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Why (and how) will we pay for music?

Started by mathewi · 1 year ago

I was adding links to the roundup of mesh08 coverage that I’ve been keeping both on the mesh blog and also here, and I came across a post by Chris Clarke that mentioned some of his impressions of mesh, and also described how he asked a question during my keynote conversation with Et ... Continue reading »

7 comments

  • Shey

    1 year ago

    Terry McBride of Nettwerk Music has some interesting thoughts on crowdsourcing music distribution and sales. I can`t find his video, but he basically says that people would be willing to pay $0.25 for a song through recommendation from their friends (via mobile or online). The recommender would get maybe $0.05 for the sale.

    He figures $0.25 is the magic number where customers feel it`s not worth the guilt illegally downloading the song or worth the time spend looking for it.
    reply
  • mathewi

    1 year ago

    That's an interesting theory. Of course, with some of my friends, I
    would pay 25 cents or more *not* to receive songs that they recommend
    :-) I think Ethan's idea is more that artists use their music to
    create demand for other things -- special events, merchandise, a
    closer relationship of some kind, etc.
    reply
  • Shey

    1 year ago

    I would agree with Ethan, I think there's plenty of money to make by doing it that way.

    It's the record companies that lose out because they take a nice sum from the album sales.
    reply
  • Mark

    1 year ago

    Music will be fine - yes it may involve less huge profits for the labels and become more a cottage industry, but I think it'll be positive for creativity. I reckon there will be big money in giving vistiors to music concerts mp3's of the concert they have just listened too - the skill of the engineer to provide an almost instant recording within 30 mins of a performance finishing. Add to this last.fm and other web radio and we have never before had the ability to find the music we really like so we can actually go to the concerts. And audiofiles will always prefer CDs to mp3's.
    reply
  • mathewi

    1 year ago

    I think you're right, Mark. At the mesh conference, Mike Masnick
    pointed out that research shows people are listening to more music,
    and almost every part of the music industry is growing -- except for
    the part that involves selling little plastic discs.
    reply
  • Chris Clarke

    1 year ago

    The future Mark describes sounds pretty likely to me. The music is free, and DRM is dead, so where do the big labels plan on making money? Concerts? Merchandise? Casual music consumers don't go for that sort of stuff. Like I said at mesh, I'm only a die-hard fan of a few artists, and I don't believe that a few die-hard fans of each artist is going to support the industry as it is.
    reply
  • mathewi

    1 year ago

    True enough, Chris. I think that's why the industry is so enamored
    with the gigantic blockbuster acts like Hannah Montana, and also the
    "360 degree" deals that give them a stake in everything an artist
    does.
    reply

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