Free CD's, Sign of Times Past part 1
With bands opting to sell their recordings themselves for next to nothing, and rampant piracy everywhere, its no wonder record companies are in a panic. The old business model of selling an album as the principle product is rapidly disappearing. Many artists have begun to realize that their principle income is derived from the performance of their material and not from CD sales. In any case, whats to lose, since the labels always got the larger share of the pie? I would contend that this state of affairs was inevitable and record labels have fundamentally misunderstood what the principal product they are selling is for a very long time.
A brief history of the record biz. In the early days of Edison recordings the machines where expensive and the drums were difficult to make. They were viewed as a pricey novelty. Things got better with the introduction of flat disks but they were still pricey. At that time most artists made their living from live performances. Records where a promotional tool, something to give away at concerts in hopes of luring ticket buyers who might get an expensive souvenir in a drawing. It wasn't until later, as disk sales increased, that people realised records could make money. These were the golden days when selling a few thousand copies could net you substantial profits. In a time before radio and television many people would pay the substantial price of a recording in order to hear a popular artist who they probably would never hear in person. The performance was still the product, the record was just a means of delivering it to a wider audience. Then came radio and things changed. People now heard their favorite artists for free no matter where they happened to live. However recordings still offered the convenience opf hearing your favorite performer any time you like without depending on the whims of the programmers. The technology was getting cheaper and more widespread as well. As a result record sales continued to grow as did the profits. The record companies continued to inovate their product into the television age. They increased the length of time that could be placed on a single disk while simultaneously making them cheaper. More bang for your buck! Then came stereo Hi-Fi and improved audio quality making it seem more like you where really there in person. Then came the 45rpm single. They we're extremily cheap and the phonographs that played them where inexpensive enough for parents to buy them for their kids. They really where the I-Pod of their day. Bubble Gum Babylon(term for the teenage market) was born. Sales of these singles reached volumes that we're never seen till then. They became the standard by which artist success was measured and gave birth to the Billboard charts. At this point we've arrived at the early sixties. Up till now the record industry had stayed profitable, despite competition by other media, by contniously innovating their product and finding new markets to exploit. Sales levels continued to grow and would for sometime more. In my next post I'll take you to the industries peak and explain why I think it went wrong.
