Vision - March 2009 - (Page 25) By Michael petricone ] • [ newS froM waShington tech policy Making Music My Way By Samantha Murphy fter growing up as a performer, in the early 90s, I got my first taste of the inside of the music industry when I signed with Warner Chappell Publishing as a staff songwriter. I wrote with some of the top producers but began to see that the way things worked inside the music industry machine didn’t always make sense. In fact, I felt like they rarely ever made sense. For example, if an artist had two No.1 singles, three Grammy nominations and had grossed a million dollars in touring all in the same year on one record, how could she still owe the record company money? Why did they get to decide how much to spend on the Samantha Murphy recordings and videos, and yet she had to pay them back every single dime of it? Why weren’t there at least discussions between the artist and the label like in a real partnership? Why did the promotion and production costs need to be so exorbitant so as to leave the artist in debt and the label rich? Since then I’ve turned to the computer where I felt I could shape my own destiny. A love of technology has taken me to places I never dreamed I’d go. I independently released my own album Somewhere Between Starving & Stardom in 2005, and through the wonders of the Internet I was able to send it around the world without leaving my bedroom. Nothing and no one stood in my way for the first time ever! In early 2005, I also was invited to join a list that would change my life—a list focused on the convergence of music and technology and founded by a music technologist Jim Griffin. Griffin is Continued on page 26 A T Changes Are Brewing for Music Distribution urmoil and opportunity are brewing in the music industry. Big record labels are watching physical sales shrink and are searching for ways to survive in the new digital environment. Meanwhile, many independent labels and musicians are discovering that digital distribution allows them to connect directly with their fans and profit from new and innovative business models. Many artists are jettisoning the traditional “control-based” business models in favor of new approaches that turn fans into promoters. The band Umphrey’s McGee recently released an album that included eight tiers of additional content. As more albums were sold, additional music was released and made available to fans. Eventually all eight tiers were unlocked, as fans were incentivized to promote the new album. A similar approach was taken by the singer Jill Sobule, who asked her fans to pre-finance her new album. She ended up raising more than $90,000, including one fan who paid $10,000 for the privilege of singing back-up on a song. Other artists are relying on free music promotions through corporate sponsorship. Prince recently gave away 2.8 million copies of his new CD with an English newspaper, and the resulting publicity helped him sell out 21 straight shows at London’s cavernous 02 Arena. Of course, the best known experiment came from cult favorite Radiohead, who released its new album on a “pay what you www.ce.org like” basis in the fall of 2007. Fans were offered a variety of choices, including digital files and a deluxe CD/vinyl box set. Radiohead’s move was met with considerable skepticism in the mainstream record industry, and many openly questioned whether such an approach would be viable. Over a year later, the results are in and they are impressive. Radiohead grossed more money on a “pay what you like” basis than its total take on their last major label release, 2003’s Hail to the Thief. More surprisingly, the digital release did not seem to dampen fan enthusiasm for the physical CD. In fact, the physical release of In Rainbows entered both the U.S. and UK charts at No. 1 in January, despite having been freely available since October 2007. Radiohead recently concluded a world tour in Japan that sold more than 1.2 million tickets. Clearly, there is no magic bullet that will ensure success for an artist in the digital era. But from stadium-level bands like Radiohead to Internet sensations like Jonathan Coulton and Samantha Murphy, many of the ingredients are similar. These artists thrive by building relationships with their fans, giving away “infinite” goods like digital songs, and using them to promote “scarce” goods like live concerts, interactions with the artist, and participation in the music-making process. While this trial-and-error process goes forward, one thing is for sure—because of digital technology, independent artists are empowered to make their own business decisions as never before. • March/april 2009 Jeff Carrillo 25 http://www.ce.org
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