Are Musicans & Record Companies Scared?

Now I think that most musicians and record companies are ultimately scared of doing someting against the grain.

The music industry is falling to its knees...fact. Which ever way we look at it, it is.

There is a huge decline of albums sold. Most commercially successful artists will be kicked off if they don't reel in above top 3 chart positions for their albums.

Albums are getting downloaded for free online (they are you know, and there is little to do about it)

Artists that try a price system (from 0 to anything dollars) are getting ripped off.

Ahh no!! Its the record labels fault, I shall start my own...failure time!

So what do musicians want to do?

Ermmm...they do exactly the same thing. They want to make an album. They want to start their own record label. They want to make it big in the commercial market!

Why?

Why when faced with the facts that going "commercial" leads to doom do people still want to do it? It sounds strange but why do exactly the same when the same isn't working.

We have to think out of the box if we want to survive! And start to ask ourselves questions that we might like asking....like.. Why do people download tunes?

Everyone then says "people want something for nothing"....

Right that is a start, but then you have companies putting so many passwords on files people hack them. They don't work. Napster has its own encryption system, so people then look for the free file online...encryption defeated.

Ok then, how about these...and think seriously about them, and why we shouldn't do it?

Offer downloads for 10c?

Offer every mp3 for free at the same time offering merchandice as a backend product and do more gigs?

Offer longer versions + videos

Offer free downloads but a members area through CD sales (codes specific to a CD are inside).

They don't seem to bad do they. If you offer something for free or at a ridiculous low price then you are offering an incentive to come back.

I believe that if the music industry doesn't change then it is going to face hard times. People don't want to buy CDs any more, they want something through online, while they are sitting at their computers.

Other problems and grates:

To find one track that I like I had to buy a greatest hits album for $20...for one song. That song is not offered anywhere apart from free file sharing sites. Put your back catalogue online for free!!!!

I bought an album the other day from an act I like. The problem with it is that the tracks that were advertised (2 tracks out of 12) were the only good ones...and I mean the only good ones. Now I bought the album in good faith. I was stung. Some albums are good some are bad. I can't give the album back, I can't do anything with it apart from lose my money.

But lets be real here.

And lets face it, it is much easier to go onto a free file sharing site, download a track, listen to it and chill...all within the space of 2 minutes.

How on earth is the record company going to compete with that! Especially when they are faced with grieviences like mine (and those are the tame ones).

We must start to think, and start to think really fast on how to compete with this, because my friends...it is here to stay whether we like it or not.