TOO FAST, TOO FURIOUS FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Since 1999, the music industry has been rapidly moving to define, keep up, and maintain the drastic changes in the trade.  A change driven by such factors as an inevitable consumer revolution for digital media, technological advancement in media formats, and preserving traditional revenue streams in the midst of momentous shift. The rate of speed in which the restructuring of the music industry has been lightning fast – maybe too fast for consumers and trade professionals. In the case of consumer demands, the desire for MP3 format music in the form of peer—to-peer use on the inter-net was tsunami like (literally prompting many in the music biz to declare a state of emergency). During the consumer demands, the digital companies of 1999 decided to launch MP3 players into the marketplace (remember the first MP3 player – the Diamond Rio); however, according to music analyst at the major music conferences like Midem in France, the present day music listener between the ages of 21 and 35 were ‘a lost cause’ and efforts should focus on the emerging market audience (i.e. tweens and teens). True to the cause of preserving traditional revenue streams were those music companies who supported the RIAA’s campaigns of legal prosecution of high school, colleges and adults for downloading music illegally. Changes in the music business still seem to be moving a bit too fast and furious; although the consumer attitudes towards purchasing music has shifted since the advent of Apple iTunes store, real music ringtones, and other new technologies like social media or music cloud services. A recent case in point was the marketing collaboration between Target stores and Beyonce for her latest album entitled “4”. The physical release of CD albums began with a promise of providing digital content for purchasers of the deluxe album, however, the digital video and features were not ready by the release date, therefore, a sort of IOU had to be given to customers in order to redeem the content at a later date.  Yes, there has been a lot of progress in the last decade of the music industry, even so, there are constant reminders that customers, technology and new revenue streams are moving a bit too fast and furious for the music industry to keep up.

REFERENCES:

1) Beyonce, Target’s ‘4’ Plan: Exec. Explains Exclusive Deluxe Album, Store Shortage; BILLBOARD Magazine; Shirley Halperin – Hollywood reporter; July 1, 2011; http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/beyonce-target-s-4-plan-exec-explains-exclusive-1005260962.story