Old Music industry woes: A warning to all who dis the customer

The woes for the big music labels continue as they operate in denial that the world has changed. If you are selling a product, conventional wisdom states that you will give your customer what he wants or he will go elsewhere. The big label’s customers wanted downloadable, portable music. The industry refused to provide what the customer wanted and criminalized the him for doing it himself. The best solutions to piracy is a fair price, and $16 for a CD with 1 good song, that is not. Copying of music to circumvent purchase has been going on since the advent of magnetic tape for a few, but the illicit copying exploded only when the industry tried to clamp down hard on the practice. If your customers rebel, you make herculean efforts win them back. You do not lawyer them into a state of siege that will result in an all out war.

Things are likely to get worse for the next four or five years, said music attorney Kenneth Kraus, a Nashville-based partner in Loeb & Loeb, whose clients include Kid Rock and Carrie Underwood.

He said the music industry wasted too much time and goodwill battling digital distribution of music, and “we’ve lost a whole generation of kids” who grew up downloading free music from the Web and cannot fathom paying for it. (from Reuters)

Then, about how you treat those who create your product. The big labels are masters at retaining rights to music and paying little or nothing for it. The internet has given artists a new outlet,and they no longer need to old music industry to reach listeners. It’s now more possible than ever for real musicians to make a living making music. Only the big industry’s manufactured artists are feeling the pinch.
The old, big music industry is really a canary in the coal mine for many businesses who still believe that they can dictate what the consumer will receive for how much and how the consumer may use it. The movie industry is near to facing the same woes, as are the publishing, broadcast media and news industries.

Soon the big software industry, and the net access industry will follow if they don’t change their ways. There are many parallels to the big bad music industry in the behavior of Microsoft, Apple, AT&T and Comcast. The customer will always find another way if he does not like the way you are treating him. In this case he will do it with open source software, cloud computing and a Third Pipe.