Prince Circumvents Industry

One of the things that always vexed me about the music industry was just that: the industry. No matter what some people will tell you or hope to get you to believe, the actual talent - the people who actually play, write, and perform the music - are not paid that well. Sure, they get residuals and tend to party a lot of it away, but most musicians have to pay for studio time, recording, video shoots, production, and much more - things the typical consumer does not realize.

Further, the industry manufactures CDs and DVDs for as little as $0.25 per unit and sells them for... slightly more.

So Prince got with the UK-based newspaper, The Mail, and worked out a deal for them to print and distribute his new CD with their Sunday paper. This has angered British shop owners, who have said they will not carry the new CD in their stores. Further, the CD has been uploaded and is now widely-available online.

The entire affair has upset the whole industry, with Sony spokespeople, record shop owners, and other industry people criticizing Prince’s "direct marketing" tactics. In fact, it reminds me very much of the old Diamond vs. Dave Sim debacle; it’s literally the same situation: the artist circumventing the established industry entirely, getting the product directly into the fans’ hands without need for distribution companies to get involved.

And that pisses the bean-counters right off!

Now don’t get me wrong; there is a place in the industry for lawyers and businessmen - but only because, until very recently, someone had to deal with the other lawyers and businessmen. But the Internet, along with grassroots, guerilla-style marketing, has pretty much set that part of the industry on its ear. Of course, in time, the Internet will take on a more commercial model - it has already started to in the way of advertising, promotion, and similar concerns. There are so many websites and so many self-proclaimed "artists" trying to make their careers online, that you really need to either hire someone to cover your promotional and marketing concerns or learn to be a bean-counter yourself.

On the other hand, for an established artist such as Prince, an exclusive website featuring his work could really be a threat to the industry. Stephen King tried this idea many years ago, with a serialized story called The Plant, but it didn’t go far. Of course, the Internet as we know it today was really only in its infancy then, and things are completely different today.

My main concern here is the idea that the industry uses to retard this development: that they have the power and technology to ensure the talent gets paid for every unit sold. Because they don’t!