While riding the bus a while ago I noticed a fellow bus rider was reading an article in Entertainment Weekly. I had trouble remembering what the article title was but I remembered it was about the recording industry and also about their resistance to modern technological breakthroughs that enable music to be shared. I decided to go online and try to find the article for myself (especially since I couldn’t go back in time and wrestle my fellow bus rider for the magazine!).
I remembered it was in Entertainment Weekly and also that is was in the last year. This enabled me to start my search. I went to the Seattle Public Library’s website. I clicked on Databases and Websites. This took me to the page where I could then choose View Online Journals A-Z and used this to find which databases had Entertainment Weekly. I chose ProQuest and entered a search with the keyword “mp3” and as I looked at the list I found my article “10. You say you want a revolution Rob Brunner. Entertainment Weekly. New York: Oct 26, 2007. p. 34” I remembered this was the right title when I saw it in the list. Since this was a full text article, I was able to print it out to read at my leisure (you can also choose to email it to yourself).
The article is about current trends in the music industry. The traditional way it has been done for decades is an artist is signed to a label. That label then invests money in the artist by recording and promoting them. They take a gamble that the artist will become a star and people everywhere will buy the record, buy tickets to see them live, buy the merchandise etc…This is changing, however. Madonna broke with her label and went with a new company that has never sold music before. Radiohead released their latest record as a pay-what-you-want download. Of course these are superstars, so they already have a fan-base that will go where they need to so they can have their music.
The record industry is still reeling. There are a few people who are clear thinking enough to realize that they risk being called luddites. Guy Hands (the new EMI chief) sent out a memo to his staff telling them to “find ways of capitalizing on digital music instead of stubbornly clinging to plunging CD sales. ‘The industry has stuck its head in the sand’ Hands wrote.” CDs will continue to be available for a long time, but to think that is the only way to sell music is unrealistic. Subscription services (such as Apple’s iTunes) may be a possible future. Customers will pay a fee to unlimited access to thousands of titles. There are other technologies that we can’t even dream of yet. One of the truly amazing things about the times we live in is that there is access to more music now than any other time in history. This will only improve as the technologies sort themselves out. Hopefully the recording industry won’t take to long to adapt.
This article really gave me some food for thought and I found it because I have access to the Seattle Public Library’s databases.
~John B.
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