Future of the Music Industry

Hi,

I know I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I'd discuss something of interest to my sector. The music industry for far too long has been filled with greedy folk who care nothing for the music they produce. Now up until about 5 years ago this was not a problem as they were getting all their money from CD's and consumers were prepared to pay extortionate amounts as they were holding something physical in their hands.

Now the whole arguments regarding onlinr pirated music are flawed. If I go into HMV and steal a CD, that stock cannot be sold to someone else. It's gone and needs to be replaced. If I illegally download a track off the internet it does not affect the supply chain in the slightest.

Does this mean I condone illegal downloading? Of course not. But the industry has to wise up. Why would anyone want to pay for an entire album when all record of it could be wiped away if a hard drive fails? Why would anyone pay anywhere near the same amount of money for a digital download compared to a physical copy?

Yes you do have the immediacy of getting what you want which in my opinion is fantastic, but if the record companies do not have the high production costs of the physical CD, the price should reduce to something fairer.

If this done so say the maximum amount of money someone would pay would be around the £5 mark for a chart album and there was a list of what you had bought in case of hard drive disaster (yes I know that almost all legal online music is now DRM free, but the systems of backup are not easy enough) then the industry would flourish online.

Most consumers realise that music needs to paid for. If a service is well thought out, easy to use and treats its customers with respect it will succeed. iTunes has not succeeded yet as most of the purchases are one off singles and not albums. This will come in time, but it needs some fresh thinking from an industry still stuck in the 1970s

Rant Over.