One of the benefits of the rise of music distribution via MP3 is that loads of cool old bands are touring again. Not so great for them or their record companies because the precipitous plummet in residual earnings means that they have to get off their collective bottoms and earn a living the old-fashioned way – on the touring circuit.
For fans it means an opportunity to have seen bands like the Police and the Pixies again, years (decades) after acrimonious bust ups.
I’m sure that money was not the only reason for reforming but topping up pension plans must have played a great motivator in patching up the petty differences and soothing egos.
Record companies and the RIAA still seem to be fighting to preserve the old revenue models. A look on the RIAA site shows a woefully small number of legal download sites. And when you narrow that down to sites that sell unrestricted MP3s with no DRM, the list drops down to around three – including my favorite Amazon.
When the Zune was announced in 2006, Microsoft had a cool filesharing feature that would allow you to send your favorite tracks wirelessly to other people with Zunes. Record companies killed that cool community feature by restricting the functionality to the point where it became useless.
Yes, I know that human nature means that sharing tracks with friends without paying doesn’t seem like a crime, but it is a fact of life. Really, the industry should be looking for new and interesting ways to get the fans to pay for music in the format they desire. Unfortunately for them, most successful attempts seem to involve bypassing the record company. The honesty box for Radiohead’s last release is probably the best example.
What kicked off this post was the announcement that MySpace Music would be working with as yet unnamed record companies to provide brands with a way to connect with consumers through branded downloads, streams and playlists. This isn’t anything new except for the scale involved as they have 35 million registered users.
For me, the issue here is the connection of the brand to the music in this environment is tenuous and is not going to provide real value.
True connectedness comes from common cultural roots. Look at the Warped Tour in its early days for a great example of a cultural connection that brands like Volcom have carried forward into their own labels.
Most of the brands like McDonalds and State Farm need to view this as buying some sort of media time rather than anything more.
McDonalds probably know this and have been working with the Zune team on an upgrade Microsoft that provides wireless access to the Web at no charge from more than 9,800 McDonald’s restaurants across the United States. The Zunesters can listen to FM radio (like our local KEXP here in Seattle) and click on a track to buy it immediately.
Now that is a great connection. Understanding their place and providing an environment that creates a positive experience will have way more brand impact than a McDonalds sponsored track or player.
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