The Music Industry (Remix)
Back around the early
2000s, I worked for a record label as a copy supervisor. Over one week, it seemed, I collected
cover artwork and all legalese for all songs in our extensive library, while
others scrambled for digital masters, because we’d be privileged enough to have
our very own brand page on iTunes. At the time, I didn’t have an iPod and
though the task was annoyingly large, I truly had no idea what wave was surging
under us, plus I left the industry shortly after. While the purpose of this study is influenced by the
shockwave I felt, after reading Jay Galbraith’s chapter on “Six Immutable
Forces Shaping Today’s Organizations” about the pressures that industries feel
to keep up with current tides, compete and stay significant, and specifically
the 6 organizational game changers, I knew I had to pay my respects to the
music industry and the enormous changes it’s gone through. Such an explosion of
new technology occurred, and I probably couldn’t even identify most of the musical
fishes in the sea without some sort of wildlife social media identifying map, but
all I know was, music found itself in uncharted territories.
FREE MUSIC
By the time Gilbraith’s
2002 book mentioned the first of his six organizational shapers: Buyer power,
the new company Napster threatened to hand all control to the buyer by not
making them buy a thing! The new
music-sharing website had already been slapped with multi-million dollar
lawsuits to stop the distribution of the free music mp3 files, pay back-royalties,
and in order to try to restore some quality – which had gotten worse than some
of those mix tapes you’d make on your boombox. The way I saw it, when I left the industry in 2005, I was
leaving a sinking ship. “CD sales
[had] dropped from 730 million in 2000 to 593 million in 2005. CD sales [were expected] to drop to 450
million in 2008. (Napster Revolution, n.d.)”
MUSIC TELEVISION NO LONGER
PLAYS MUSIC
Once MTV stopped playing
most music videos, I suppose in turn responding to their target audience who’d
prefer to watch reality shows about Jersey Boys and Girls than music, these
performance artists found a new home with social media and specifically
youtube.com on the Internet (Gilbraith, 2002). We all know where Bieber
fever began.
ARTISTS DROPPING LABELS
With social media
influence spreading like wildflower, artists responded with variety and their solution were to start dropping their labels
feeling that they didn’t need the label to promote the work when they could
create the same, possibly more personal relationships online (Masnick, 10/9/2007;
Jones 2007). “Will.i.am (from the band, Black-Eye Peas) says he made Girls
a cohesive story so fans would buy the whole album instead of downloading a few
singles. ‘You can create a dialogue among fans who want to know the whole
story.’ (Jones, 2007)”
SPECIAL EDITIONS
Suddenly the quick answer
to diversify into multiple dimensions became make everything with “added value”.
Box sets became a huge part of our product line - giving the buyer who
actually purchased a CD the bonus vinyl record, sometimes with limited edition
graphics, or lenticular covers, or autographed booklets or secret biography all
wrapped up in an awesome keepsake case.
(Masnick, 10/1/2007)
CHANGE THE CHANNEL
With music flooding the
internet, and YouTube becoming the biggest place to launch new videos
(Sandoval, 2011), the music industry started fishing for talent online. Even the classic band Journey turned to
YouTube to find their new lead singer when the signature sound of the band
Steve Perry left the band (Leckart, 2007).
Also, here is a big part of where iTunes became significant. Steve Jobs helped restore some power to the artists and the labels by “[negotiating] licensing agreements with all of the major labels.” and setting the price per song at just 99 cents (Nash, 2011).
Also, here is a big part of where iTunes became significant. Steve Jobs helped restore some power to the artists and the labels by “[negotiating] licensing agreements with all of the major labels.” and setting the price per song at just 99 cents (Nash, 2011).
FROM 33RPM TO LASER SPEED
Like I said in the
opening, it felt like the decision to jump on the iTunes bandwagon happened
overnight with a week to gather over 50 years’ worth of music. But we did it
because we had to, or have the spot be taken by a hungry competitor. Now days the iTunes continues to
evolve. My favorite band recently released an album but as a treat for loyal
customers, released the music for listening to, but not downloadable, for free
a few days before the street release date. Some albums know which tunes will be the hot tracks and make
them available only with the purchase of the whole album.
It’s taken a while, but I
think the music industry survived the skip in the record known as Napster and
found itself with a clearer sound, unlimited possibilities, and now comfortably
sings a new tune.
Galbraith, J. R. (2002). Designing Organizations. San Francisco,
CA: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
Sons, Inc.
Jones, Steve (2007,
September 26) Will.i.am goes solo to tell personal story. USA
Today Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-09-26-
will-i-am_N.htm
Today Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-09-26-
will-i-am_N.htm
Leckart, S. (2007,
December 5) Journey Finds Replacement Singer on YouTube. Wired
Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/underwire/2007/12/journeys-replac/
Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/underwire/2007/12/journeys-replac/
Masnick, M. (2007, October 9) Bands Rushing To
Ditch Labels And Embrace Free;
Are The Floodgates Opening? techdirt Retrieved from
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071008/154529.shtml
Are The Floodgates Opening? techdirt Retrieved from
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071008/154529.shtml
Masnick, M. (2007, October 1) Radiohead Tells
Fans To Name Their Own Price For Latest
Album Downloads; Gives Them A Reason To
Pay techdirt Retrieved from
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070930/214524.shtml
Napster Revolution, The.
