At least one major label representative appears poised for a career change from corporate incompetent to incompetently comedic, revealing snippets of a “Master Plan” in a new techcrunch article by Michel Arrington.  As it turns out, the American public is not only gullible on matters of government, we’re also gullible on matters of the music industry.  For so long now we viewed small time lawsuits against college students as desperate acts of greed.  Rising ticket prices have been characterized as an attempt to frantically stabilize revenues as big artists are locked into 360 deals.  And online programs like Youtube?  Well, Warner Bros. has them exactly where they want them, don’tcha know?

In this label representative’s own words:

The labels fully understand that recorded music, streamed or downloaded, is going to be free in the future (we’ve argued this relentlessly). CD sales continue to decline by 20% per year, and the only thing that’ll stop that trend is when those sales reach zero. Nothing will replace those revenues.

They also understand that recorded music will largely be little more than marketing collateral, meaning that the Internet services being sued today for copyright infringement will be embraced in the future as ways to get the word out on hot new music. These services pay for the privilege today (either through high streaming rates or in court), but in the future they’ll be the ones getting paid by labels. (techcrunch)

So in other words: music will be free in the future, your suing the hell out of the people who will be distributing it in that future, and you expect they’re going to happily pay you in that same future?  Perhaps an argument could be made that online music services will pay labels, because after all, the labels will still own the music, right?  And in that case, the online services will have no choice, right?  Wrong.  The labels may be able to hold onto the music they claimed over the last five decades, but what about the new music?  How about all the small indie bands popping up everywhere, cultivating their careers on tours and through the internet as opposed to the dirty purse of the labels?  These will be the great dinosaur acts in 20 years when the current vanguard has passed.  Guess what?  Mr. “Master Plan” has the answer.

No longer will the labels be tied to revenue limited to sales of master recordings – by then most or all artists will be under 360 music contracts that give the labels a cut of virtually every revenue stream artists can tap into – fan sites, concerts, merchandise, endorsement deals, and everything else. (techcrunch)

I’d appreciate it if he got back to us in a couple years with a list of 360 signatures.  The old story went, foolish band signs a record deal only to lose half their soul and their entire life’s savings.  Well, the 360 situation is even worse now for artists than deals back then were, and guess what Mr. “I Have A Master Plan” label representative guy?  The artists know this!  This is something akin to Happy learning how to putt, and you can count, on the consumers meeting the labels in the parking lot of captialism.

But until then, he says, the spreadsheets and financial models dictate that suing customers and partners just makes too much sense. (techcrunch)

Wow, just wow.  Is there a name for this?

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posted March 9th, 2009 at 12:25 pm Music News