Monday, April 25, 2005
the Web is not a ghetto...
Jerry asked a lot of questions, and I'll try to subsume them in a brief response. I don't think the Internet is the ghetto of contemporary music. Rather, I do believe that if done appropriately, the Web could be a great distribution model for all sorts of music. It still isn't quite there, but opportunities abound. P2P is one answer; while there is a dearth of classical music, let alone new music, on iTunes et al, the Gnutella network and others seem to have a lot of participants whose tastes run to Ligeti, Feldman, Reich, Glass, etc. [NOTE TO THE FEDS: I'm not condoning file sharing, mind you, just reporting that a lot of great new music is up there on the P2P networks).
I also think one way of getting music in front of a lot of people outside of a major label is to simply offer it up under a Creative Commons license. Depending on one's choice of license, the music can either be free with absolutely no strings, or (as I do on my site), offered for free use provided that the composer is acknowledged and the music is not altered.
The economics of the Web are very favorable, with costs per customer acquired typically below that of nondigital channels. That does not mean, however, that if one puts up a Web site everyone will come. There are many ways to build a user base, and that's not the purpose of this blog entry since it would go on too long.
Another option is podcasting. Personally, I think placing MP3 or AAC files on the Web suffices, but one could have a recurring podcast in which the composer or musician discusses the works in question. Independent music labels are still out there, but I really think digital files are the best way to go in the long term. It saves the user the step of having to rip the music to MP3, AAC or other audio format. Given that the CD will probably go the way of the LP within the next 5 years, this seems to be a viable approach.
Internet radio is also growing, but I think it's too early to know if this will continue to be a venue for noncommercial, cutting-edge music or will become heavily commercialized (much like Spinner did with its constant tie-ins to music available at Amazon.com, which cut off noncommercial music).
OK, not exactly succinct---sorry about the logorrhea.
posted by David Toub
8:48 AM
|
