It is always hard to believe that the Internet is less than 20 years in the popular domain. Throughout its short life it has been continually adopting a new and unpredictable guise and no one really needs to be told how it has revolutionized the music industry. Judging by the incalculability of this paradigm-shifting phenomenon, it would take an ignorant, and perhaps arrogant, point of view to predict where it will be going next.
But who better than Prince to rain on our parade and go so far as to declare it “dead”? The infamously aloof artist claimed that “the Internet’s completely over” and sees no point in handing over his precious compositions to the likes of iTunes, or any music-download site for that matter. The artist formerly known as a symbol analogized the downfall of the world-wide-web with MTV: “At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
Whether these statements were just a publicity stunt to promote his new album (which will be distributed solely through the daily Mirror newspaper in the UK) or a prophetic warning to rest of us who are too slow to realize the oncoming cyberspace apocalypse, there is no doubt that music on the Internet is entering new and uncharted territory. Marketing methods that have been barely established could be done away with in the near future – as if the music business wasn’t desperately seeking for some stable ground already.
One of the pioneers of music networking on the web, MySpace has been easily the most important platform for artists to ‘connect’ with their fans. After it was founded in 2003, the site’s popularity skyrocketed until it was brought over by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation two years later, for a tasty $580m. The plan then was to branch out into specific territories, with MySpace having its own dedicated UK and Asian sites. But things have definitely taken a turn for the worse.
According to a recent article on the online magazine Tech Crunch, visitor numbers for MySpace have halved in the last six months – down from 10 million to just 5 million. Add this to the recent layoffs in their London office, as well as rumors of a buyout spreading like wildfire, and it is fair to assume they are going in only one direction.
So what has caused such a downfall for this once powerful force in online music marketing? Looking at it from face value, the main issue is that the usability and features on MySpace has not improved since the service was bought for such an astronomical fee back in 2005. The time it takes to load your favorite band’s MySpace page can become a real test of devotion and any unfortunate newcomers trying to set up a page will know of the frustration involved when working without certain browsers or plug-ins. And to add salt to the wound, MySpace has also been accused of using dirty advertising tactics by strategically placing Google keyword ads throughout their network.
Although Facebook presents its own precarious viral marketing ploys, it has now become the favored platform for basement bands and gargantuan superstars alike. But in recent times this social networking site has showed signs of reaching its limit, and this is something shared in common with the equally-saturated Twitter.
If Facebook, Twitter and MySpace – the holy trinity for large-scale music promotion on the Internet – are showing signs of stagnation, we could begin to see how Prince may have a point. Other services such as Spotify and Last.fm have, of course, played a part in bringing down the big three (why bother waiting for a slow-loading media player on a jargon-filled web page when you can sit back and listen to the whole album effortlessly, and for free?) and the sheer amount of music sharing sites out there means there is no order, no rules and absolutely zero quality control – another problem caused by the current online music model and one that was highlighted by Tom Silverman in an interview in Wired magazine.
The founder of the groundbreaking Tommy Boy Records group slated the effects the Internet has had on the quality of musical output, directing a diatribe at sites such as Tunecore, Reverbnation and CD Baby. Silverman claimed that “80 percent of all records released are just noise”, produced by “hobbyists” and there is a significant lack of professionalism in the business.
It may be true that the current model is dead and having adverse effects on musical standards, but what we should be most concerned about is where will we go find new music? If MySpace were to dip out, as things stand we would have very few options for discovering our next favorite band.
But the next chapter may be beginning with smaller artist-focused sites, such as Bandcamp and Boomkat. Both offer new and vibrant platforms for smaller artists to showcase their talents and are definitely providing more artistic license and ad-free liberation for their users. Bandcamp’s ethos is to supply bands with a site that is not promoting “ads for Sexy Singles Chat”, but rather the user that has created and designed the page in the first place.
Of course, this isn’t exactly a template for a successful business, so Bandcamp has recently announced they will be taking a maximum 15% share of revenue made from music sales through the site – this has yet to spark any protest and most users see it as a good way for Bandcamp to remain active. For the fans, the search for new music is also a far more enjoyable and easier process, with simple (and quick-to-load) applications connecting you to music you want to hear.
The bigger sites may continue to hold the largest slice of the pie, for the time being at least, but it won’t take long before there are new names in town and a completely new way for music to exist online. And if more artists of Princes caliber reject the main avenues to promote their releases, they will soon come obsolete. As well as the irreversible change that the Internet has brought to the world, perhaps what has made this epoch-defining singularity so fascinating is how it can change an industry overnight and present endless opportunities for purely random discovery – just how it is when you go in search of new music. It is the beauty of uncertainty.
Conor O’Brien
Prince has always been business savvy and creatively innovative. He thinks and moves outside of what everybody else is doing. There are many good independents in all genres of music, but on-line music sites are tedious. Unless you’re a fan or heard of the artist in some way, it takes hours to listen and weed out what’s good and what’s not. Makes you wonder, when and how far will the maze continue, where does it end, and really, what’s next with the constant changes and dependency on technology.
I still think the Internet offers more possibilities for artists than the “old world” media monopoly. It’s far from dead! LOL
It’s kind of like the wild west. The good, the bad and the downright ugly.
Tommy Boy has a point, but it’s only relatively true. There’s no media format where the cream will always rise to the top.
Marshall McLuhan said “the media is the message.” If an artist can create good music to start with, then get some decent production on a shoestring, and then target the audience that has the “taste” for their brand of music, it won’t matter if they use Facebook, Bandcamp, YouTube or some new platform yet to come along. It’s definitely noisy and competitive, though!! A TON of time investment. Live performance will probably always be the most powerful means of connecting. But what the heck…go for it! Music is still a popular commodity 🙂 Niche all the way.