Home Taping is Killing Music" campaign mounted by record companies in the 1980s, the arrival of illegal file-sharing coincided with an increase in legitimate sales of recorded music in the three largest markets: America, Japan and Britain. This supported the file-sharers' defence that their activities were no more harmful to music sales than the arrival of free radio airplay in the 1930s..."

"A rediscovery, or a renewed appreciation, of the communal source of music-making—and listening— must lie near the root of this upending of the music business. As personal stereos and MP3 players have grown in popularity, so has an appreciation that music isn't just something that goes on between your ears. The guitarist of the American hardcore band Anthrax expressed this rather neatly: "Our album is the menu," he explained. "The concert is the meal."

My comment: nice bottom line. I should start using that. Menus are free, meals are not.


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