The record industry is dead

[andrewducker]

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

here

Note, also, that all of the Big 4 record distributors are now releasing their music DRM free in the US via Amazon. The world seems to have become a fraction saner...

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

And merch, too; not just tickets.

But not all tickets are expensive. Bands have never made much money on CDs, and it's rather hard to see what they were getting out of the record companies for all those years. Yes, the very biggest bands got rich. But everyone else? Not.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

The general line in digirights circles is that almost all artists make most of any money they do make from gigs and merchandise - basically if you're below the Metallica/Madonna level.