Need Some Help Figuring Out The Effects Of The Digital Era On The Music Publishing Business

[JohnJohn]

Hi, I've been reading this forum for a while, and know this is the best place to come for help.

I've been tasked at my work to give apresentation on the effects that the digital era has had on the music publishing business.

I play guitar, but that passion is the absolute limit of my knowledge on this subject and after two days of searching, I am now beginning to regret accepting this challenge lol

I'd love to see a discussion of the effects of the digital era on the music publishing business get going, so I can build a platform to write my presentation. I'd rather write it using the collective intellgence of people who know more than me, I have no idea if I'm writing anything relevant.

So, if that's not too confusing, does anyone have any input, or at the very least, some links I can read that contain relevant information?

I'd really appreciate the help, thank you very much in advance.

John.

Edited June 6, 2009 by JohnJohn

[Roymega]

Well I guess I'll take a shot at getting the ball rolling..

For one, the internet changed EVERYTHING. I realize that's broad, but when you begin thinking about what the internet actually made available to musician's once other musicians started using it; the boundaries of what you could learn about music and ultimately what you could do with music became almost non-existent

[john]

Hi

Welcome! Drop an intro post in the Introduce Yourself board when you get a chance

On one hand there was a creative impact with the advent of synths and samplers, a huge increase in effects available and of course the improvement in the recordings and mastering and the media itself.

Conversely it open the gates to identical copies with no degradation in the audio. This was the first really serious assault on the music industry, one that was only to get worse with the growing popularity in PCs, the subsequent growth of the internet.

The internet in particular encouraged a lawlessness, a feeling of there being no consequences. That combined with the capability to create exact copies of audio files developed a very very greedy piracy movement.

Short but sweet

John

[JohnJohn]

guys, thanks for the replies! My presentation concerns itself purely with the publishing side, and my research thus far shows that mainly includes things such as licensing, piracy, copyright law, artists, etc.. Not strictly the artform of music production itself, just the business side.

your input in such a short space is greatly appreciated though!

[roxhythe]

My take. Think 25 years ago. Then think more extreme.

Back then, you had a mass proliferation of the technology of 4-track studios. Any band, or anyone, that was making money could afford one, and if you had someone who knew what they were doing, you could produce records (you did have to press 45s back then) and if you got to know some DJs, you could get 'em played on the radio. I was in a bluegrass band, The Dodson Drifters, and we actually became regionally famous doing that.

The Industry countered with requiring more sophisticated technology none of us small-timers could afford, and finally music videos, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The mass availability of the Internet, and the cheapening of technology--again--has allowed mass production of music again. The industry has at the same time become more concentrated; it is almost impossible to get anything played on the radio unless it comes from the Industry, because (as one 1960s TV show put it) "they control the audio, they control the video." They do not control the Internet, however, and that's why you see so much new music on the Internet. It and live performance are the only outlets most people have got. (Again, I've got a little experience. I write, and I perform, and I've got a CD out.)

A good conspiracy theorist would blame the practice of ripping off music on the Internet on the Music Industry. If they did it, they did it at substantial risk to themselves--but they may have done it anyway, to preserve their "market share." It was (my opinion) the grossly exorbitant price of commercial CDs that prompted kids to find ways to get it for free; once they did, the Industry, instead of caving in and lowering prices to affordable levels, simply complained and sued kids--and did so long enough that free music on the Internet became a habit. Now, I think, it's impossible to break. The result is it's hard for anyone new to make money exclusively off the Internet, because music on the Internet has a habit of being free.

I'm not sure how publishing fits into this. The basic rules haven't changed. Neither has the practice of musicians paying little attention to the legal niceties. It's maybe not surprising--they're not paperwork people, they're performers. The same was true 25 years ago, too.

[roxhythe]

(I was about to run out of space. Sorry.)

Accordingly, I think there's still a role--maybe an important one--for the publisher, and it may be the same one as 25 years ago. The Internet warrior needs *marketing* more than anything, and that (besides handling the nasty paperwork) is one of the main things publishers do. No, virtually nobody's doing it, because most of the publishers who are left are being barnacles on the Industry, and maybe what's needed is something completely different. *I* think one can safely bypass the Industry, but how to make money doing so is (as Richard Nixon used to say) the Operative Question.

I don't have a good answer myself. I perform (and I can get paid for performing, though not enough to live on exclusively); I have a CD out, and it sells (but ditto). I haven't tried to sell anything on line--keeping in mind that "free music on the Internet" thing. I do have some of my stuff archived on a couple of OMDs and use that for promotional purposes, and I guess that's working a little. But I'm after answers, too.

I'd love to read your thing when you've got it finished. I do think you're asking your questions in one of the right places. Lots of luck.

joe

[Roymega]

I agree with roxhythe -- in so many words, people that are living.. real.. people.. make the internet. The internet is life in it's most basic essence. You choose how you perceive it. You either take part in it (interact with the internet) or you abstain from it (choose to ignore it's there). Either way -- as John Frusciante says in his song "Unreachable" off of his new album "The Empyrean":

One time, hit me where I turn white...

I don't need to be polite

BEAUTIFUL.. Spin in the world to the beat of my drum

UNIFORM