Re: [ARSCLIST] interesting!

[Jeffrey Kane <jeffkane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marketing based upon quality and content of the music? Congratulations, you
just got rid of 80% of what was released/promoted/popular from 1975-now!

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Karl Miller
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 8:38 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] interesting!

Marcos Sueiro <mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:    ****I'm going to get whipped
for this, but I'll say it anyway: I don't see what is so terrible if large
large record companies simply disappear. Music has been around much longer
than the recording industry, so I do not think that the quality of music
itself would suffer. And certainly there must be other business models for
musicians to make a living without having to feed a huge machine that often
sucked their blood, especially now that the means to record music are
available to so many.

  From my perspective the current business models are predicated on sale of
the "object" which held the recording. We now have a "objectless"
information environment.

  For me, the same can be said about libraries. Like the music business,
they just don't "get it." They seem to stumble along attempting to force
their "object" oriented thinking to an information world less bound to
"objects."

  While I believe there are some things left for libraries and record
companies to do, their old world is already gone and has been replaced by
the web (google et al) and iTunes (et al).

  It seems to me that record companies need to concern themselves more with
marketing and libraries should focus on the preservation of our intellectual
history. I also wonder if record companies should focus more on making
history available, for I cannot help but think that there might be more of a
niche market for those old scratchy records than they might have thought
there was. Well probably not since the marketing of music, both classical
and popular, seems to have the performer as its primary focus.I remember how
quickly after his passing, the recordings of the great pianist William
Kapell disappeared from the catalog. Once a musician is gone, they become
part of a niche market...perhaps a market for those who are more interested
in the music than the personality. I wonder how different the business of
music would be if the marketing was based on the quality and content of the
music...I know, a bad idea.

  Karl