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Dubai SoundCity: More education, different packages, 360 deals – succeeding in the free music age
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009
Even if politicians can be persuaded to suspend the net connections of persistent file-sharers, the music industry needs to do more to educate consumers about copyright. That was one of the conclusions of the final panel debate at last week’s Dubai SoundCity, which focused on how the music industry can cope with an increased expectation that music be free.
“There is still a lot to be done in educating people as to how the music business works”, PRS For Music’s Myles Keller observed. “We need to better communicate which of the free music services out there are legitimate and which are not licensed. And to better explain why the music community has to charge for content, and the link between consumers paying for music today and the new talent of the future”. PRS, Keller admitted, had a role to play in that education process – and indeed are already performing that role – but the industry at large needed to collaborate to better communicate its message regarding copyright.
CMU Publisher Chris Cooke, also speaking on the panel, argued that neither piracy nor the idea that some elements of music should be free were new concepts. “As a child of the eighties, I grew up surrounded by free sources of music”, he said, “some legal, some otherwise. I turned on the radio, free music. If I liked a song, I taped it, free music. If I like the artist a lot, I’d get a friend to tape me a copy of their album. Lots of free music. However, as I grew older, and had more expendable income, I opted to buy CDs, and more recently buy music through iTunes, simply because it was more convenient”.
Cooke conceded that the sources of free music in the internet age were more bountiful, easier to use and provided music in a higher quality. “But the principle remains, music has always been available for free, but people will pay for it if you offer them some compelling, or more convenient”.
He concluded: “It’s just that in the internet age record companies need to be cleverer in the way they offer content – make it more compelling, more convenient. Create and monetise more periphery content, and package it in different ways. That’s not to say education, and even three-strikes style piracy crackdowns, don’t have their place. But there are commercial solutions to these challenges also”.
Of course some of the ways record companies can enhance their products so to compete with free will involve bundling recording-based products with merchandise or tickets to live events. Which brings us back to the 360 degree record deal.
“Of course record companies are going to want to move into my territory if that’s how they can get back their investment” observed legendary Aussie concert promoter Michael Chugg. “And I don’t have a problem with that, providing they don’t screw it up! I think all players in music are now looking across the industry for opportunities – we’re about to release our first record – and that’s very exciting. There’s still lots of way for us to make money from music. Yes, those who make the initial investment need to make sure they are linked into some of the return. But that’s entirely possible, and makes this industry a more exciting place to be”.
