Mystique, DRM, Vinyl (a fad?) and Collapsed Copyright.
A few final thoughts from the Bandwidth conference…
One of the things that came up a number of times over the course of the Bandwidth conference was the idea of artist “mystique”. In the world of artist access, of myspace & blogs, where artists are urged to describe the contents of the sandwich they had for lunch, where is the mystique, the aura of “otherness” that existed in the great days of rock n’ roll? Won’t someone please think of the children?
The point was raised by two very different individuals: Zeitgeist Management’s Jordan Kurland (current Zeitgeist clients include Death Cab, Feist and Rogue Wave) and VP of Marketing for Warner Bros., Peter Standish.
Jordan was of the opinion that with the deluge of material available about any particular artist, a newcomer could easily get the wrong opinion about the artist in question from a lo-fi live recording or drunken blog post.
Mr. Standish felt that it robbed musicians of their unique position as role-models and heroes.
I personally think this is a relic of the old music business. A different kind of artist must evolve to serve the people who demand this kind of inside knowledge of their experiences. Yes, you can remain private if you wish, but you’ll alienate those who crave that intimacy. You can serve both “lurkers” like me and “stalkers”, y’know?
Mr. Kurland’s comments positively reeked of Label 1.0.’s attempt to control artist image and content. Heck, isn’t that what blogging’s all about? What do you think?
Speaking of which, I took the opportunity of Mr. Standish’s availablility to press him on his stance on DRM and his boss’ assertion that WB would issue less digital licenses going forward because of the “problem” of ubiquity. Needless to say, he confessed ignorance on both subjects.
And speaking of DRM, even the DRM PANEL itself didn’t have a single person who thought it was a good idea! Maybe it was because we were in liberal San Francisco at an “indie-ish” conference, but is that the death-knell?
Something that’s not so clear cut: Vinyl. I had a heated discussion with a few participants about the nature of the current vinyl sales explosion. There was even label owners who had plans to do exclusively vinyl releases next year! I tend to agree with the Chicago Tribune on the cool factor, but it doesn’t answer a simple question: Is this a fad, or not? An answer to that question might save a few businesses in 2008.
Oh, and Collapsed Copyright? The way forward, methinks…
