January 28, 2008
Can this music business model be saved?
Posted by Stacy Chandler at January 28, 2008 1:13 PMSo apparently all the buzz at music business conference MIDEM right now is on giving music away -- via an ad-supported service. Seems like a great solution to me, at least in theory: Consumers can access the music the way they want, but artists still get paid. But of course the big music companies are sticking their heads in the sand. That's OK, music industry. You just keep wishing that things aren't changing, and I'm sure eventually it'll all just go away.
Coincidentally, I sampled WE7 (mentioned in that article) yesterday and am writing a post about it. I like it.
Posted by: Amanda at January 28, 2008 5:16 PMIf you use Qtrax as a viable economic model, wouldn't it be possible to set up similar websites and give away everything as long as there are enough advertisements to cover the cost of the products? Food, clothes, etc....even health care!
Color me skeptical.
Posted by: Hal at January 28, 2008 6:51 PMI think the difference is that so many people have moved past the old models of distributing music and this is at least an attempt to meet the market where it already is.
I don't know if it can work large scale -- all the ads so far on the mtracks songs are for mtracks themseleves.
Posted by: Amanda at January 28, 2008 8:17 PMAd-driven revenue is usually peanuts... unless you can do it on Google's scale. I can't see them making enough money to support themselves, their infrastructure, and pay their artists a decent wage.
If you became the *only* site that gave away free music and drew a huge following, sure, you would make some money. However, as soon as another site springs up your revenue is cut in half, and so on, and so on.
The way to make money is to create something people think is worth paying for.
The sad truth is that most people do not think music is worth paying for, and the even sadder truth is that in a large number of cases -- they may be right.
Sorry, I meant WE7 in my message above. All the ads on WE7 songs are for WE7.
Posted by: Amanda at January 29, 2008 8:32 PM
