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Re: [ARSCLIST] interesting!
The problem is, to preserve and not lose the vast legacy of commercial music -- and I'd argue that
the stuff previous to this era will have much more long-term cultural and financial value -- takes
some critical mass. Not that the majors have been all that good at it, but the alternative is not
good and I've heard horror stories about how smaller record companies kept their archives.
And how many stories do we hear just on this list about vast quantities of stuff donated to the LOC
and smaller collections that is literally rotting in warehouses, never to see the public again.
I think owners of content work best on a for-profit model. What I think will eventually happen is
that music companies will be just owners and licensers of content, licensed to whatever format is
distributed in whatever way. Their manufacturing and distribution businesses will be more and more
asset-draining albatrosses. Steve Jobs' statement bears reading because, although of course it's
designed to bolster Apple's case against the EU nannies, it touches on a lot of areas where I think
his future visions are accurate.
Back to your point, Marcos, my fear would be that if Big Music totally blew up, a lot of great
historic recordings would fall into the pits of hell, never to be heard again in any format.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marcos Sueiro" <mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] interesting!
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. Big Music generated lots of money for over a century, but only a very small proportion
of all musicians saw that money. Perhaps Big Music is just not good for music anymore.
Marcos
Tom Fine wrote:
So, even though I'm no fan of Big Music, they have a point in all of this. If the owners of the
copyright material -- descendants of those who put up money to record the old stuff and current
funders of new material -- cannot get a return on their investment, they do not have a business
model. So in that case nothing can be made available because it's a money-losing proposition and
companies are not in business to lose money.