Follow up on Oink.....

Sorry have been really slack of late bunch of stuff going on.....

Just a quick post following up on Luke's comments below about the demise of Oink. I share his sentiments (though with a more family friendly adjoining image!!) its terribly sad that Oink has folded, I'm sure it won't be long till an alternative springs up (The Pirate Bay people are starting up a new site called 'Boink' though at this stage I know none of the details).

Record companies are the major losers in the digital age. I have little sympathy for them, they had the opportunity years ago to restructure their outdated business model, but they chose instead to chase after kids downloading in their bedrooms. Of course it would be easier to sand bag a Tsunami. Arrogance, complacency and stupidity were the catalyst for their downfall.
If your told that bands are suffering financially don't believe it. It makes a mockery of the Lars Ulrich (Metallica) led musician coailition of a few years back. These over paid rock stars leading the charge to sue downloaders was a gluttonous, embarrassing sham which highlighted the participants lack of understanding of the business they are in. It was greed pure and simple and did none of their reputations or their fan's support any favours. They may be losing revenue from record sales but the increased exposure their output is recieveing has other equally (or greater) rewarding consequences. Placement opportunities for the music is now immense. Seminal American act DEVO recently were given millions to record a song for a Dell computers ad, this despite not putting out a new record for over 15 years. As a consequence of the ad they were offered a new deal with interscope but knocked it back as 'pointless'. Radiohead released 'In Rainbows' to the 'net with a donation box as the payment method. Sources have reported that they had over a million downloads in the first 3 days with the average donation being four pounds. Retail in the UK is about 8 pounds and after the record company, retail, distributors etc have put their hands out there is no way the band would of collected 4 pounds. Radiohead are not a great example however, they are one of the biggest bands on the planet and have a fiercely loyal fan base and though the experiment should be commended it was always likely to succeed. Further they have just announced they have signed a deal with XL to release the CD version of the record. A curious development, one I'm sure retailers are applauding, I would of thought a purer spirit of independence would of seen them do some sort of mailout service.

Of course band income is not limited to extra publishing opportunities. The largest and most demonstrable benefit to bands is the strength of live music and the subsequent extra revenue. Obviously peoples access to the music is now at a an unthinkable level from just 10 years ago. I've been working in live music for almost 20 years and crowd numbers bands are enjoying now is like nothing I've seen. In fact its probably twice as strong now then it was 10 years ago. Club shows are now selling out with ease, bands who previously would of played clubs have graduated to theatres, theatre acts to halls or exhibition centres and bands who would of played halls are now playing arenas...it really is staggering. Simply, the old excuse when a band comes to your town 'I've never heard of them' or 'I don't know there music' is now superfulous as their music is a click away. (or at least streamed via myspace). On a more obvious level the more people that hear your music the more people that will enjoy your music and wish to see it live. Further the old economic chestnut of supply and demand has allowed acts to increase ticket prices disproportionalty to other sectors vying for the entertainment dollar, far outstripping the normal market CPI rate. Of course merchandising sales, will also benefit from increased exposure. Don't discount the financial benefits of successful merch. In all its guises its lucrative. We may see more and more knew lines of merch. (Maybe my Ramones lunchbox will finally have a companion!)

So I suppose the million dollar question is where to for the multinational record companies. As shown with their attacks on Oink they are still chasing the long dissipated genie, embarrassingly trying to replug the bottle. A significant clue of the rest of their long term stratergy had emerged in the UK over the last few months. Universal Music, have tried to diversify their operations. They have identified live music as a growth sector (geniuses!). They recently purchased one of the more significant live music agencies in England and are currently in negotiations to purchase a relatively large festival. This at least shows they are trying to think out of the box however their actions could have sinister outcomes. How will a company that has worked in recorded music for 50 years approach the live medium.....more then likely with the unscrupulous, monopolistic attitude that they have created an empire on. In practical terms what this means is that record companies will still sign bands, but rather then just signing them for recording they'll also be after control of their live schedule, the merchandise and even management, effectively creating a monopoly over an acts career. One of the benefits of having a team of people involved is varied input by a group of people whose personal success is linked to the acts so there is tangible motivation to have the act work. Personally I think it will only work in the realms of the top 40 chart fodder acts, all but the most insipid of acts will diversify their management structure and maintain a true sense of independence afforded to them with the help of technology. Getting signed to a label was the dream of millions of bands slogging it away in their parents garage, in times gone by it should of been. Record companies offered money to record, an established distribution, contacts in media that helped in getting your record played. I never really got the cry of 'they've sold out' when bands signed to a major, to me it was subversive for cool bands to be signed to a major, my favourite band reaching a much wider audience all from inside the belly of the corporate beast. I was generally delighted that a band I was into found success (Presuming they didn't drastically change to make it happen). Signing in the future under the model I proposed seems not only pointless but detrimental. Live music isn't dominated by big companies in many cases its small(er) business who get into music because they are passionate. If the multi nationals attempt a move into live music they'll be successful to a degree but with many festivals and live agents they will find strong resistance. When you build something from the ground, risking your meagre resources and brain cells to create successful business you become staunchly protective about its survival. Also for an act who have been with such an agency loyalty is major factor. Despite opinions to the contrary the rock business is generally a loyal endeavour. Based on this I doubt the multi national has the street smarts to compete in live music.
The rest of what is offered on a contract of the future looks equally irrelevant. Recording is no longer the enormous expense it once was, technology has advanced so much that many are now preferring the home studio option and recording to their PC's hard drive. The record company offer distribution into retail etc however their established network is a far cry from the internets efficiency to do the same thing. Record companies offer a promtional team and campaign another role the digital age offers an alternative to. The Arctic Monkeys are the poster kids for the new way of approaching publicity and promotion. From nowhere they launched an International career using predominately myspace and other net based promotions. A few years ago promoters wanting their events to be cool talked of a 'street' campaign to promote their event, now this grass roots promotion has been trumped by the incredible power of myspace, facebook, youtube etc.

The future looks bleak for the multi national record company and the blame is theirs. Their inability to reinvigorate the business model and themselves has proved their great undoing. Of course an idea maybe hatched that re-ignites them but if this is to occur they have to give up on trying to kill the internet. The opportunity to take a leading role in the the way music and the internet co-existed has well and truly past. The incredible amounts of energy and money they are blowing on this farce needs to be redirected immediately into a plan for tomorrow. There is no doubt that music fans owe the big companies a lot, they've been instrumental in introducing us to great music, I doubt that music fans of the future will echo such an utterance.

Vale OINK!