In this week's episode, music fan and host Jack explains to music industry and record label veteran (and co-host) Bob how the record labels can help their own cause while making music better for everyone. If you're a music fan, you're going to agree with one of them.
In this week's episode, music fan and host Jack explains to music industry and record label veteran (and co-host) Bob how the record labels can help their own cause while making music better for everyone. If you're a music fan, you're going to agree with one of them.
BTN Episode #6
Dear Record Labels
Last week we talked about how we don’t need physical media anymore to listen to music, with the caveat that the ritual of physical media is still a vital part of the music experience. This week we’re going to try to hip the record labels themselves to this fact.
So, here’s my open letter to the entire record label industrial complex:
Dear Record Labels,
I can’t think of a better time to be a music fan. I can think of quite a few more exciting times to be a music fan, but this is not one of them. However, in terms of quality, this is the best time ever to be a music lover. That’s not to say there isn’t fabulous new music being released – there is, it’s just that the thrill is kind of missing.
Back in the day, when music was supposed to be so much better than it is now, we had exactly four ways to listen to it: the radio, vinyl on your stereo at home, cassette or 8-track in your car, and the live show. Life was easy. Music was good.
Now music consumers get the best of both worlds – the magic of vinyl and the convenience of digital. In fact, most new vinyl albums come with a download card for you to get yourself a digital copy of your new record. With each new album you get a digital download of…an…mp3 file. No choice, just dregs.
“Well, mp3’s let you store a lot of music on your phone.” Okay, but who’s really storing music on their phones anymore? It’s not 2010 – we have streaming services we carry around with us which frees up tons of phone storage space for important things like food selfies and pictures of the weird people we see at Walmart.
There is an entire segment of your market you are completely ignoring, so here’s my idea: To accommodate those folks who are stuck in the era of Cash for Clunkers, go ahead and offer the mp3. But for those of us who want the best possible sounding product from YOUR artists, how about offering lossless downloads? I would love to have vinyl for when I’m in the mood for vinyl, and a decent sounding lossless file in a decent resolution to store on my server for the convenience and quality digital platforms provide. Then I’d truly have the best of both worlds. But for some reason, you don’t want me to have this double joy in my life.
In fact, here’s a novel idea – why not give consumers a choice? Lossy formats for folks who store music on their phones and lossless formats for those of us who care more about quality than quantity. You’d be surprised to find out how many of us there are.
“Well, people don’t know the difference,” you say. And I say I don’t think you’re giving people enough credit, and for those who don’t know the difference print something like this on your download card:
· If you intend to store this album on your phone, or you’re okay with okay sounding music that doesn’t tell the whole story, download the mp3.
· If you want to listen to this album in all of its artistic beauty, in a way the artist wanted you to hear it, download the lossless format
There. Problem solved. You’re welcome.
And here’s a fun-fact: Despite what your unpaid techie interns are telling you about the technology, there is no added cost to providing a file in lossless format over lossy mp3. It’s literally what menu item you select when you render the song. Sure, the software may have cost a few cents more upfront for the lossless converter, and it may take up more storage space on your server, but seriously even you bean counters who run the majors would be hard-pressed to see a huge cost difference. And if space is an issue, run down to your local electronics store, or Amazon if that’s easier, and pick yourself up a couple of multi-terabyte storage devices, they’re small and cheap. Or, get a Cloud subscription. Again, you’re welcome.
I’m so put off by this lack of choice that I’ve stopped buying vinyl and am now just buying the lossless formats, which results in a loss for both of us.
“Well, you’re a weird fossil who is into things like high-quality audio. No one else really cares.” Again, with the taking your consumers for granted. But, maybe if the actual source of the music – the record label – put a modicum of effort into educating new music consumers about the singular magic of really good sounding music, you’d, I don’t know, sell more product maybe. You’ve got to compete with gaming, content streaming from the likes of Netflix and Hulu, and the fact that the music scene is kind of in a lull right now. Instead of complaining about it, do something.
Come on gals and guys who run the majors and the major independents. The iTunes revolution is dead. We live in an age where we can have the best possible musical experience for a mere fraction of what it used to cost, yet you’re still stiffing us out of that magic through indifference, cut-rate financial planning and ignorance.
In the late 80’s and 1990’s you all made a ton of money tricking us into replacing all of our perfectly good vinyl to buy CD’s, so we know you have the ability to part us from our dollars. And just like the scam of increasing the length of an album so as not to waste all of those unused bits on CDs, there is no cost difference for you to offer lossy or lossless files. Of course, increasing the length of an album killed the album format, but that's another topic for another day. In fact, the only cost to you is the cost of printing up the download card and a few nano-cents in storage on your server. Seriously.
Your friend,
Jack