Sorry for the rant at the start of this topic (see Part 1) However we are always a nation of wrong priorities...
Anyway Part 2 - is here!
Let’s start with a brief history..
Filesharing among kids, adults, boys, girls, mums and dads etc.. everyone does it. There is technology coming that will actually make it easier to share files better, smarter, faster - but not for any gain - but because it’s their music or movies and you know what - they want to share it. Either to another device, with Aunty Marge in Australia or Brother Tommy in New Jersey.
WHY??
Because WE CAN NOW!!! - I buy a CD - give it to my friend Dan to listen to (hey may decide to rip it), give Matt the latest South Park DVD (hey may also rip it), send Ethan in San Francisco Mario Kart 2 on Wii (because he has a chipped Wii and is not out in the US yet)
My previous Blog about the 70’s & 80’s when we shared tapes with each other and lent albums and videos to friends - the digital age makes it easier to do.
Now I do have an issue with the fileshares that decide to rebel against the industry and use the fileshring as an excuse to rip and share every album ever made - because why should we pay for music! I am 100% against that!!! It’s not hipocrital of me - as me sharing my purchases with my friends is not the same is allowing millions to download for free.
However we are at a fundamental cross roads here where the music industry has no idea how to stop this or in fact how to reverse this...
A few simple points that I started to touch on the recent “Future of Music Retail” event that I attended recently, and was allowed on the panel thanks to Music Ally (cheers Paul) - is quite simple - but it takes a little bit of courage, realisation and one of those “JESUS MOMENTS”
I have mentioned this numerous times - and maybe, just maybe it will start to sink in to the powers that be...
In 21st Century, 2008 to be precise, we have a new generation - lets call them Generation Y - that are growing up in a digital world, where information ebbs and flows at breakneck speeds around the globe. I can post this blog and within seconds can be seen from San Francisco to London, Berlin to New Zealand. It is a revolutionary time where retail is changing forever with e-commerce, news is reaching ever corner of the globe as it happens - and media is being consumed by everyone.
Digital media and zooming in on this topic, digital music and movies are being consumed this way as well.
Zoom in even further and you start to see a picture of what is happening and where the main issues seem to be.
Boundaries and regions are becoming more transparent, territories are seen on a global rather than regional scale. This next generation know what they want, where to get it and get what they want NOW! If they can’t find it, locate it or track it down - they use their social networks to help them find it.
This is the start of the 21st Century and it belongs to the Generation Y’ers - and not us I’m afraid.
So what has this got to do with illegal filesharing? Simple, look at the paragraph above and see that wherever you shut a door (ie ISPs monitoring P2P traffic) another 20 doors will open. This is the generation that likes to share, compare, request, reject, comment and want to be commented on. They have seen the rise of digital media and the ease that it can be moved around the world. From friend to friend, colleague to colleague and peer to peer.
They see value, real value in what is important to them, and are vocal and outspoken on the elements that they feel are of no significant worth or greed. Our Gen-Y’ers are more eco-friendly and understand their planet and environment more than the need for sustained wealth, greed and power.
They have been brought up and used to being able to share media with each other and find and locate what they want and need. Why?
Because they understand the digital space more than most. They strongly believe that the digital file is of lesser value and importance than that of it’s physical sister - and as such should have a much lesser value. They recognise that a single digital file is produced and from that file millions of copies at the same rate and quality is produced. They are the multi-tasking generation that will watch TV, listen to music, chat and surf the web. They want their information in byte size chunks and if it interests them - they will look beyond the byte - if not, it is discarded as irrelevant and move on.
If an industry want to engage and survive, and even thrive, you must first understand the generation that is shaping your future business - or you will NOT HAVE A BUSINESS!!
The music industry is a funny old beast - and I use the term OLD as stringently as possible.
Here is an industry that could not believe that a really badly sounding, composed, produced and just plain bloody awful RINGTONE - could be worth more than a CD Single, and that it would sell more copies than a single!
WHY?
They didn’t understand that this is what the GenY’ers wanted and how THEY chose to consume their music. So what if we didn’t get it, understand it or even accept it. They did and they wanted it that way.
However the music industry (and even now is stuck in this mind set..)knows that since the 60’s it has lived and breathed Albums, Singles, EPs etc..
WHY?
Because they have always done that - their business is built around the success of this. The result is that in order to produce the number of “albums” to get their profits up they need to produce a vast number of average selling albums, with average songs, or worse one great song and eleven poor songs. Quality not quantity is what is required.
Think smarter..
Here is an example...
- NEW BAND - X
- Found in stinking Camden basement (aren’t all the best ones ;)
- Great Live Performers - Crowd go’ing wild
- A&R Man hears that they have 2 or 3 great songs
- now here is the clever part...
- Get them into a studio the next day
- Record the 3 great songs that you heard - bit of spit & polish
- a few days later -all done (cost $ minimal)
- Get the 3 tracks out there for FREE!!
- (maybe use Media Tracking & Reporting (MTR) that allows you to see the number of times the track has been shared, transferred and passed)
- Use every ounce of social network and blogsphere Internet radio etc.. to get X out there
- Create some quick and simple T-Shirts and merchandise
- Get on the road and keep on gigging -
I could keep on going - but it’s understanding the dynamics of the the new business model that is being created here and what can and should be monetised.
But maybe the success in is getting the one or two BEST tracks out there - as quickly as possible to the biggest audience as possible - rather than spending $1,000,000 on attempting to make the best 13 track ALBUM ever!!
People and critics will say - “you can not sustain a business like that” and “we have assets and catalogue that is worth $$$$$$$$$ to us” Yes - but what is that actually worth - not what YOU think it SHOULD be worth or even worse, what it USED to be worth.
So how do you change the mind set of this next generation. Simple -
Listen to them
Learn from them
Ask what they want
Ask how you can help them get what they want
This is the generation that listens and responds -
we are the generation that stops, prevents, tuts and ultimately...
..sends you a letter.