Is it me, or is this October 2007 going to go down as the month the record industry as we know it collapsed?
Major international acts are say "no thanks" to record labels, including Paul McCartney, Madonna, and Radiohead - and Oasis and Jamiroquai are rumoured to be following suit. In a recent post on his website, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails said he is thrilled with the idea of being "free of any recording contract with any label."
At the same time, record companies are reportedly telling their employees that they had better innovate, or risk losing their jobs.
Now, according to ArsTechnica's Jacqui Cheng, Apple plans to expand its iTunes Plus - that's the branch of iTunes that sells DRM-free tracks - and drop the price for a song from $1.29 to $.99, which is the same price as the songs with DRM. That means music buyers won't have to pay extra to get digital rights-free tunes.
So far, only EMI has signed up to sell the DRM-free songs - which have no limits on how many computers play them and are downloadable at twice the bitrate of standard tracks - but now that they're on par with the other songs, they may end up pushing the envelope.
So grab some popcorn and an extra large soda, because it looks like this show is going to continue for a while...
I think it can certainly be said that the demise of the record industry as it has existed is eminent, it has been for a long time now. The only thing that's really kept it going this long has been a series of lawsuits and copyright legislation that has unfairly punished consumers and rewarded media companies. At this point it's just a reality of the business world. If, given all of the free money, artificial subsidies and rediculously unjustified court settlements they've been awarded the old record labels still can't make money then they don't have a viable business model, plain and simple.
Michael Geist and veteran musician Nathan Lawr have also had some interesting thoughts on this topic in recent days.
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