music

Wired has a great section this month on the changing music industry- music reborn, with 2 articles that are must-reads:

Beck
Nettwerk

Excerpt from Nettwerk article: Industry insiders like McBride think the old model is as antiquated as the 8-track. "The future of the business isn't selling records," McBride says. "It's in selling music, in every form imaginable." And by establishing a series of so-called artist-run labels, McBride is creating the next-gen music company. "We become the management company, the publishing company, and the record company rolled into one," McBride says. "We take our 20 percent cut of the whole pie."

More important, he says, the new model frees him and his artists from the overgrown bureaucracy of the music industry, and that means more money for everyone.

It's great to see such different artists as Beck and BNL getting smart about this stuff, and even more refreshing to see them taking a chance on things that even 2 years ago wouldn't be considered, like sharing single instrument files of an album online and allowing for anyone to mix as they see fit. The artists are finally getting paid what they deserve, too, not just a miniscule $1 per disc sold.

On a similar note, Gareth wrote a great post about blogs and music here. Even HBS is getting in on this subject, with a study done by a couple of professors that found downloading music may not be all that bad.


(cartoon from the always fabulous toothpaste for dinner.)