Who’s gonna save the Music Industry? Know the Real Enemy
Looks like it is going to be ‘every man for himself’.
Back in the year 2000, when the record industry began seriously plummeting, artists started gathering their assets. What could they do to survive? What other ways were there to still get revenues?
Apple came up with a solution almost immediately, releasing iTunes in January 9, 2001. Eventually the industy bounced back, developing alternative ways to stop the money from going down the drain. It took a while for iTunes to become massive, but it had everything to do with the industry’s recovery.
And this, my friends, is how the digital music market came to be. Early adopters were mainly techies, high-income earners and very ethical people. Some four years later this niche grew exponentially — at least in the United States. By 2010, people all around the world had become ‘legit downloaders’.
In the meantime, artists found other sources of income. Many bands had to start touring again, even those who were (with all do respect) too old to tour: Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Judas Priest, just to mention a few. Those tours were frequently worldwide, long, many legged and exhausting. Last time I checked with him, Slash and his band The Conspirators spent as many as two years on the road.
If popular artists such as the ones I mentioned really need the money, that is not for me to say. Who am I to judge? At any rate, when the record industry became no longer a safe source of income…artists had to go back to singin’ for their supper. You can call them greedy, but bear in mind that many times tours were part of their contracts with the label.
Concurrently, other sources of revenue were gathering speed: YouTube, Spotify and similar music streaming services offered a (then) small business opportunity. YouTube was launched in 2004, but some years had to go by before it became remotely profitable.
All through this process, record labels kept complaining about how much they were being hurt by illegal downloading. Instead of changing policies or coming up with breakthrough ideas, such as lowering albums pricing, they decided to play victim. Which is the same as saying that they played the victim — the victim being the artists and their work.
Problem is, legal downloading is declining. It all started in 2013, and the situation is getting worse by the minute. The greatest source of revenue for artists today is not as great any more. And the experts say that this tendency is not bound to change — at least any time soon.
An article published in 2013 by Digital Music News reported a two-hundred million drop in sells, between 2012 and 2013. This is a serious concern, because legal downloading is the most transparent and fair system artists have for making a living.
Everybody is talking about what I like calling The Artists’ rebellion. They claim that YouTube and Spotify are getting millions out of their music, while they get just cents. Just as Prince did in his time, they are threatening to remove their catalogs from said streaming services. Paul McCartney has become the advocate of this cause, along with Calvin Harris and many others. It is true, YouTube and Spotify are feeding them cents, but the primary problem seems to be somewhere else. The following is a quote from a 2013’s piece published in Digital Music News:
“This could be the year that everything changed. Streaming is now booming, and everyone is getting into this game. Everyone meaning: Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Spotify, Xbox, Muve, Deezer, Rdio, Rhapsody, and about ten others, which means tons of cash drop-shipped to the major labels and publishers, but not so much paid to individual artists and smaller rightsholders.”
As Rage Against The Machine would advise, know your enemy. According to reporteindigo.com, artists get 50 cents for every 10 Dollars their albums sell. The rest goes straight to the label’s pockets. Also, out of the 70% Spotify makes, artists get less than 7%. The rest, again, is for the labels.
They say that you should not criticize something unless you have a better idea. So, this is what I propose.
The solution seems to lie partly in the Digital Labels. YouTube is not going to disappear, nor is Spotify or SoundCloud. Tidal may be fairer, but I do not see people paying 20 bucks a month now that they tasted free streaming services. But Digital Labels have the potential to let the traditional monsters out of business. In this day and age, the violent corporatism that monster record labels practice is something you are not going to find in their digital peers. The vast majority of them are either indie or founded by musicians — if not both. These new CEOs now the business inside out — if not from the inside. They understand that exploding artists and consumers is not a sustainable way of carrying a business out.
However, the definitive solution lies in the artists’ hands. Are they banding against the right player? Or should they rather be confronting someone else?
The bigger the label the fewer artists get paid. But also, the bigger the label the bigger the power. Nobody says this will be an easy challenge. But it is one that has to be faced.
