Reinventing The Music Biz
ON RECORD: Matt Ward,
Giles Orford & Carl Jacobson
Where is the music business heading? What new technologies are being offered?
And how are manufacturers responding to our rapidly changing requirements?
These and other questions are important topics of the day. To find out more about
the “State of the Music Industry,” this month we quizzed Matt Ward, CEO of
Universal Audio, Giles Orford, Marketing Director at Focusrite, and Carl
Jacobson, Marketing Director with Cakewalk.
Profile: Matt Ward/CEO Universal Audio
Universal Audio bridges the worlds of vintage analog and DSP technology; it
remains committed to the “hand assembled” ideal that has been forgotten by most
audio manufacturers. A leader in vintage audio DSP modeling as well as true
analog classics, the company offers a full range of audio production hardware and
software products.
Contact: 866.823-1176 | matt@uaudio.com
Profile: Giles Orford/Marketing Director Focusrite
Focusrite was established in 1985 to develop products that sounded more musical,
in addition to just measuring well. Based close to London, England, the company
offers a range of ultra-quality pre-amplifiers, A-to-D, equalizer, dynamics and
signal-processing products, in addition to leading-edge DAW plug-ins.
Contact: +44 (1494) 836307 | giles@focusrite.com
Profile: Carl Jacobson/Marketing Director Cakewalk
Cakewalk develops powerful and easy-to-use products for music creation and
recording, including the SONAR line of digital audio workstations and sequencers,
fully-integrated music software and hardware solutions, in addition to virtual
instruments.
Contact: 617.423-9004 | carljacobson@cakewalk.com
AP: How would you define the Record Industry versus The Music
Industry? Are their interests in conflict or compatible?
“The record industry is defined as the business of selling recorded music,” Matt
Ward reasons, “and is a subset of the music industry. The fact that music is still
one of the dominant cultural forces is an indication that the music industry is very
healthy despite the fact that the record industry is being decimated.”
“The record industry of old was the record label,” Giles Orford considers. “The
music industry has a larger scope to include publishing and performing, and artists
that are not signed to a label. The music industry is about promoting an artist to
generate money from all sorts of angles, whereas the record industry only sees
one revenue stream - the recording.”
“The record industry is in the business of selling music,” agrees Carl Jacobson.
“The music industry is in the business of empowering people to make music. Our
interests are compatible in that the record industry represents a potential delivery
method for the music that people create; our interests could also be viewed as
diametrically opposed because the music industry’s primary aim is to help
musicians, where the record industry is often guilty of exploiting them!”
AP: Has Digital Media killed the Album?
“No,” Ward agues. “Although the ability to pick and choose tracks is popular with
consumers, collections of songs will still have a place in the market. What digital
media will kill off is the practice of bundling 10 filler tracks with one hit song.”
“The album as a format has dropped in terms of its quality as an art form,”
Orford offers. “I can see fewer great albums being made in the future, but the
album concept will never die, in terms of a collection of work brought together with
some central thought or concept.”
Jacobson agrees. “There will always be a demand for creative works with an
overarching theme that extends beyond the means of a three-minute single. And
there will always be dedicated fans who want to hear more than just a single.
What we are seeing, however, is a balance shift away from the forced grouping of
an album, to a more singles-oriented distribution system similar to what we saw at
the dawn of the recording industry. The artist can now choose to release music as
they create it and also choose not to release substandard material that may have
been used as album filler in the past, and the fans can now choose to only
purchase the material they want. Everyone benefits, with the exception of labels
that based their business model on inflating profits by charging for an entire album
when only the single was of value.”
AP: Ultimately, will technology most support the artist, the fan or others?
“Technology supports everybody,” Ward considers. “It would have supported the
major record labels if they had been quicker to adopt it.”
Orford sees technology as a double-edged sword. “As much as technology is
allowing more artists to deliver more music to more fans - a good thing - some
artists falsely believe that they've mastered the technology they're using to create,
record, produce and promote their art,” he reasons. “Actually, they are putting out
work that is substandard, leaving the fans to wade through more dross to get to
the good stuff!”
“Technology will support everyone,” agrees Jacobson. “But the support will occur
in different ways.”
AP: Will CDs become obsolete? If so, what will replace them?
“It's not a question of if, but when,” Ward stresses. “Pre-recorded CDs will still be
around for years as it's still the way the vast majority of recorded music is sold. I
don't believe that better sound quality will be enough to get consumers to dump
their CD players. Convenience will trump sound quality every time in the consumer
market.”
Orford sees it slightly differently. “The question should be whether we need
some kind of physical storage system for delivery of people’s work,” he says,” or
will everything be downloaded in future? We'll always be able to buy music over
the counter, in one format or another.”
“CDs are already obsolete,” considers Jacobson. “Since purchasing a Zune
portable media player, and getting a subscription to Microsoft’s online service, I
haven’t bought a single CD. Digital media files are the future.”
AP: What new recording technology is looming on the horizon that will
have the greatest impact on Music Production, Music Performance, Music
Marketing and Music Sales?
"For music performance," says Ward, "we will see breakthroughs that will make
digital guitars a viable performance alternative. For music sales and marketing, the
decline of major record labels has created a wonderful opportunity for musicians to
take control of their own careers; communication technologies will play a huge role
in helping them do this.”
“Within music production,” Orford considers, “[we will see] automated solutions
that resolve the issue of not having the production skills to deliver a professional
solution. Music performance [will offer] improved control over software solutions
for live use, bringing the freedom of music composition to the live arena. In music
marketing [we well see] ever growing community solutions such as MySpace.”
Jacobson argues that solutions are not looming on the horizon, but already here.
“However, they haven’t yet had full adoption in the marketplace,” he counters. "In
music performance, virtual instruments and portable computing devices are going
to have the biggest impact. In music marketing and sales, there are a variety of
Internet-based technologies and services.”
AP: Has digital technology imprisoned or liberated music?
“It has liberated music production by putting high quality tools directly into the
hands of more artists,” Ward stresses. “Digital technology has exposed how
imprisoned the sales and marketing of recorded music are.”
Orford agrees: “Surely it has unquestionably liberated it!”
“Technology has, unequivocally, liberated music,” Jacobson concurs. “More
people can create and distribute music than ever before. And digital music is much
more portable and convenient for consumers.”
AP: Are any manufacturers working on technology that will help artists
get paid versus having to give music away for free?
“Sure,” Ward states. “And there's some promise here, but it's unlikely that the sale
of recorded music is going to get back to $40 billion per year anytime soon.”
“We've started to bundle software that allows dance producers and artists to talk
about their production,” Orford says, “and put them in touch with record labels.
AP: What technology in the past 10 years most defined the current music
industry?
“That's easy,” Ward responds rapidly. “The growth of the Internet.”
“Advanced soft samplers and control over loops,” Orford considers.
“I guess it’s a toss up between host-based native processing and the Internet,”
Jacobson offers. “They both changed everything.”
We also asked our participants to rate, on a scale from 1-5 (1 being the most
important; 5 being the least important) how the following aspects impact the
success of a record release:
Mel Lambert has been intimately involved with music production industries on both
sides of the Atlantic for more years than he cares to remember. Now principal of
Media&Marketing, a Los Angeles-based consulting service for the professional
audio industry, he can be reached at mel.lambert@MEDIAandMARKETING.com;
+1/818.753-9510.
