Not Getting Noticed Online? Record a Cover Song…
While digital distribution has opened the floodgates of music
discovery, many independent artists are having trouble cutting through
the clutter. Certainly stores like MusicMatch, Napster, iTunes and MSN
Music have helped to proliferate independent catalog online, but how
does a music fan find that hidden gem? Derek Sivers, founder of
independent online CD retailer CDBaby, relayed some interesting
discoveries at a Musexpo Music & Media panel Monday.
Sivers made an important connection: almost all of the artists in
question had covered well-known songs, causing them to appear next to
searches for major artists like Morrissey, Bob Dylan and the Rolling
Stones. "People would discover the band by listening to a cover song,
then get interested and check out the album," said Sivers. Meanwhile,
some of the top artists on CDBaby failed to get major attention on
stores like iTunes, with few signposts or recommendations guiding the
casual user.
With iTunes and Napstar, and the newest marketing: Podcasting, we are beginning to see the end of the current tradition of marketing…People go out, buy CDs and rip them to the hard drive and play them.
The Recording Industry has locked the music down on the CDs, preferrably, Song BMG and EMI. That, and DRMed music on formats that we don’t look foward to, like WMA and ACC, we could be heading in towards a Music Crash period within the next few years. People don’t like DRM or copy protection, they like the music to flow freely throughout the world. Even some record labels have no plans on copy protection, because it violates human rights. Phillips is one of them.
The copy protection and the DRM will alienate consumers as the record companies haggle over their rights. But they can haggle so much before consumers won’t accept them. Remember the days of DivX? That didn’t last so long. We believe that copy protection won’t last for long either on Music. Consumers want to use music to the broad flexibility they want. But if copy protection only provide some DRMed WMAs and consumers only can make some unlimited copies, than the consumers will simply won’t accept it and look elsewhere.
Some consumers are going away, and creating their own music to be put on the internet. Some are choosing P2P. If this is true, it would starve the record labels are would do everything they could to win back consumers. Options would include dropping the CD price and removing restrictions, joinging in the P2P, and other attractive ways.
But right now, the relations between Consumers and Record companies have gone icy lately as a result of copy protection and DRM. But with a change in Market Strategy, we hope to see relations thaw in the near future.