The Music Industry Dreams of a World Without the Internet

This is just crazy.  As part of a lawsuit against LimeWire, the record industry has sketched up the chart above to claim what they think record sales would be without Napster.  Which basically means that they are imagining what their lives would be like without the internet.  And, apparently, in this internet-less world, they are kicking it on 300 foot yachts and frolicking in swimming pools of caviar.  Hard to imagine a chart that would make them look more delusional.  (via Mashable)

Day 19: A Song that You Wish You Heard on the Radio

I’ve been hyping J. Cole on this blog for a while now, and his rapid rise continues to be a bit of a live case study on how to create a music superstar in 2010.  Even though I rarely listen to the radio and haven’t watched MTV in months, seldom does a week go by in which I’m not hit by another bit of original content by or about Jermaine.  And at the heart of this prominence is a blindingly-simple secret to contemporary marketing: make stuff.

Music blogs, much like any other contemporary democratized media outlet, don’t (often) write about an artist because someone pays them or because someone calls them up and convinces them to do so.  Rather, they cover content; their currency is the new.  So, if you’re a brand like J. Cole and want to stay front and center, make stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Freestyles, mixtapes, interviews, concert clips, leaked tracks, make it all.  Focus your energy on being prolific, not on being perfect.  For reasons like those mentioned in the above mini-interview with Just Blaze (awesome producer), don’t be too protective of your content or your brand.  Let other people see you playing around, and let others play around with your content.  But if you’re a contemporary brand, don’t spend so much time talking about yourself.  Just go make stuff.

If I hadn’t been up to 3am playing cards (yes I did win, thanks), I would more formally sketch out the J. Cole case study.  But for now, enjoy his new single (that dropped about a month ago, which means that it will have been released probably four months prior to commercial release), and also enjoy a re-mix no doubt carefully-crafted as Just Blaze described.  Be forewarned: the beat is hot and the lyrics dirty.  I’ll share some softer stuff for my folkier fans in the days to come.

Who Dat, J. Cole

And the hilariously-freestyled Joell Ortiz re-mix, hitting up everyone from Brett Favre to the Energizer Bunny to the Wizard of Oz.

Joell Ortiz – Who Dat (DIRTY)

On the Future of the Music Industry (Book Store Edition)

Could the future of the music industry take seed in a book store?

Prior to seeing Date Night last weekend (another story, for some other time), I spent some time in Barnes & Noble.  Already behind on books I already own, I wandered into the music section.  As I did, I found myself in the midst of a physical manifestation of the strange struggles the music industry is living through as it tries to figure out its future.  Interested as I am in music (and the business of), I wandered about the section of the store taking a few pictures and wondering to myself where this might all be going.

From a box of cereal to an invitation

Ceci n'est pas une cd.

I don’t quite understand Target.  Perhaps it’s driven by the particular Target closest to me, but while others see fashion and value and affectionate French-inflected nicknames, I see dizzying crowds and uninspired shelves and a parking lot that’s always one left turn away from road rage.  But it’s at this Target that I think I got a glimpse of one of the things that the CD could become.

For years, the music industry sold CDs as if they were boxes of cereal.  They stacked stores high with the boxes, they hiked up the prices a bit every year, and it worked great.  Until it stopped working at all.  And now, as the music industry has tumbled, there’s lots of talk about why the industry doesn’t sell any CDs anymore.  What hope exists for the industry now springs from live shows and merchandise.

So as the industry moves on in these ways, what’s the fate of the CD?