Power to the (kind of crazy artist) People
The business model of the music industry today bears little resemblance to itself 20 years ago. Though big companies and celebrity executives are still arbiters of fame and fortune with a lot of pull in many ways, they are no longer the only model we have to go by. Though the internet has certainly gutted the recorded music industry’s ability to not hemorrhage dollars, it has also shifted a lot of power back into the hands of the bands themselves.
A wise man once said "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." When it comes to the music industry, however, I don't think reason has anything to do with it. The painful truth is that labels are becoming less relevant. There is still a role for them, just as there will always be a place for physical CDs and LPs despite the exploding digital marketplace, but they are no longer arbiters of cool. The artists themselves now hold the real seat of power – and when I say 'artist,' I'm not just using it as a catch-all term for bands and singer/songwriters alike. I mean the actual artists – the ones with the talent and unique visions to share with the world.
Case in point: Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor has done something that Radiohead could not, for while offering their last album In Rainbows as a download for “whatever price deemed fair” was a groundbreaking move, the files themselves were encoded at a substandard rate. This was a bad move because, let’s face it, Radiohead’s music is rich and layered and subsequently, their fans appreciate attention to detail – detail that gets lost in a glossy compression format like MP3 and sounds even worse when at a lower rate.
Reznor on the other hand, was inspired by an infuriating conversation with someone from the Australian arm of his former label. Rolling Stone reports that Reznor discovered that his album Year Zero was for sale at much higher prices than his contemporaries, the reason for which he was told, “we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.” This attitude might be good for a company’s bottom line, but it doesn’t take into account that it’s also good to keep the artists on your side. And Trent Reznor is a true artist who has dedicated his life to developing a vision and sharing it with his vast and dedicated fan base. The label treated his fans as consumers and exploited the fact that the path to reach them was one-way. So Trent’s next move was to turn it into a two-way street.
He figured out that the best way to reach his fans was to give them what they wanted, as directly as possible so that they wouldn’t get ripped off. So with Ghosts I-IV, what basically amounts to a quadruple CD album, he offered several order options. The first disc’s worth of material was available as a free download and other options priced at $5, $10, $75, and $300. Each option is really pretty generous, with the top level being limited edition and pretty astoundingly special: the album on 4 LPs, 3 hardcover books of artwork, 2 CDs, and a Blu-Ray disc (a high-quality digital download but alas, pear tree not included). Did I mention this was also limited strictly to 2,500 pieces, individually signed by Trent Himself? The packaging for Year Zero had CD label printing with heat sensitive ink, so that in order to unlock an important part of the album's LOST-like mystery printed on the label, you had to listen to the actual CD – but Reznor had found a way to make this look like child's play. He charged 10 times more than the Australians did, but gave his audience an excellent return on that investment, not to mention he had showed genuine appreciation for his fans.
And that my friends, is the greatest source of power - the sort of power that no one else in the business can touch. The companies who will not only survive but thrive will be those who allow artists to write their own future with these new realities of the industry in mind.
It's all about the artist now, whether they choose to work with a label or not. Sure, manufactured pop still produces blockbuster hits, but where is Katy Perry going to be in 5 years? Power is influence, but power also means independence. There will always be a place in the world for transient pop anthems, but people will also want to connect themselves to real artists with real talent – so if you're someone who is lucky enough to possess such talent, you will be able to call your own shots. Of course, this may lead to even more rock stars becoming unreasonable egomaniacs, but perhaps that's the one reassuring thing about this huge change in the record business - progress depends on it.
