Thursday, April 2, 2009
Record Labels threatened by Online Communities
Social networking and participatory media pose a very strong threat to big record labels across the globe. The ease of accessibility and low cost (no cost) of listening to music online has become dominant for music listener's around the world. Specifically MySpace, YouTube, and uTorrents or other forms of torrents have prospered significantly in the past 5-7 years. Online listener's interact with one another as to what downloads are good and bad, and can display their thoughts in a a comment box. One of my favourite bands, Wilco, used the internet strongly to their advantage in 2005. Their album entitled Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was shunned by their record label Warner, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and release the record via the internet. It was a huge success, leading to a 30-city tour and a large increase in the band's fan base. Jeff Tweedy, the band's front man, displayed his thoughts in the following quote: "“The audience is our collaborator. We should be encouraging their collaboration online, not treating them like thieves,” (Tweedy, Wired, 2005). Wilco has continued to use the internet for many different purposes such as live webcasts, bonus songs and concerts, and they released their last album A Ghost Is Born over the internet 3 months before it's commercial release. Metallica believes otherwise, condemning online listener's and online music communities, labelling online listener's as theives. Who do you support....Wilco or Metallica?
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I believe Wilco 110%. While I do not claim to be an expert on the topic, to generalize I understand the big bands condemn online music while smaller bands live by it. For the small band the internet seems to be a medium in which to spread the word and get feedback on their music. For the large band they see fee music as a loss in profit. The story of Wilco is a good one because it is bands like this who are less concerned with popularity and more concerned with releasing good music. An example that comes to mind is how more popular mainstream artists seem to lose track of why they got into music. With people like Britney Spears not writing the music, lip syncing at concerts, and having their image completely doctored by labels and publicists, who should we be supporting? She would not defect from the label because the label has built her, on her own she would have nothing.
ReplyDeleteAlso after watching a few episodes of cribs it is easy to see who is living lavish and who is not. The big popular bands get no sympathy with me when I see them living in 20,000 sq ft mansions, driving 8 cars and having personal chefs. Never again will I purchase the album of an overly successful group, while I will likely not even purchase the album of a struggling band, I am far more likely to show support in other way….go to their show, buy a t-shirt and spread the word about who they are and why to listen to their music.