Major change in the music industry

[hcl]

(2011-02-25 14:11)PeterCee Wrote:  

(2011-02-24 18:07)Jim C Wrote:  The interesting place we find ourselves in now is that recorded music has been rapidly moved from something to be traded and discreetly owned, to something that is publicly 'owned' and freely shared.

One clear take-away is that copyright laws are just based in a by-gone era.

So things now are, well, different. And not necessarily worse. I for one wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm sure there will be plenty more twists and turns along the journey, as this is only the beginning and not the end of the story. Do be aware though, that there are consequences to everything in this, and it's not right to demonise any one party, be it the industry gatekeepers of old or the file-sharer - we all have a role in this, as music belongs not to the individual, but to humanity.

Another excellent and most illuminating post from you Jim.

From the extracted comments which I have highligted above, it is heartening to see that within Linn records, there is a clear understanding of the situation which has developed with regards the ubiquity of free shared music.

For the music loving DS owner, the ubiquity of free shared music brings mixed emotions :

On the one hand – excitement that we can now all posses and enjoy music collections which are greater than could previously have been amassed in several lifetimes. The impecunious can now have the same music collection as the multi millionaire – a dream come true.

On the other hand – A feeling of unease about the breach of copyright, a guilty feeling that the artist has somehow not been rewarded financially for the pleasure he or she has given us. And last but not least, the fears that as the music industry changes high quality recording may be in decline because of lack of revenue.

I think I speak for most Linn Owners here, when I say that, there is immense gratitude towards Linn for both having developed the DS and produced the high quality recordings distributed via Linn Records.

Whilst the DS will obviously continue in it’s evolution, it is hard to see how the future for Linn Records can be anything but very difficult.

As you are faced with a rapidly increasing numbers of customers who will have the means to own your product for free, you become reliant on the desire of the customer to give you money for it.

Given the substantial costs of Linn high resolution flac’s I think it is inevitable that many will either not pay at all or only pay for a small proportion and take the rest – almost like a donation (each gives what he can afford).

Some would argue that reducing costs to a level which the consumer finds it inconsequential (say 10p per album download) is the only model which works – but I fear that we are a long way off that because volumes are too low.

The danger is that if this doesn’t happen soon enough the customer gets too conditioned in his way of getting it for free – and changing customers established behaviour is one of the most difficult things to do

Come to think of it Jim – I think that you boys and girls in Linn Records have one of the most difficult jobs in the whole of Linn.

This thread is an interesting read (is it possible to write like this?). Balanced and covering many different angles so far. When will anyone of the gigants from the actual industry (besides Linn Records) dive in?