wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Eric Waite from NYC October 18, 2007 - 02:07PM

  The problem with the music industry is that all of the music for sale is easily found online & can be downloaded for free from innumerous websites. The music industry should look at the game industry by offering a more interactive product that could offer video, as well as separated audio tracks for remix opportunities. Get the fans involved. Make us want to buy the album. Make us respect the industry.

  
  
• [2] JB from Upper East Side October 18, 2007 - 02:11PM

  i think this is an invalid comparison: the music industry was not pro-active enough over the just past 10 years where they allowed their assets to be given away and traded in mass quanities via Napster and the like.

  video game companies have been a lot more protective of their property

  the ball is dropped. no chance to pick this one up...

  
  
• [3] Gary Powell from Bloomington, IN October 18, 2007 - 02:14PM

  I agree with Eric Waite. Particularly in the case of Nine Inch Nails and Reznor's remix communities.

  Something I think that would benefit the music industry is to stop flooding the industry with bad music.

  With videogames, each game company dedicates their resources to creating the best final product they can. Often, game companies only release so many games per year because of the effort involved.

  To some degree, the lack of consistent game releases from a specific game company makes people justify buying a $60 gamea. When your label releases dozens of titles per month, and most of them are not all that great, it lowers customer interest and demand.

  A good example of this is Nine Inch Nails releasing an album every 5 years with quality packaging with interesting content consistently. Or Coil releasing relatively limited editions to dedicated fans, which Chris is probably pretty familiar with.

  
  
• [4] SS October 18, 2007 - 02:15PM

  The comment about having fans listen together online is really interesting -- I don't buy music anymore but when I was a teenager one of the things I loved was going to the great cool record store and gleaning vital information about music from the supercool clerks. The music industry should absolutely replicate this online -- independent music stores should replicate this online.

  I've long thought that the music industry deserves to rot because it can't change and adapt but I've never heard of a good way to accomplish that -- until now. Interesting stuff!

  
  
• [5] JB from Upper East Side October 18, 2007 - 02:26PM

  as an artist myself, now working in economics instead of pursuing my childhood dream full time, i think the downfall of the commercial music industry is a great thing for music's sake [something like 80% drop in record sales last year?!]

  this forces people to make music for art's sake and not to just make money. everyone should make, share, and perform music with each other. with cd's out of the picture, it levels the playing field somewhat as independant artists can get everything majors can (except for commercial radio and video). indie artists can easily maintain their live profits and merch-licensing, which is where you make most of the money anyway.

  all of these ideas spoken on the show and here are great little gimmicks for die-hard fans, but they're not going to save the industry. some cool ideas, but not going to make up for 80% drop in your core revenue stream

  
  
• [6] dan from nyc October 18, 2007 - 07:01PM

  Wow, this was like listening to two people who don't know what they're talking about... catchy topic of conversation but you quickly realize that both not well "read" in terms of today's mediated reality. Neither could talk about what Halo is socially compared to music socially, referred to Xbox Live as a game (it's not, it's a network), and also don't know the difference between marketing and actually community development. "E-teams" is just a jargon term for online marketing, one among various forms of advertisement and PR. -- Listening to people who don't know what they are talking about, or simply just naively lost inside their consumerist-bubble will NOT "save" the record industry.

  Pronouncing the jargon of the day does not make one knowledgeable. See, the lack of media literacy makes lots of people unable to think past their keyword-brains. Remember when every hot article had to mention the iPhone, or iPod, or blog or virtual reality or portal? I guess it must "sound" good in the heat of the next-next-next-addiction, right? Hm, maybe music people only know what sounds good in larger culture, not what is actually good. Rock on with your punk-posing ways dudes!

  
  
• [7] kate from Allston, MA October 19, 2007 - 08:46AM

  I think he just misspoke about XBox Live. As for marketing vs. community development, this is a well-blurred line. Marketing teams have an incentive to make users feel like a community, with loyalty to each other and a product. But if a community does emerge, is it less valid?