Pearl Jam goes ‘net only
June 9, 2003
I’ll skip all of the easy cliches that come to mind, and simply offer a brief hope that this is a sign of things to come. A major band has finally left a major record label for online distribution.
Pearl Jam has fulfilled their contract with their label, and has “decided to pursue an Internet-only strategy”:http://www.msnbc.com/news/921872.asp?0cv=CB20 rather than renew or sign with another label.
It turns out that they’ve been quite successfully selling live albums online for a year or two now, and see no reason not to continue on in that fashion, rather than re-mortgage their future profits on another label deal.
It’s anyone’s guess how many other major artists are in a financial position that would allow them to do something similar (many artists never see profits above what was advanced to them on signing, essentially leaving them in financial bondage to the label), but hopefully a few are paying serious attention to this as a new possibility.
(via “TechDirt”:http://www.techdirt.com)
This is a very good sign. If others follow suit, this could turn out to be the RIAA’s worst nightmare. Maybe.
I think RIAA’s worst nightmare was back when Napster first hit, and the realization dawned on fans that they didn’t need to spend $15 on an album, and on artists that they only got 1/15th of that (on a good day)—and they’ve not woken up yet.
Since then, it’s been nothing but continuous thrashing to try to stuff the genie back in the bottle, and it ain’t gonna go.
The indies went online a long while back, since they couldn’t (by definition) break into the game anyway. The rest have basically been tied up in legal bondage, or have apparently been lured by future promises to not jump ship.
I think we’re now seeing a glimmer of the future, when acts that have gotten their financial house in order enough to bail will be bailing… One has to wonder how many of those can go before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down…
i agree w/all of your points, Chuck. i think the ‘net has finally begun to change the way the music biz works which can only be a very good thing for fans and their bands. but i’m hoping you’re wrong about those acts who have got their finances together; i’m hoping more and more bands (those already $ucce$$fu£ and not) go to the ‘net and their fans to promote themselves a la pearl jam and marillion. the status quo music biz badly needs a wake-up call.
I think the status quo music biz needs the message to come up from their hindbrain that they’re dead
It’s an ugly, viscious circle, at least as far as mainstream acts are concerned—they make their money off of concert venues (since the middlemen siphon off most of what is made on the albums), but they need radio airplay to drive ticket sales, and radio airplay is controlled by the record distributors who promote according to how much they make on the albums.
I think it’s time to disintermediate both the distribution network AND the radio promotion game. Release the stuff online, and let online popularity drive what radio plays. Let the bands themselves decide what they want to give away online to promote live venues and what they want to sell online themselves (keeping some of the real profits for a change).
Put the money back in the pockets of the bands, and the choice back in the hands of the listeners.
Nah, that’d NEVER work…