Scary parallels between newspaper and music industries
I was struck when I read this story in the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. The headline/tease: “Land of Confusion — In light of sliding CD sales and online leaks, labels are turning to surprise tactics. Can chaos save the music industry?”
The story is about the tactics Gnarls Barkley, the Raconteurs, Elvis Costello, Radiohead and others have taken to head-off concerns over illegal file sharing and the loss of revenue on “hard-copy” CDs.
A telling quote by Gnarls Barkley producer Danger Mouse, about the release of The Odd Couple, which was put out for download to combat leaks into the marketplace. “Oh, yeah,” he told EW. “Well, it’s not out-out yet, you know?” As if releasing it for download was somehow less important than the physical CD release.
As if breaking a story online was somehow less important than breaking it in the newspaper.
“Personally,” he goes on in the story, “I would have had them all come out the same day.”
The parallels with the newspaper industry strike me:
- CD=newspaper
- Download=Breaking news online
- SoundScan=Audit Bureau of Circulations
- Truncated marketing plans to accommodate downloading=Posting news online faster
- Social networking to promote content=Social networking to promote content
(As an aside, I wanted to post this item three days ago. I went to Entertainment Weekly’s web site and hunted around for a link to the story. It doesn’t show up on the contents list for the last hard-copy edition of the magazine. Couldn’t find it in the music section of the web site. E-mailed someone at EW to ask about it yesterday and I haven’t gotten an answer. You can’t email an individual at EW, either, apparently. Thank goodness for Google.)
Related Posts:
Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus
Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk
View Comments on Scary parallels between newspaper and music industries
Danger Mouse is part of the performing/founding duo as well as producer of Gnarls Barkley.
The only problem is that you’re assuming that the quality of work – news and music – is the same both online and in traditional formats. It’s not, which is why digital downloads will never overtake CDs. Mp3s are a much lower quality format than disc (you can make that argument with CDs and vinyl, but the difference between CD format and mp3 is so audibly astounding that I cannot rely on downloads alone). I think it’s a good tactic for pushing disc sales – if I buy the mp3 I typically buy the album. These bands know this which is why they save (usually) the full releases and all bonuses for disc sale. I don’t think its radical enough to call it innovation yet.
That aside, I do think that the quality of news online is often times better than the traditional “compact disc” release.
I can’t disagree with your point about the quality of the work. I’ve heard many people make the same point. The premise of EW’s story was that artists and studios are figuring out how to combat declining hard-copy album sales; it makes me wonder if most people care about the quality difference.
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!