{"id":54,"date":"2008-06-21T14:38:50","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T21:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/?p=54"},"modified":"2008-06-21T14:39:21","modified_gmt":"2008-06-21T21:39:21","slug":"the-music-business-in-flux-as-usual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/21\/the-music-business-in-flux-as-usual\/","title":{"rendered":"The Music Business in Flux: as usual"},"content":{"rendered":"

The music business is having interesting times<\/a>.\u00a0 After reviewing the wrenching changes imposed on business models by recent technological innovation, Mike Ragogna concludes:<\/p>\n

Regardless of the problems, there are growing opportunities to solidly integrate music into the culture. There is a lot of incredible music being created, and more of it now than ever before, so the state of the art remains in good shape (though I guess this is where “taste” come in). But the reality is Tower’s gone, Virgin’s shrinking and yet another distributor is going the way of the “78” (you know, great-grandpa’s records?) and we’ve got to deal with it. Maybe it’ll take a little more than an hour, but this battleship can be turned around. With a little luck, the music business will get past this current set of challenges and put the focus back on the business of music<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May it be so.\u00a0 I think we aren’t putting the genie back in the bottle, though.\u00a0 The stranglehold by a few large suppliers is broken, and that is going to have more and more effect on the actual music itself.\u00a0 I think we already see plenty of micro-markets that were unthinkable 10 years ago, and I think things are going to move farther in that direction.<\/p>\n

Which, basically, I like.\u00a0 On the one hand, it means there may be fewer “superstars”, carefully groomed by essentially non-musical people, just because they can be sold to a certain demographic.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other, I think it opens up more opportunities for basic, solid musicians to make a living without having the choice between lightning striking or abject poverty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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