1、The Record Industry: Going AlternativePlastic Beach, released in early March by Damon Albarns virtual band Gorillaz, is what used to be quaintly called an album. These days, though, the songs are just the beginning. With the recorded music industry ravaged by piracy and unable to keep pace with digi
2、tal delivery, Gorillaz is showing a way forward. Plastic Beach which debuted at No.2 on the U.S. and U.K. charts and sold over 200,000 copies in the first week alone is as much a multimedia experience as it is a record. Buyers are given a special code that they can use to access computer games, mang
3、a-style videos and live audio streamed on the Gorillaz website. The bands label, debt-laden EMI, is so convinced that Albarn fans will want to access all of the extras, it is allowing people to listen to the album for free on the Guardian newspapers website.EMIs strategy reflects both the weaknesses
4、 of the music business, as well as the possibilities for a new future. The crisis in the industry is well known: although sales of songs via iTunes and other digital media increased by 10% to 15% in the U.S. last year, that wasnt enough to offset the 20% falloff in CD sales, which still account for
5、about three-quarters of the market. Globally, recorded music sales plummeted from $26.5 billion in 2000 to just $17 billion in 2009, according to the latest set of figures available from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the antique-sounding industry body.Artists have
6、 been fleeing the music giants too, preferring to sign with smaller labels or self-distribute their albums as the big companies have tried to force them to sign deals giving a way a portion of their live performance and merchandising revenues. Radiohead guitarist Ed OBrien who is also a member of th
7、e Featured Artists Coalition, a London-based trade union for, of all things, rock stars says “the music industry isnt in crisis, the recording industry is; it is an unbelievably good time to be a fan of music and new bands.” Radiohead has opted for the viral route before, distributing its 2007 album
8、 In Rainbows via the Internet, asking consumers to pay what they thought it was worth. (The band is now signed with XL, an independent label.) Even a big pop artist like Robbie Williams is looking for a financial investor rather than a record company to fund his next crop of albums as he seeks great
9、er financial control his work.A positive NoteDespite the gloomy statistics and artist defections, the release of Plastic Beach shows that the music majors havent run out of ideas yet. For Universal Music, the market leader, this means moving away from the business of selling singles and CDs and inve
10、sting more in online, subscription-based services the next generation of the buy-per-song model made popular by Apples iTunes. Rob Wells, the head of digital for Universals London-based international business, says the company is close to finalizing a deal with the cable company Virgin Media on a ne
11、w service that would allow consumers in Britain to listen to and download as much music as they want for a fixed fee of about $12 a month. While the average iTunes user downloads about $35 worth of songs a month, says Wells, the new service would be profitable if a large enough number of not-so-seri
12、ous music fans signed up. In Britain, for example, the average adult buys only two to three albums a year spending far less than the $142 a year a subscriber to the Virgin Media service would pay.Universals problem, though, is persuading its rivals to follow its thinking. The other three leading rec
13、ord companies Sony Music, Warner Music and EMI are skeptical. They worry that so-called Mister 50s- a term used in the industry in Britain to describe the 30- and 40-something men who spend 50 buying new music on the weekend would be the only people who would sign up. That would mean reduced revenue
14、s per customer overall. Nevertheless, insiders expect those three companies to eventually give in, though they are likely to set limits on the number of songs that can be downloaded.To be sure, the momentum behind the all-you-can-listen subscription model is growing. Spotify, a new music service fou
15、nded in Sweden, has done phenomenally well in the six European countries where its currently available, among them Britain, France and Spain. The company started by building a vast catalogue of some 7.8 million songs licensed from all the music majors, which it then made available to consumers for f
16、ree at . The only catch: users have to listen to a few advertisements interspersed between their songs. So far, 7 million people have registered to use the website, and Paul Brown, Spotifys senior vice president responsible for strategy and partnerships, says the company is generating a “decent” amo
17、unt of advertising revenue to help pay for the music it has licensed.New media is being used by record companies now to promote albums too. Plastic Beachs release is what might once have been called a concept album in the baroque days of Pink Floyd: a recording with no obvious single, which meant th
18、at the traditional strategy of radio play wasnt an option for delivering sales. “We had to find a way of getting away from the traditional approach where there is a flurry of marketing activity for four to six weeks before an album release, “says Nick Gatfield, EMIs global head of A&R the man respon
19、sible for finding and handling the companys artists. Since radio play no longer matters so much, the band and EMI partnered with YouTube to “premiere” the albums first single “Stylo” on the video-sharing site in March. The video, depicting Bruce Willis and the band involved in a car chase, generated
20、 a YouTube record of 900,000 views in its first 24 hours, and caused a spike in sales that lasted for weeks, helping to make up for lackluster prerelease orders of the album.EMI also found a way to breathe new life into the Beatles music, 40 years after the group released its last studio album. Last
21、 September, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison agreed to give Viacom the right to use the Fab Fours songs in its Rockband computer game. Like Guitar Hero, its more popular rival, Rockband allows people to simulate playing rock songs by using by using plas
22、tic guitars, drums and other instruments. The hype surrounding the game tie-in spurred renewed interest in the Beatles, helping to sell a whopping 10 million albums in the four months leading to sell a whopping 10 million albums in the four months leading up to Christmas. In fact, the partnership be
23、nefited EMI more than Viacom, which only sold 1.2 million units of Rockband an unusual reversal of fortunes in the entertainment industry, where the gaming business has long outperformed music.Screen GemsEven as the industry explores the potential of digital subscriptions and new media tie-ins, its
24、a traditional medium television thats been most successful in keeping the record companies solvent. Last year, the promotional power of television reached its apotheosis in the unlikely form of Susan Boyle, the Scottish woman who appeared on Simon Cowells Britains Got Talent program in a dowdy frock
25、 and untamed hair, and stunned the judges with her remarkable rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Her performance was an instant hit not just in Britain but also in the U.S., thanks to a clip on YouTube and a Tweeting fan in Demi Moore. The video, which has been viewed more than 89 million times, prop
26、elled Boyle to global stardom. Its been a boon for Sony, her record company too: Boyles first album was a massive hit, selling 8.4 million units worldwide.Sony received a further boost this year when Cowell signed a five-year deal with the company to create a 50-50 joint venture to house Cowells spr
27、awling television and music interests. The new company, SyCo, will oversee all of the acts discovered on his shows and any new programs he devises, in addition to existing shows like X Factor, another British TV singing contest moving to the U.S. in 2011. Add it all up and 2010 is not going to be the year the music industry died.
