Oh, How the Music Business Keeps Changing

 

Let me start out with some sobering thoughts.

95% of music downloads are illegal downloads and are NOT paid for. (Funny, I thought most of us in the music business wanted to make money from whatever audio or music business profession we chose to get involved with) Well, there is SOME hope on the horizon. Internationally, 2008 saw a 25 % growth in LEGAL downloads for a dollar total of $3.7 billion dollars!

Digital platforms on the Internet that sell LEGAL downloads have increased online and through mobile devices as a new generation of music subscription services, social networking sites and new music licensing channels are emerging. In 2008 digital platforms accounted for 20% of recorded music sales, UP from 15% in 2007!

The music industry continues to change dramatically, but how will you make money from your music, as the industry shifts from a “sales-to-a-customer” model to “monetizing” ACCESS to music across a multitude of channels and platforms?

CD sales, as of 2008, are still the number one way record labels make their money, but the writing is on the wall that the future is NOW for you to implement this new “access” approach to making money from your music.

Some researchers and experts on the subject of selling music predict that by 2012 the shift from CD sales dominating the labels revenue to other approaches already mentioned will take place.

Music is no longer about a pre-prepared set of songs released on a CD by a artist or band but it is a growing business of customers selecting from a wide catalog of individual songs, like on iTunes or eMusic.

So, many artists will be moving away from their ingrained habit of coming up with 10 to 15 songs to record a traditional ‘album’ and moving toward creating compositions released individually, and finding more ‘uses’ for their music in the marketplace, like: song placements in films, television and placed on the Internet, as well as used in commercials and even selling sheet music copies of their compositions. Also look more for bands and recording artists to offer individual song downloads from their growing catalog of material available on their own websites, and the many social networking sites that will act as distributors of music.

Single track legal downloads in 2008, were UP 24% to 1.4 billion units globally, and this will continue drive the online music market. Don’t get me wrong, full albums are not going away anytime soon, digital albums are growing healthily these days (up 36% from 2007).

Basically the question is this: What other things can you do now to expose your music in ways that never existed a decade ago? What kind of ripple effect will all these changes bring to other parts of the recording industry?

For example, what will happen to the traditional recording studios that for decades made a good living booking their rooms for days or weeks at a time as a band/artist created their record? Already studios that rely on music being recorded at their facilities are losing revenue. Think about it. If only one or two songs is all you plan to record and…..read entire article here >>>>     

 

Article by Chris Knabb – email at: Chris@Knab.com