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No Clothes!

Entry 262, on 2005-12-09 at 15:01:07 (Rating 4, Comments)

I just listened to an interview with a little known musician (in fact I've already forgotten his name) who has been touring for many years and has opted out of the commercial music system and prefers to give his work away for free. A comment he made which really struck a chord with me regarding the modern commercial world is that "the king has no clothes". Of course he was alluding to the old fable, the Emperor's New Clothes, suggesting that the modern world (of music specifically) is all facade and has no real substance.

Things look good on the surface, but look underneath and indeed, the king is completely naked; the advertising, hype, and self-serving nonsense the entertainment industry indulges in fools most people (which is its intention) but some of us see it for what it really is.

The entertainment world is changing, of course. The Internet and other computer-based technologies have made sure of that. The existing music companies are fighting for their lives, using every dirty trick they know. But they will lose in the end unless they can go with the new trends instead of fighting against them.

For example, now that Apple's iTunes Music Store is so popular (it is now in the top 10 music retailers in the US) the music companies want to change the pricing model to try to extract more profit from something where they deserve nothing. Currently Apple sells a track of 99 cents US, out of which it gets almost nothing. The profit is more money for nothing to the greedy corporates. But even that isn't enough, they want to charge more for popular tracks and less for unpopular ones in future.

I guess this is just market forces in action. Or is it? A company can get more for something that people really want, OK. But shouldn't items being sold in large numbers be reduced in price as well? And don't the music companies say they like to develop new musical talent? The current model seems to support these aims better. In fact, they should halve the price as well. Better still, I look forward to the day when everyone can participate in our cultural heritage of music without these greedy, useless parasites being involved at all!

Comment 1 (154) by Anon on 2005-12-13 at 17:32:37:

Isn't it good for unpopular bands to have their music sold for less? Won't they sell more then?

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