This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end
- Jim Morrison as quoted from "The End"
The
end has begun. Radiohead draws the first blood and Trent Reznor (Nine
Inch Nails) follows. The long standing dominance of the music industry
has fallen. Their rigidity has cost them, and oh so dearly!! Ouch!
There was always a cold war going on between the artist and the music
industry, but few have chose to revolt and fewer have been successful.
The
music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic
hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side.
- Hunter S. Thompson
When
Radiohead chose to break free from their music company and sell music
independently, it did create a few tremors here and there. But the big
blow came when they decided to allow the fans to pay whatever they
wished! Ok not whatever, the highest you can pay is $205.61 as reported
by a Limewire employee. This has freed the music artists. Given new
hope. The record companies has always been rigid and stringent when it
came to the internet revolution of music. The recently victory
of RIAA against a P2P user by muscling their way through is an example
of how the music industry is winning the battles and losing the war.
The war they began in the first place! The didn't embrace the
technology and use it, they went against it. How many times in history
have we seen the fall of great empires because they refused to change
with the times?
Not so long a go I had read an article in RAVE
(Indian Music Magazine) from this guy in Chumbawumba about how the
music industry should embrace P2P and use it to their advantage rather
than playing Tom & Jerry. The counter-article in that issue was
from a hard nosed executive representing the Indian Music Industry
(IMI), who was adamant on the users paying up for everythin that they
think is a crime. So there you have it. You first harass your artists,
who provide you content to sell. Then you harass the people who might buy that content content. And then you stupidly assume nothings gonna go wrong against you. Wow! Talk about wishful thinking.
The
recent break away of Radiohead has changed the Music business
overnight. Radiohead's new album has gone on sale today on their website,
without any blood-sucking company in the middle. Fans can pay anything
below $205.61 for the album. Two days before In Rainbows goes on sale,
Trent Reznor announces his departure from the music industry.
Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.
- Trent Reznor, 08th October, 2007.
Since
the announcement of Radiohead, the record industry is thrown in a
frenzy. The popularity and anticipation was building up like mad.
Record companies are now desperately scrambling about try to get
Radiohead to sign a record deal. Yes, they trying to sell physical CD's
of the same music which users can pay ANYTHING
for on the internet much before the phsical CDs hit the market. Which
is somewhere after X'mas. Now talk about being stuck up. Although they
have been home to EMI, HMV reported that they have the album for
pre-order, which is later proved to be bogus.
Parlophone too had certain claims. All this shows the desperation they
have to sign a deal, which is the same scenario a new recording artist
goes through! What goes around, comes around baby! A leaked email from the new EMI boss Guy Hand talks about how they have been thick and refused to embrace the the Digital Revolution. He says "the industry has stuck its head in the sand" and that Radiohead's decision is a "wakeup call".
If you look at recent music history, I wouldn't hesitate to put their
name alongside legends The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan. Even the
Beatles have succumbed to music industry dirty play during the Phil
Spector days, but not Radiohead. However the revolution began with Sir
Paul McCartney going to Starbucks for music distribution. And was
carried forward by Prince who gave his CD's away for free.
In
the future there will be no CD's, DVD's. The physical forms of music
will become a complete niche. The masses will be owning softcopies of
music. With technologies like IPTV coming in, fans are not only going
to use internet to buy music, they're going to buy it directly by
plugging their iPods to their television sets. They'll buy music from a
kiosk in a mall by connecting their iPods to their servers. Starbucks
is selling music now, so is Wal-Mart. They're all selling music without
going through any Record Company. Anyone with a platform will sell
music, without the help of a music industry. Rise in Indie music
supports the idea to have a business plan like this to sell music.
Unless the music industry plans to make major changes, I see them going
down to ashes. Music Industry has long been complaining about the
pirates declining record sales, what they didn't see is the rising
music interest. I judge the need for music on the sales of an iPod or
an iPhone. As long as music players are selling, there will always
content needed to be put on that. The iPods sales are rising while the
records sales are falling. I don't see a fall in music market? They
didn't see this. Hence the fall.
This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be So limitless and free Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand In a...desperate land
This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free But you'll never follow me The end of laughter and soft lies The end of nights we tried to die
