Making big business little
That charty-chart-chart-chart is the visual accompaniment to a very illuminating New York Times article that details the financial situation at Atlantic Records (now part of the Warner Music Group). For the first time ever in their or any other major label’s history, digital music sales have surpassed physical. That’s wild.
Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records states in the article that her label “gets it,” saying “It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records.” That’s pretty great, aside from the fact that her label is still a member in a consortium group that continues to pursue completely unreasonable scare tactics/lawsuits against people and practices that either can’t pay, don’t exist, or haven’t harmed anyone’s bottom line.
It’ll be nice to some day see the archaic structure of the music industry bend and break once someone somewhere realizes that the digital age needs to be embraced. And that’s coming from a dude that owns more physical copies of music than some people have heard in their lifetime.
If you don’t feel informed about the RIAA, check out Gizmodo’s anti-RIAA manifesto. While this all might be a bit hypocritical seeing as though the vast majority of our posts link to itunes (a huge retailer for the major labels) that service has been one of the biggest digital success stories for a reason: they charge a fair, competitive rate, compensate smaller labels just as well as big ones, and offer anyone the opportunity to sell their product through their service. You’ll also notice that whenever possible we link to healthy alternatives like the wonderful Zunior site.
Anyway, I would never forsake an artist simple because of the label they’ve signed to, but I’m still surprised that some bands don’t know better. But again, I’m also an outsider with no real perspective of any kind, so please accept the grain of salt that comes with the downloads below.
the Doers - Art For Dollars [1:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download A Wilhelm Scream - They Like Their Turtlenecks Ribbed [0:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Bridge and Tunnel - White Collar Crime Scene [3:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Downloadthe Doers: itunes or check these instructions on how to buy
A Wilhelm Scream: itunes or webstore
Bridge and Tunnel: itunes or no idea’s website
400 Strong: used to be a local Regina band, but they haven’t been around in like eight years
the Measure [SA]: the [SA] stands for “strictly analog” so you won’t see any itunes material, but check this list out for their vinyl releases.
