I went to an interesting little conference in Brussels last Thursday. Organized by Poppunt and IASPM Benelux the whole thing took place at the Ancienne Belgique (a great music venue by the way).
We did this whole discussion about where the music industry is going in front of about 120 people who all seemed very interested in the topic. What was possibly more interesting for me (as I have done these discussions quite a few times before) was a little talk from Timothy Down about the impact on radio on the music industry in the past. It is so interesting to see that the current change in the music industry which seems to be to a large extend technology driven is just repeating itself again.
The first commercial radio station that launched in the 20s and 30s started broadcasting recorded music without paying royalties which the major labels were surly not happy with. They were of the opinion that people when they listen to the music on the radio they would not buy the records any more. Radio stations were then prohibited to broadcast that music until there was a change of attitude coming from the independent labels in the US. It was Capital Records that was the first label to encourage DJs to play their music and provided them with free copies of the music. I guess they have invented the promo record.
Because it was the indies who first embraced radio airplay as a promotional tool it enabled them to get expose of music that was neglected by the major labels, niche and new artists and especially African American artists. The sales of those artists improves and the majors of course followed the strategy of the independent music companies. Today radio still is (despite all internet promotion platforms) the biggest promotional tool for all labels and key for most big selling records.
So what is happening today? Again there is a change in technology and music can be listened to in new ways (mainly on the internet) and labels often see them as a threat to their existing business models. Selling pieces of plastic with music on it that is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for royalty free music usage on all kind of web based music websites but at the same time labels (this is majors as well as many indies) don’t make it very easy for new music services and their business models to develop.
I can see that many music owners realize that their business model has to change to survive in the future. The piece of plastic is not a good proposition for a new generation of music consumers any more and they know that. Those companies just have to understand that the new music services out there are not a threat but will only help them for those new ways of making money out of the music.
EDIT: thanks for the picture Stijn, I’ve only realized now how my T-Shirt was matching the table cloth. Neat.
