The Music Industry Sucks? Really?

Hadn't heard that one before...

Via largehearted boy (which I don’t read nearly as often lately, being that it’s now blocked at work...not that I ever read outside websites at work since I’m too busy, uhh, working…ahem), I find a great writeup of the new music documentary, Before the Music Dies, in the Aspen Times.

The film indicts the music business for its core failing: it couldn't care less about good music, while it spends millions and millions peddling disposable crap that doesn't stand a chance of being passed from one generation to the next. While pop icons who don't play instruments, don't write music, may not even sing in key, but look good in tight clothes and know how to stir up controversy hit platinum sales (before their star inevitably fades, and the business is off to the next one), ambitious and accomplished artists are left to their own devices.

This isn't exactly news. Everyone knows the major labels have led a topsy-turvy existence for a decade or more. Now owned by huge conglomerates, and run by MBAs rather than music people, the majors are chasing hits and dollars, not artistry. (This will catch up to them in a few years when they start trying to sell the box sets of the Spice Girls and the like.) But Shapter, showing an accomplished hand in his first film, uses the artists themselves to tell how bad things are. Several of those testifying to the lameness of the record business have benefited greatly from major label associations: Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Erykah Badu, Dave Matthews. You know the curtain has been thrown aside when such top-sellers are tearing apart the machine.

It is a lesser-known who sums it up best: "The 20 million people who buy a Britney Spears record aren't music fans. They're pop-culture fans," said Michael Penn, who had a 1989 hit with the song "No Myth," and now exists as an independent singer-songwriter. "If your vision is more about reaching the people who really respond to music - that's a completely different business than the majors are in now. The majors used to be in that - but they weren't majors then, they were record labels."

For a moment, the MBA in me overpowered the music nerd in me, thinking, “Yeah...it’d be great if the industry catered to the pure music lovers, but is there revenue in that?” Then the music nerd responded, “Is there revenue in catering to the ‘pop culture’ lovers instead of music lovers?” I’m not so sure anymore. Sales are dipping bigtime, and they continue to dip even when big sellers in the past (Jay-Z, Norah Jones) release new albums.

Honestly, at the current moment, I don’t think the major problems with the major labels is focusing on crappy pop music—there was plenty of money in that in 1999, and last I checked, 13-year old girls still listen to music...there will always be an industry there, just like there will always be music nerds like me complaining that the industry stinks because of the 13-year old girls. No, the major problem at the moment is quite simply new technology. Napster blew up about 7-8 years ago, and instead of embracing the fact that there was an amazing new way to get artists exposed, they stuck their fingers in their ears and yelled and stomped up and down, and while they’ve made some concessions toward the new technologies, they’re always playing catch-up.

And as I’ve said before, no industry hates its own customers more than the music industry. That sure doesn't help.

Here’s an idea—instead of deciding between MBA’s or music people to run these companies, how about an MBA who’s a music person? I can, uhh, pretty much assure you that they exist...