(n.d.). The Entertainment e-Zine – Music.
Retrieved from
http://entertainment.lilithezine.com/Napster-Revolution.html
http://entertainment.lilithezine.com/Napster-Revolution.html
Nash, Ed. (2011, October
21). How Steve Jobs Saved the Music Industry
The Wall Street
Journal Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020400
2304576629463753783594.html
Journal Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020400
2304576629463753783594.html
Sandoval, G. (2011, May
27). Was Napster or iTunes more influential? CNET News
Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/2300-31001_3-10007916-4.htmlf
Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/2300-31001_3-10007916-4.htmlf
Love the example! Just to take it a little further, perhaps elaborate on how the change in buyer power impacted "variety and solutions." (just make the connection more explicit). Any thoughts on strategy for the future of music delivery?
ReplyDeleteSarah, it was fascinating reading about your experience with the evolution of music distribution in the early 2000s. I remember the Napster controversy and the free music download days fondly. The quick and urgent way the industry had to react to change and the way YouTube and the internet opened up the advantages for artists and consumers alike was discussed in Worly and Lawler's article, Designing Organizations That are Built to Change. In the article the authors discuss "maximizing the surface area of the organization by connecting as many employees as possible with customers and others in the external environment" (p. 21). In this case, the external environment would have been the music websites and music television, as it too was changing. Your example was also like the one Galbraith used in Chapter 6, Designing a Reconfigurable Organization. Galbraith uses the example of the cookie company identifying new ways to be competitive and expand its opportunities through packaging and business partnerships. This is similar to what the music industry had to do with box-sets and jumping on board with itunes. It is important to be flexible and act swiftly in today's tech savvy world, but I can imagine what this must have been like 10 years ago when these were pioneering ideas. Who knew Napster would change the way the world listens and buys music? And in my personal opinion, Steve Jobs was such a genius! I love itunes :-) He's a personal icon of mine. Great job Sarah. ~Andrea
ReplyDeleteAs a result of the shift in buyer power, as music became increasingly easy to share, it changed the way an artist was developed and music was delivered. I'd say that suddenly everyone was crossing over.
ReplyDeleteFrom my work's perspective, many of our artists were created by crossing over from music to movies, attaching them to already loved properties whether launching a no-name artist by giving them the coveted end-credit song in a popular film, or by taking the best-loved TV stars and developing a cross-over artist album to accompany the show soundtrack featuring their personal musical talent. It gave the fans another level to allow their favorite celebrity into their lives and since (I feel) music is more intimate, it's a deeper "relationship" with the artist than just watching someone on the screen. Additionally there was genre cross-over in that country artists would also perform pop versions on the soundtrack at the same time that they released the original tune on their artist album.
Since then, and since I've shifted to the role of a consumer, I feel like music is leaning more towards talent, individual personality, and forming a relationship with the audience through social media. Formulaic boy bands, now banded together forming supergroup NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block/Back Street Boys), still aren't competing as well against individual artists. Musicians have to be memorable but the definition of memorable has evolved. Ozzy Osbourne is the best example of that because in the 80's, he bit the heads off bats, now people watched him bumble around being the dad on reality TV. That translates into being accessible. Observing these musicians in their "everyday" lives a) makes the audience feel closer to the artist since they're "normal" people and b) makes people buy into the dream because it seems a "reality" that the audience could obtain.
These days, artists don't need record labels as much and record FLIP or iPhone videos of themselves in their home or at a live show and post immediately to YouTube. My mac notebook came with the garage band program that streamlined what used to require half-a-room consoles housing millions of knobs and slides in recording studios. With the right social media push, things go viral faster than the time it'll take you to read this posting.
One great example of this is the group Walk Off the Earth (WOTE). Shortly after this year's biggest hit Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know" hit the soundwaves, WOTE came out so quickly with an acoustic video with 5 members all playing and drumming on one acoustic guitar while singing. I actually thought that IT was the real song and was surprised when I saw Gotye's video later. Plus the creative gimmick of playing on one guitar and the millions of views got them invited on Ellen's talkshow resulting in over 136 million views.
The gimmick, as long as it is backed by talent, helps people crave the whole experience of the album. The Flaming Lips distributed their last album on a flash drive buried in the middle of a big edible gummy skull (Ankeny, 2011). While I think those are cool, it'll make me remember the band, but not necesarily buy the music. For me, again, it's about the intimate musical experience. I think if the large bands still get out there to tour regularly, but also reward their faithful social media fans with opportunities for small gatherings at the Troubadour so they're close enough to touch their musical icon, then that is what will drive people to the fanatic level where they'll never JUST download a single again, they'll be faithful forever fans and always buy the album.
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Ankany, J. (2011, April 26) The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne on Reinventing the Music Industry (ital: Entrepreneur
Magazine) Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219468