Bob Lefsetz on the power of free

Nearly every day, Bob Lefsetz winds himself into a full-on rant on the state of the music industry. Sometimes two of them. It's gotten the point where I have to brace myself to simply read his emails. But he's right about the big themes and he's fascinating to watch, in a car crash sort of way.

Here, in today's email (also on his blog), he confronts the majors with their real problem: the free music that they're competing with isn't pirated; it's willing given away by musicians who are playing a different game.  

I'm positively stunned at the blowback from business regulars about that chap [I actually don't know which chap he's referring to--maybe this one?] giving his music away for free. Oldsters can't understand the economics!

I'll clue you in, THERE ARE NONE!

This is your worst nightmare. People who can follow their dream on sweat equity. Who with their computer and the money from their day job or mommy and daddy can compete with you. It's like the North Vietnamese, all our military might couldn't defeat individuals who would fight to the death. Same deal in Iraq.

It's an eye-opener. That your model is IRRELEVANT!

YOU need to pay the mortgage. YOU need to go on vacation to the Caribbean. But the new musicians? They're willing to sleep on the floor and eat ramen. Hell, they're in their twenties, they're not on the corporate track, they've got different ambitions!

Comments

[Mike Woodhouse]

And of course, he's right. Although there is a subset of those give-away musicians for whom the recorded stuff is the loss-leader that delivers promotion for their live gigs, which actually pay for the floor rental and ramen bills.

And when you think about it, what does the record company actually do? Promotion? MySpace. Distribution? iTunes, emusic, P2P, FTP. What's left is probably studio time for acoustic instruments - not an issue at all for many artists and something that will have to come out of gig proceeds for the rest.

[Phil Freund]

It's a different game now. Distribution is not the issue. Exposure is the problem. With satellite radio, mp3 blogs, pandora, iTunes, Last.fm, pure volume, etc... the problem is not finding new bands -- it's finding the good ones. There is so much "noise" in the music scene, the role that labels need to take is serving up quality artists for all the different music lover niches. Mainstream pop is dead.

I buy about $50 worth of music every month (mostly from iTunes and eMusic) all in download format. That way I get quality music -- not the studio filler tracks. Additionally, I probably download about 200-300MB of free music per day -- all from legit mp3 blogs. And when I find a band that I like that has more than one good song, guess what, I buy their CD (I know, shocking, right?!). The problem is it's really hard to find those good bands to support because there is so much out there.

Labels have too much of an agenda. Their fake, dishonest, and only out to exploit the fan base. Guess what, we're on to them. This generation supports each other when we are honest with each other. Our level of media saviness doesn't put up with corporate bull (and trust me, I know -- I work for one of them). Bands that give away their music are the first to get my attention, not because it's free, but because I know that they don't have an agenda, and they are probably worth caring about and supporting.

Labels will never understand because they don't think like artists.

[worth]

People basically pay for what they cannot or do not want to do. Record labels used to fit the "almost no one else can do this" bill with the aforementioned distribution and production barriers. No more. A small number, the best of the best, of musicians have fit, and will continue to fit, the "almost no one else can do this" bill, and continue to get rewarded handsomely. All of the other starving musicians who do it for love, but don't have the "it" factor of making others want to hear them, will continue to starve as they always have. Good riddance, record company middleman! Now let's see, who's next up on the internet's list to scratch off as "services no longer required"...?

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[James Dueck]

If there's a surviving business model for music, it's in services. My company TailoredMusic.com is trying to make a go of that angle.

But otherwise, I agree with you. Some of the paradigms Lefsetz is living in are becoming irrelevant very, very quickly.

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