Frak The Status Quo, It's Not Doing Us Any Favours

How many innovators are willing to risk everything to walk this path?

Photo Credit: psd

If you're looking for insightful information for actionable things you can do to further your band, you probably wont find them in this article. Unlike the rest of The Indie Digest.

No this is more of a rant based on my frustrations of the incredibly slow pace of innovation in the media industries.

What gets me even more is that there are, many, many bright intelligent people trying to further the world. They are innovating the media. The are thinking of, and creating new and interesting ways to interact with, and listen to music.

And yet, their ideas never succeed.

Honestly I feel there is only, one solution; which I put forward in the following short open letter.

It's not because their work is not sound (pardon the pun). In fact in many cases like oh say, Pandora or Spotify, the idea and execution is extremely good. The service is closer to the experience music consumers want.

My cousin, who is quite possibly almost as obsessed with music as me, recently spent 8 months studying in America. When she came back to Australia, as eager as we all were to hear what it was like over there.

One question sat on the tip of my tounge, begging to break free of my lips.

"Did you use Pandora? What's it like?"

The response was both one I dreaded, and was incredibly thrilled about.

"I practically lived on it"

Frak me. I am missing out.

And so is the world of music consumers willing to pay hard earned cash for a good music experience.

But this is not just limited to streaming services, though that does comprise a large portion of the issue.

Copyright, and the people who live off nothing but the exploitation of other peoples copyrights are, to say the least: damaging.

Anyone thinking of creating a new service, program, or anything even remotely related to music has to tread extremely carefully, on the once thick piece of ice which protects them from falling wallets open into the pit of hungry lawyers.

A piece of ice to which the 'supposed' music industry executives are pointing blowtorches.

To create a music service right now is borderline suicide. The average life is extremely young, many fall through the ice before even going public. And this is not counting the typical 'two thirds of all businesses fail in the first year' rule. This is the 'executives' flat out blocking innovation.

An Open Letter

Honestly there is, only, one solution; which I put forward in the following short open letter:

Dear Music Industry Executives of Major Labels who are more concerned with profit and lawsuits than innovation.

Get the frak out of our world, our industry and our lives.

This is not your industry anymore.

You gave that up when you began suing our customers for millions.

You gave that up when you chose to frak bands by signing them, purely to shelve their records. In an attempt to clear the market for 'your' band. And yes, I have indeed heard these horror stories. This type of censorship is abhorrent.

You gave that up when you chose to lie to customers. When you chose to install rootkits onto unwilling consumers. To abuse their trust.

You gave that up when you opted to continue to peddle your dead model, in stark contrast to the many exciting new methods brought about by massive new publishing systems such as the internet.

You gave that up when you decided you didn't need to innovate. No, you are quite happy with the way things are, even if your customers aren't. You would rather beat the dead horse until it has turned into oil, many thousands of years later.

You gave that up when you forgot what music was about. When you decided that you could streamline the business by pumping out new manufactured artists, with less substance and body than aerogel.

You gave that on the industry long ago, and we are giving up on you.

Get the fuck out.

We want to give consumers what they want.

And they want us to give it to them.

But as we all know, you will not leave without a fight. The Jammie Thomas case is more than enough evidence for that.

We have moved on.

We don't need you.

You are, obsolete.

Sincerely,

The New Music Industry.

Do you agree? Leave your thoughts in the comments and let your voice be heard.