Hey music industry, it’s as good as it’s going to get…

// December 9th, 2007 // Blog & Tech Items, Brain Dump

I had some sort of CBC interview (via podcast) playing away the other day and the interviewer and interviewee were going on about the evils of illegal downloads, etc. etc.. It’s the same argument, and the same statistics are lobbed back and forth about whether or not downloading music is hurting or helping the music industry.. Some say it helps, and there are those who say it hurts.

As to which one is correct, I really don’t care simply because the music industry needs to wake up and realize that until the next major music delivery revolution takes place, this is as good as it gets.

When you think about it, there are really only three realistic ways of getting the tunes you require:

Go to store and buy physical music item (CD, DVD, Vinyl, etc.)
Go online and buy digital representations (ie. iTunes)
Download entire discographies in a single shot thanks to some krafty kidz.

We’re going to ignore radio (traditional, web, and satellite) in this one simply because it’s about the music you want, when you want it – in a form where you can listen to it 50 times in a row if you wish…

Now, iTunes plays a significant role in all of this and on a few different levels. Before iTunes arrived on the scene, all we really had were two simple options: a) go to store and buy music, or b) download it off the internet. There is no doubt that as the popularity of downloading music grew that yes, it likely did have some impact on the bottom lines of record labels and in turn affect the income of the artists themselves, however, if it wasn’t for iTunes, they would still be worse off.

When iTunes arrived, they successfully nailed down the price of $0.99 per song, opened their doors is an impressive library ready to go, and they made their music player FREE for anyone regardless of whether you had an iPod or not – bloody brilliant.

What iTunes was able to do was re-capture the illegal downloads fence-sitters and convert them back into profit centres. I believe that of all the people illegally downloading music pre-iTunes, there was a significant percentage who felt incredibly uncomfortable, yet felt worse at the thought of shelling out +$15 for a CD with only a few good songs. Once iTunes arrived on the scene, these fence-sitters were able to clear their conscious yet not have to pay outrageous prices to get the music they truly wanted, yet further reducing the number of people illegally downloading music.

The reality is that for those who believe in downloading whatever they want from the net, illegally or not, if $0.99 doesn’t swing them over to purchasing music, nothing will. Which brings me to another point – at $0.99 per song, who can truly afford to setup shop and compete with iTunes at this point? The music industry has agreed that $0.99 for a song is an acceptable rate, and anyone trying to compete likely won’t be able to price their songs for less than $0.99, if they’re more expensive then who would buy, and if they’re the same price as iTunes, then what else are you offering?

Really, anyone setting up shop to compete with iTunes has to charge the same price, yet what could you possibly offer to get people to switch away? Apple provided a super-simple music player, a super-simple interface with the iPod, and an integrated store which is also both well stocked and super-simple to use (oh and did I mention iTunes is free?). The reality is that anyone trying to compete with iTunes at this point is in for one hell of a struggle simply because Apple got there first, and made it so easy for people, that to change them away at this point is going to be nearly impossible.

So when I say, “Hey music industry, it’s as good as it’s going to get..” – am I really that far off the mark? You’re still able to move the physical forms of music delivery through your standard distribution channels, and you’ve captured back a percentage of the illegal downloads thanks to iTunes and some of the others. The ones that are still downloading aren’t likely going to stop (regardless of DRM) no matter what the price of a song goes for, however, their numbers have been reduced. The reality is that until there is another music delivery revolution, this IS as good as it’s going to get.