It cannot be saved

The NY Times had a cover story on Rick Rubin and how he's meant to be the savior of the music industry.

I have great respect for what Rick Rubin has done for music. There's no question that he's had an incredible impact on popular music. He's made some mediocre bands great and some great bands phenomenal. And, now that he's in charge of Columbia Records, it's up to him to find ways to salvage the music industry - that is, he needs to find ways for the record companies to staunch the massive bleeding of revenue they're suffering from.

So, amongst some of the things he talks about, Rubin explains how Apple is just a continuing problem for the record companies and then claims, and seems to be throwing himself full force into the concept, that the only solution that will save the industry is a subscription-based music downloads.

I have great respect for Rick Rubin but he is wrong, wrong, wrong.

As soon as I read that, I just knew in my heart that it was wrong. I knew, as a consumer of music, that I when i listen to music, I want to OWN that piece of music. I want to be able to listen to it on my iPod or burn it to a CD and listen to it in my car. But there was something else that felt wrong, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Fortunately, John Gruber, at Daring Fireball, got it exactly right:

To argue that subscriptions are the future of music is to argue that DRM is the future of music, and the evidence points to the contrary.

It's become pretty clear that consumers want LESS DRM. Want proof? Just look at how EVERYONE is laughing themselves silly over NBC's decision to abandon Apple and iTunes. NBC wanted MORE DRM (and more money) and when Apple refused to capitulate, NBC left. Now let's see. Which of these companies is raking in dough hand over fist? And which one was ranked 4th place in the Neilson ratings last season? Granted, Apple took in the larger share of the profits on each episode downloaded, but now NBC makes no money from iTunes. And unless they start taxing me for using my TiVO, they will continue to make no money from people who WANT to watch their shows. But I digress... We were discussing the music industry.

Rubin is wrong to believe that more DRM with save the music industry (and if you read the article, I can assure you that Steve Barnett is BEYOND wrong to think that artists should give the record companies anything from their tours and merchandise. I feel nauseous just thinking about that - and I'm not even in a band!). And if Apple is taking away too much money for the RCs to break even, then they need to sell (SELL) the music themselves. Seriously, Apple makes money because iTunes works. People want to buy music. So, if Columbia doesn't like iTunes, then they should be selling their music on their site. I should be able to go to Columbia's website and download a song from one of their artists.

Yes, they are going to be competing with Apple and yes, they are going to have to spend a shit-load of money on marketing to get people to even notice that they sell digital music. But their other options are complete crap.

But, frankly, the record companies have a bigger problem. And that is, anymore, they are becoming less and less necessary. Thanks to MySpace, any band can get their music out to the public. Thanks to Eventful, any band can build up a fan following of people who are begging for that artist to play in their town. Thanks to CDBaby, bands have a distribution system already in place to get their CDs out. And now, according to Jonathan Coulton*, CDBaby even sells digital music in which most of the profits go to the artist.

So, there you go. These days, all a band needs is two things to be successful - they need to be good and they need a website. Okay, perhaps I'm simplifying this a little bit, but seriously, a band can make it on their own - without selling their soul to a record company. Without selling out their integrity and without giving up the lion's share of the profits to people who don't seem to know what to do with that money.

So, good luck in your new gig, Rick. I look forward to you producing some amazing bands after Columbia Records folds.

Links:
The Music Man (NY Times Magazine)

*an independent musician who seems to be doing pretty well for himself.