It seems like everywhere you look there’s another article about the decline of the music industry — and frankly we’re sick of hearing everyone from bands to label executives complain about it. Instead, we decided to be proactive and make a few suggestions about how the fledging music industry can save itself and keep its credibility. While none of these proposals are miracle cures, they’re all a step in the right direction — and hopefully they’ll inspire consumers to start once again opening up their wallets instead of their Internet browsers.
1) Fix Ticketmaster
Do an online search for Ticketmaster and you’ll find everything from sites called “Ticketmaster Is Evil And Must Die” to a full recount of Pearl Jam’s ultimately unsuccessful antitrust lawsuit against the corporation in the ’90s. While we understand that Ticketmaster provides a service and needs to make a profit, the fact that each ticket purchase includes a seemingly arbitrary convenience fee, building facility charge, processing charge and shipping charges that in total can sometimes cost almost as much as the retail price of the ticket is ridiculous. With the economy in the state that it’s in, this is enough to scare away enough cost-conscious concertgoers that fixing it would definitely boost live show attendance.
2) Make the iTunes Store More User-Friendly
Ever try to play a song on your iTunes only to be prompted to enter a password you can’t remember? Or do you have multiple computers that haven’t all been authorized? While the iTunes store finally made all their songs available at the higher quality 256 kbps AAC (twice as high as the original rate of 128 kbps) and made them all DRM-Free via their iTunes Plus Store, they also raised the price of an MP3 to $1.29 a piece. We think that for once Apple should follow Amazon’s lead and make their MP3s DRM-Free across the board for their original ninety-nine cent base rate. Not only would this encourage consumers to buy music instead of illegally downloading it, it would also set a positive precedent across the board for online retailers and cause a spike in sales that could be passed on directly to the artists.
3) Shift The Focus From CDs To Vinyl
Let’s face it, CDs have always been a terrible medium: They’re easily scratched, ugly and make album artwork so small that it’s difficult to see without a magnifying glass. Instead we believe that record labels should put their focus back on vinyl, a medium that’s been experiencing a notable resurgence while the CD is suffering through an agonizing death. In addition to sounding better than CDs or MP3s, LPs allow listeners to view the artwork in a way where you can actually see what’s going on and different pressings and colors also add a collectible aspect to purchasing music. Better yet, the entire industry should pick up on what indie labels like Merge and Saddle Creek have been doing for years and include digital download codes with each purchase so the consumer can have the best of both worlds.
4) Make Better Music
The technological improvements that the music industry has undergone over the past decade are myriad and many of the results are positive: You can now record a professional sounding album on your laptop for a fraction of what it costs to book time at a recording studio, distribute your music to thousands of people without leaving your bedroom and find other musicians to play with by posting that you need a new singer on a message board. The downfall is that the market is now oversaturated with countless bands who haven’t spent enough time fine-tuning their sound before plastering their songs all over the Internet. The result is that many people are understandably more wary of new music than they’ve been in the past — and with good reason. Just think about that before you send out a MySpace blast with your new EP to all your friends.
5) Look to the Past for Perspective
Things may seem bad now, but the same piracy scares went into effect the first time the VHS tape and audio cassette were introduced onto the market — and time has proved that neither of those inventions killed the movie or music market (in fact you could easily argue that just the opposite effect ensued). In other words, things may seem bleak but the music industry should give us consumers some credit. The truth is that if a consumer is offered a quality product at a fair price they will have no reservations about supporting their favorite artists.