Monday, September 27, 2004
Music Industry That Might Have Been
Yesterday in Shaw’s Supermarket, Deb got the opportunity to look at me funny when I excitedly exclaimed “they used my idea!”
The proximate cause of the outburst was seeing a phone card rack near the front of the store, and noticing the content was not all phone cards. There were music download cards!
Back in the heyday of Napster and free downloads, I was of the opinion that the music industry was crazy to be a barrier to progress, but at the same time I considered the free and unrestrained trading of songs to be going too far.
I was full of ideas on how the music industry could handle digital music and keep the channel, the record stores, in the loop too. Part of the idea might be something along the lines of iTunes, which of course has happened.
Another part of the idea, great for those lacking or avoiding use of credit cards, was to sell cards or certificates validated for a dollar value of downloads. Record stores could retail them, making them part of the digital channel, and creating marketing opportunities for traditional media while the eyeballs are in the store.
They could even have facilities where people could do the download. Not to mention preview facilities. Get folks into the stores to preview the music, then they could download at home, download at the store, or buy the traditional CD. Perhaps give out discount coupons in the stores applicable to home downloads, providing a way to judge what retailers are generating that way and kick back a cut.
It didn’t happen my way. There were courts and fights against the future instead. Foolish. Shortsighted. While that hasn’t changed, and the music industry remains trapped behind a self-made wall, the downloads for money options have made progress thanks to not the music industry.
Cards similar to those I envisioned, in a supermarket of all places, are another useful step.
One of my management professors loved to make an example of the local shoe industry, formerly huge and glorious, now all but gone, then much of the way gone. The problem? They saw themselves as makers of shoes. They were beaten by the makers of footwear. It was not merely a matter of low cost producer, but of self-perception and market size. Frowning on “sneakers” and perceiving leather shoes as the only way to go left them limited.
The music industry seems to be stuck primarily as makers of physical media, with no ability to conceive of anything else. Yet music is inherently not physical, and they seem to grasp that insofar as the idea of licensing is concerned. They are different; they can sue their prospective customers for wearing sneakers instead of leather shoes, and try to put the makers of sneakers out of business. That’s possibly more dangerous than being a traditional shoe manufacturer at the dawn of the eighties.
Dragging, kicking, and screaming aside, seeing something close to an idea of mine come to pass is one of the coolest feelings. Now all I need is to have one of those ideas to my own benefit, and be willing, able, and bold enough to act upon it.
Additional note:
Looking at the part about in-store downloads and such, for all I know there may be some of that kind of thing going on. I don’t go in record stores or sections much, and haven’t been to a pure record store in years. I perceive the CD prices as too high for my means (some might argue that they are not, more generally), so I don’t put myself into a position to be tempted.