>From Barry L. Ritholtz, market strategist with the Maxim Group, NYC:
<<Musicians Looking To Let Internet Replace Record Cos
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/01/musicians_looki.html
[Note from Janos: "Cos" may not be a typo with the "t" missing,
apparently. I can't figure out if it's the "Ratio of the adjacent
side to the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle" or "Lettuce with
long dark-green leaves in a loosely packed elongated head" in this
context or something quite different.]
[I suspect it's just newspaperese for "Companies". -Dave]
At least, that's the headline which Dow Jones ran for this story.
Most everyone else who ran this AP story used the tamer headline:
Musicians Unveil Digital 'Manifesto'.
But I suspect that Dow Jones got the basic premise correct: A highly
respected and intelligent pair of innovative musicians are making a
power grab on behalf of artists. They are taking advantage of the
general chaos in the space, and the apparent cluelessness of the big
labels vis-a-vis the internet.
In other words, the music industry's Hell just got a lot hotter.
Consider the players: Gabriel is an extremely bright and creative
musician. He has been a major innovator in his entire career, from
recording with Genesis and on his own to live performances to social
activism (on both Human Rights and the Environment, and is also
associated with WOMAD) to his music business savvy. Gabriel owns
recording studios, is a co-founder of the digital downloading service
"On Demand 2" (OD2), and founded his own label, RealWorld.
If you followed Gabriel's career -- and his music -- over the years,
than you know that he is not a mainstream thinker. I have a sneaking
suspicion that Peter is a disarmingly charming and formidible (if not
clever) negotiator. Now, along with his cohort, Brian Eno, the Music
Industry's nightmare may have just gotten much worse.
Gabriel & Eno present an opportunity to turn the classic rocker cliche
on its head: Think of a group of stoners, signing anything their label
presents to them, while corrupt agents and business managers bleed
them dry. Now imagine the polar opposite of that vision: That's
Gabriel & Eno. Long term survivors of the industry, they are smart
enough not to confront the industry head on -- they certainly do not
want to turn this into a holy war. Instead, they are proposing a set
of changes -- incremental in appearence -- which will gradually reduce
the power of the record labels in favor of the musician. Gabriel is
smart enough to retain a role for the labels, primarily that of
marketing. That makes their model a compromise between the anarchy
of P2P, and the disintermediation of a "labelless" pure internet
model.
This may ultimately change the economic dynamics of the industry,
reducing the role of the labels. Eventually, the changes could be
dramatic.
CANNES, France (AP)--Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno are
recruiting other musicians for a provocative online experiment:
Since the Internet has changed the way fans buy and listen
to songs, they say, why not transform the music itself?
The two independent musicians have dreamed up an online
alliance for musicians, and they hope to launch within a
month. By taking record labels out of the equation, artists
could put downloads online themselves, becoming their own
retailers and setting their own prices. They call it the
"Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists" - or
MUDDA for short, which has a less lofty ring to it. On
Monday, Gabriel and Eno handed out a slim red manifesto at
a huge dealmaking music conference in southern France.
Do you have any doubt that what these gentlemen are proposing
is anything short of a major revamping of an industry? Than
read on:
Gabriel, who has his own label, Real World Records, said
he isn't trying to shut down the record companies - he just
wants to give artists more options. "There are some artists
who already tried to do everything on their own," he said,
adding that they often found out they didn't like marketing
or accounting. "I think we believe there will be all sorts
of models for this."
One band that has found its niche online is the jam band Phish,
which sells downloads of its concerts at www.livephish.com. The
band's relationship with its devoted fans is often compared to that
of the Grateful Dead, and the site is another chance for close
contact. But it also made money: $2.25 million in sales since 2002.
What's driving the movement is the success of legitimate download
sites such as Apple's Internet music store, iTunes, which sells
songs for 99 cents a pop in the U.S.
Gabriel co-founded a European company, On Demand Distribution,
which runs legal download sites in 11 European countries.
The company would provide the technology for MUDDA, though
Gabriel and Eno are looking for online partners.
Stay tuned . . .
Sources:
RealWorld
http://www.realworld.co.uk/index/flash/
Musicians Unveil Digital 'Manifesto'
Associated Press, 1/26/04
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/ap20040126_1514.html
What Peter Gabriel gets out of Davos
By Tim Weber, Monday, 26 January, 2004, 09:04 GMT
BBC News Online business editor in Davos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3428437.stm
Gabriel to launch musicians' union
By Tim Weber Friday, 23 January, 2004, 17:19 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3424483.stm
Musicians to Use Internet To Bypass Record Labels
Associated Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107516464904012346-search,00.html
Musicians Looking To Let Internet Replace Record Cos
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20040126_006186,00.html
Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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