Digital Downloads: Who Should Profit Most?

As a new participant venturing into the blogosphere, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the number of blogs dealing entirely with music and recording industry trends and events. In my previous post I discussed the hypocrisy of American Idol and the recording industry in general for creating false promises of glamorized fame and success that only prove true for a select few lucky and hard-working individuals. Today, I wish to further this discussion by examining where the power really lies in the recording industry. Current debates in the blogosphere suggest that perhaps this power lies with Apple, iTunes, and digital downloads, not with the recording engineers or artists themselves. While the future of the industry is not certain, I was drawn to this issue of changing power by the large number of blogs centering on this issue. The first post I found, “Steve Jobs Rules the Recording Industry. Now What?” is written by Jimmy Guterman, editorial director of O’Reilly’s Radar group and former editor of Forrester, Gaming Industry News, and CD Review. His entry takes a look at the shifting arenas for the discovery of new music over the years, from radio to music videos to video games and commercials, the latter being where the focus remains today. The song that appeared in Apple’s recent MacBook Air commercial, for example, hit number one at the iTunes online music store, demonstrating how Apple has dominated the industry with its 99-cent singles and creative commercial campaigns (see magazine cover comparing Steve Jobs to "god," above right). The second post, “Music Royalties and How Not to Make a Living,” published by staff member at the University of Dayton’s Zimmerman Law Library Chris Martin, examines the two sides of the Copyright Royalty Board’s debate on songwriter music royalties and how much songwriters should receive for digital downloads, a first-time hearing on this issue as music industry and culture trends continuously change. In addition to posting my comments directly on the authors’ respective blog entries, I have also displayed these comments for you below.

“Steve Jobs Rules the Recording Industry. Now What?”
Comment:
Thank you for an insightful post on the music industry and Apple’s increasing role therein. I wonder about the possibility of Apple becoming an entirely self-proficient record label. This may actually be beneficial, allowing lesser-known artists the chance to promote their music inexpensively through the iTunes music store and gain a greater fan base without having to sacrifice the majority of their profits to a commercial label. However, do you feel that there is any great danger in Apple becoming too powerful in the industry? You wrote that the “music industry has much to learn from the computer software industry about reinvention and staying in touch with the customer.” Accordingly, then, if Apple were to become its own record label (see graphic, left), its role as a trendsetter in new technologies would make it a perfect candidate for success in this revolutionary move. Since digital is now the new realm for music purchases and downloads, the artists themselves must learn to capitalize on this medium in order to maintain relationships with their fans, since signed artists should expect their labels to do very little on their behalf in this respect. I particularly enjoyed following the link to one of your older posts, in which you discuss Jill Sobule as an example of an artist finding innovative ways of funding her record without a label. Providing fans with the incentive to donate to their favorite artists’ recording funds by affording them the opportunity to become more involved in the creative process or receive pre-releases of the working album is an excellent way to stimulate greater interest in the artist’s music and progress. Perhaps some of the problem with new artists is that they expect their affiliation with a label to increase their credibility and put them on the fast-track to success, while in reality the labels are not necessarily focused on talent and consumers will always look for the cheapest and most convenient ways to consume music (enter iTunes and illegal downloading software). New artists often fail to consider the possibility that starting independently with a small and loyal fan base will not only give them greater control over their work, but also put them on a more plausible and creative track toward success. I, like you, look forward to seeing how the music industry adapts to these changing technologies and counters Apple’s future moves.

"Music Royalties: How Not to Make a Living"
Comment:
First of all, I would like to thank you for your neatly presented summary of the digital songwriter royalty debate. It is a topic which interests me greatly, although one whose relevance and importance I had not previously considered. You expressed your position that “making a living from creating music is difficult enough for most people, even without having the music industry and retailers undercut what little there usually is to financially gain.” Certainly cutting royalty rates would hurt songwriters, but I believe that it is also possible that this reduction would damage the industry as a whole by negatively affecting the quality of popular music today. Those artists who rely on external songwriters would have to begin writing their own songs, which might lead to decreased song quality, fewer hits and sales, and therefore hurt the industry overall. To take this one step further, in light of the recent writers’ strike, what if songwriters were to begin their own strike in response to the RIAA’s demands for mechanical rate cuts? While this may be a radical idea, I wonder if the RIAA and DiMA have considered this at all or if they are solely focused on the possibility of “keeping the extra cash,” as you believe is a likely outcome. In any case, I anxiously await for the two sides to reconcile their differences, for, as Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk recently wrote, if the "quality of music depends on keeping songwriters happy, music fans should hope the Copyright Royalty Board settles on a rate that keeps them solvent.” For the sake of keeping the American music culture an enriching one, I hope this debate results in victory for the songwriters this coming October.