More bad news for the record industry as many more big names in music are following Radiohead’s lead of offering their albums for free or for a ‘pay what you want’ fee, bypassing record industry price and market manipulation. Bravo! Hot on the heels of Radiohead’s success, Nine Inch Nails announced that they are now free agents after 18 years of being under record label contracts. NiN’s frontman has informed their fans to expect some big announcements soon. Now comes word that Oasis, Jamiroquai and The Charlatans are following Radiohead’s lead in similar ways. The Charlatans are currently planning on offering their album for free via the XM satellite service in a way to boost marketing for their live tours, which their manager is stating will help them to increase capacity and revenue from their live performances.
October 10th in An excellent article from The Times Online documenting the decline of the industry due to music fan’s perceptions towards recorded music as a commodity. Take that fatcat record execs! No new cars for your kid’s 16th birthday this year!
The truth now is that a rudimentary cotton garment with a band logo stamped across it that has probably been manufactured for pennies in a Third World sweatshop costs about twice as much as an album recorded in a state-of-the-art western studio. And even at that price, recorded music isn’t selling.
A bit disappointing however that the article didn’t touch more on the success of many independent labels. Many larger indies have experienced massive surges in profits and growth, thanks to the marketing playing field being leveled across the industry. Small bands and labels can now expose their music to thousands of new listeners through MySpace, Last.fm and the sorts, leading to potentially larger live show attendance and more sales of released material, which is usually available at a lower price point compared to many majors and is more beneficial for the artists, who see more of those profits in the end.
