[Dixielandjazz] copying "THINK DIFFERENT"

[Bigbuttbnd at aol.com]

It's time we all began to think differently about musical product. Only a 
very few performers can actaully make tons of money from CD sales these days. And 
even that takes a major record label and a tremendously expensive marketing 
program to accomplish. There is a paradigm shift happening all around us and it 
is rather important that we become aware of it sooner than later. Even the 
recording industry seems to be way behind in this and have embarassed themselves 
quite often in their attempts to catch up (i.e., SONY's latest debacle)

You can't hope to sell something EXCLUSIVELY if you can't protect it.

For most of the last century the thrust of the REAL moneymaking in the music 
business was recordings. They were relatively easy to protect because the 
technology required to make and distribute recordings was so expensive that only a 
few people could do it (record companies). When cassette tapes became popular 
there was the first evident crack in the security fence that separated the 
manufacturer from the consumer. Suddenly you could create your own product for 
yourself. The technology for cassette tape was not quite equal to the vinyl in 
durability and audio quality so the consumer might play everyday recordings on 
cassette but still wanted to own the original vinyl for archival purposes.

With the spread of digital CDs the horse was out of the barn. No longer does 
the consumer need the record company to have access to the protected goods. 
The CD made on your computer is just as durable (for the foreseeable future) and 
has just as much fidelity as the one purchased from the store. Add to that 
the proliferation of the Internet as a global communication (and promotion and 
delivery) system and the consumer can now create for himself a product that is 
just as good as what he can buy from the record company...and at a fraction of 
the cost. The record company no longer has a way of protecting the 
merchandise... so in this new digital world, the record company is basically no longer 
in the same business. They will have to create a new business. 

Of course, many companies have found a way to sell something that the rest of 
the world can get for free. Lots of money is being made selling bottled water 
when most of us have tap water running in our own homes. The crux of that 
business is probably one of convenience. And maybe there is a sliver of 
CONVENIENCE left to the traditional record companies of old. I don't think the music 
convenience business will be as robust as the record business of old. 

Now let's address the musician (that's us). We're standing on the brink of a 
completely new way of doing business with regard to pre-recorded material... 
and it suits US (OKOM) as well as anybody. We're staring at a level playing 
field all of a sudden. If the THRUST of the record business in the last century 
was to sell a recorded product and everything else (live performances, 
television appearances, movies, etc) was in support of the recorded product... this 
new century will be one in which something else is the product for sale... and 
recordings will only be in support of that. My guess is that live performances 
will be the product. Maybe televised pay-per-view or concerts in which apparel 
may be the secondary product. In that kind of business plan the recordings 
may be given away (or copying encouraged) in order to get you to buy the real 
product... which may be a pay-per-view subscription or a real ticket.

In this scenario the Internet becomes a giant promotion and delivery system 
that even the smallest everyday musician can use to promote and sell himself 
(and deliver a variety of products). Suddenly you don't NEED a record company to 
promote, manufacture or distribute. Recorded music becomes a smaller piece of 
the package instead of the focus that it has been for a century. OKOM 
musicians, especially those aware that the Baby-Boomer generation is not only 
beginning to retire with unprecendented money for impulse buying but is doing so with 
a modicum of Internet savvy, have the oppportunity to create markets for 
themselves that have never been possible before.

Food for thought...

~Rocky Ball
Banjo, the Ruby Red's Band
Atlanta