The Recording Industry Association of
America has been so recurring in the hews that I find it difficult
to recall those days where thousands flocked to CD stores and purchased the
format de jour. It seems those memories have been replaced with the incessant
presence of a federation of companies unwilling to embrace the fact that
consumers have landed on a far more effective delivery model then they could
ever conceive. However, the industry may be on the verge of a new era and the RIAA
can once again return to relative obscurity. The potential messiah for this new age comes in the
form of a report called “Let’s Sell Recorded Music!” Catchy, ain’t it?
Said report came about through a series of
meetings hosted in the UK by MusicTalk that focused, shockingly, not on the problem but the
solution! [Insert witticism about hell being frozen over here] So if the future
isn’t endless lawsuits, what is it? Why, it’s the same money making model as
Playboy Magazine: subscriptions! Old hat you say? Well, the music industry,
after years of unguided endeavours, is finally coming to this business model
with a sense of consensus. Is that a good thing?
Subscription services present a number of
problems and unfortunately none of these issues are dealt with by this report. Consider the basic premise of a monthly or yearly subscription to conceivably unlimited music where ISPs offer access to music catalogues through subscription fees
tacked onto their cusomters’ bills. The level of access, means of delivering content, and
the distribution of revenue to the appropriate bands are all serious issues
that could hamper the deployment of this model. One method has bands paid in
proportion to their popularity but padding the pocket book for those one-hit
wonders that you only listen to once seems a little disproportionate to that
indie band EP that you’ve listened to countless times (assuming indie and
underground bands are even offered).
And that raises another issue; P2P networks
offer a bevy of bootlegged content and come with a substantial user base. If
the music industry seeks to supplant this piracy trend with a subscription
service they’d best make it as compelling, expansive, inclusive, and
cost-effective as possible. And sooner, rather than latter as a escalating number of kids are growing up
downloading tunes for free and thus they come to pirating music out of habit rather than
any educated moral decision.
Regardless, progress is progress, however glacially slow it may seem. And unifying the industry marks the first major step towards a positive evolution of the market as a whole.
Babysteps aside, out of all of this one thing has been made clear: the hardcopy format is finished.
