[BC] Making money by reacting to the market

[Robert Meuser]

All good ideas but who needs the record companies? Companies like Clear 
Channel and others could do that all in house more efficiently. They 
would at least have an interest in getting out good music. I think we 
have reached the point where the music should be free for private use 
and the money made on all the other items mentioned, especially TV and 
Concerts.



Robert Orban wrote:

> As for the record companies, the devil is in the details. Digital 
> distribution is clearly the wave of the future (and this trend was 
> visible in the Napster days), but the record companies' collective 
> problem was maintaining their cash flow once the new model is in place. 
> This requires more than spouting generalities; it affects every aspect 
> of their business and, yes, it requires bean counters.
> 
> Record companies' reasons for existence has always been discovering and 
> nurturing talent, promoting it, and making sure that people could buy 
> the music once they knew they wanted it. This is what generated their 
> cash flow. Otherwise, anyone could have a vinyl stamping plant 
> manufacture records. But what they would end up with would be a pile of 
> records that no one had ever heard of and with no distribution channel.
> 
> I suspect that the record companies' fates will depend on how well they 
> can continue to promote new artists and music and whether they can 
> figure out a way to continue to get paid so they can afford to do the 
> promotion. I would hate to be the person running a label right now, but 
> if I were, I would diversify heavily into the live concert business, 
> including renting movie theaters and selling seats to high definition 
> simulcasts of the concerts (something that the Metropolitan Opera in New 
> York City is currently doing with considerable success.) I would be 
> developing television shows like "American Idol" and finding a way to 
> share in the advertising stream from such shows. I would make sure that 
> such shows were available to stream from the Internet. I would create 
> deluxe packing of audio recordings that were compelling objects for 
> collectors and fans to own. I would carefully control album production 
> budgets and treat most music as promotional, assuming that it was likely 
> to be stolen. I would develop musicians as "media stars," which would 
> make it easier to license their images to consumer marketers. I would 
> try to license as much music as possible to other media, like television 
> show background music and commercials. I would do viral marketing, 
> including creating shill identities on YouTube, Second Life, and other 
> social networking sites. I would do targeted advertising on websites 
> appealing to a given artist's target demographic. I would get my artists 
> profiled in major national magazines like "Entertainment Weekly."  And 
> probably more, but that's just off the top of my head. Most of this is 
> being done already, but there are potential synergies that are still not 
> being completely exploited.
> 
> Where does this leave independent artists? Probably struggling more than 
> ever to get noticed above the ever-increasing media din.