Well said
Yes, Yes and (mostly) Yes.
One caveat: when Jay Smooth says “music industry” he means “record business”. There’s a whole lot of stuff going on out there in the music industry which has nothing to do with making and selling recordings.
There are people teaching music for money, people making and selling instruments, people booking gigs and people putting music into movies. Lots of other stuff besides. But the record business has tricked us into using the phrase “music industry” – like they’re the whole deal.
But the record business claiming to be the music industry is like the lions claiming to be the zoo. They’ve got the biggest teeth and can make the most noise, but actually, the music industry is a vibrant, interesting and diverse place where lots of cool stuff happens.
My bet is that this party he’s talking about will be happening over where the monkeys hang out. Probably the code monkeys at that.
By the way: I knew Jay Smooth was cool. Didn’t realise he was Mahavishnu Orchestra cool…
6 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post
Milton
Agree, agree and (mostly) agreed!
That was a very concise appraisal of the situation we call the “music industry” or “record business”.
I really do fear for the Record Business…the business of releasing full length audio art, the concept album…..Can there be another “Relayer”?
Will there ever be another “2112″?
If so, how will it happen in the Web 2.0 environment? I guess I should figure that out before someone else does!
Jun 12th, 2008
Mark Gibson
Well said to you too, I agree with your sentiments 100% Andrew. Too many people see the demise of the current record industry model as the demise of the music business and it’s just not true.
The key part of Mr Smooth’s presentation was the part about Radiohead and the fact that they ADAPTED to a very new situation. I don’t mean that we all try to copy Radioheads tactics word for word necessarily, just the tactic of trying something new and ADAPTING to the world the way it is NOW.
The music industry as a whole will survive the death of the record business as we know it. The sentimentality of the “old ways” are over-rated too. I bought lots of albums when they were vinyl, I still have most of them. I bought lot’s of CD’s when things first went digital and now I still by lot’s of music but I do it through iTunes. Not much has changed for me except that the process of buying has become quicker and the storage system is better.
The record industry is dying but not the music industry.
Jun 12th, 2008
Matt @ Kurb
Radiohead still sold what? About a dozen songs over 50 minutes?
Artistic vision of a concept around a project or some kind of unifying narrative or theme over a product line is one thing, but bundling I guess is about making people perceive value and pay for things they don’t know they want, or don’t want, like the radio edit, the 12″ club megamix – but wait, there’s more! – the acoustic version, the live version.
Now that we can extend this concept beyond the kind of content we can fit onto a round synthetic disc thing, I think the concept can still be applied.
Jun 13th, 2008
Robin
Yes i agree, but still…
I liked this short post. Excellent vid and nice analysis.
This whole music industry, record business thing is just a play on semantics. People that don’t follow industry events, charts, statistics and ventures just get a glimpse of what is going on when they read a headline in their daily paper once every 6 months on the fact that internet is making artists and labels lose profits. Ant that is one huge proportion of the population were talking about.
If we refer to the definition of what an industry is, well the record business regroups a big amount of its activities. Up until now that is. The main focus of those activities are and will change, for me there is no doubt about it, but a bands new album is still an event. There still will be concept albums, probably more now than ever.
The event that represents a new album isn’t as glamorous as before cause we are in a transition stage where the consumer is going crazy over his high speed internet and bit torrent portals, and the people running the business are still searching for the right formula.
But music is out more then ever before, and the public has never been as educated (I am really impressed the number of people that i meet that have more than decent musical knowledge and culture)
Add to that the advent of the home studio, the pro audio sector practically giving away its plugins and sequencers and you have got a recipe for a web-tech-audio savvy audience creating and listening to new music non stop. How can the music industry fail in these condition?
oh and yea birds of fire, damn i wasnt born when it came out but what a crazy event it was for me the first time i hear it ( mostly that last track )
That CHANGED my life forever.
Jun 14th, 2008
So... What do YOU think?