ROLLING STONE WRITES MUISIC INDUSTRY'S OBIT

from the at-their-own-hands dept

Yeah, it's not like most of the folks outside of the recording industry didn't recognize this years ago, but Rolling Stone has pretty much summed up the situation in the recording industry by writing what is effectively an obituary for the industry's suicide. There's nothing really new in there, but it hits on a few key points. The music industry is still doing great. There's more music available. Sales of products to listen to music (iPods, etc.) are flying off the shelves. The publishing business, which licenses music to things like TV shows is growing. Concert revenue continues to grow. All of these things were easily predictable back in the Napster days if you recognized that free music made everything else more valuable and expands all those other industries. It's just that the recording industry was unable to recognize this in time to change its business model. The article highlights how its almost entirely the recording industry's own fault. They had a chance to sign a deal with Napster and they backed out, sending people off to tons of other file sharing tools, that were often more underground (just as everyone predicted).

The amazing thing, however, is that the recording industry still doesn't recognize that it did this to itself. The current head of the RIAA, Mitch Bainwol, still insists that piracy is destroying the music industry -- when nothing is further from the truth. The article also quotes his predecessor, Hilary Rosen, who instead blames everyone else. She blames the retailers and the musicians for not letting the record labels change their business models. Of course, she leaves out the part where she lead the charge to sue customers and get Congress to put in place anti-consumer laws that simply drove people away. So, no, there's nothing really new in the article -- but to have the industry's bible declare that the recording industry sealed its own fate is certainly a milestone. Now, can we move on and start focusing on ways to continue to build the new music industry?