The major record label groups all operate on an assumption. That assumption is that a label is “about” its current roster and existing (mostly pop) acts and it’s an assumption that has been held for a very long time.
Is this the tail wagging the dog? Why wouldn’t a modern record label flip its priorities and become a catalog of recorded music first and a promoter of new acts second if at all?
The pay-per-download model isn’t financially satisfactory or sustainable to the majors. If the dream of a major label is a successful subscription service or monetization of radio services like Pandora – these experiences won’t be like pay-per-download. They won’t be hit-driven – not current hits, anyway. If you have all-you-can eat music streaming, a percentage of people are going to use that primarily to check out new music. Most people will listen to a lot of what they love. Which will mean catalog.
Pay-per-download isn’t and never has been good for catalog because, unlike the introduction into market of the CD, there is no “replacement” period during which consumers need to re-buy their favorites in the new format. CDs are a digital format and most people capable of buying an iPod are capable of ripping a CD.
I’d love to see a “label” take its history as or more seriously than its present and try letting the dog wag its tail.

Today’s op-ed in the New York Times slamming Microsoft for its lack of innovation got me on this train of thought. (I do think MSFT has the opportunity to innovate, but that’s another post.)

There is a clear difference in DNA between companies that innovate and companies that don’t. A big piece of that is what I call “DRM thinking”.

“DRM thinking” is when you knowingly pit yourself against what your consumer wants, throw barriers in the face of usability, ignore market realities, and continue to convince yourself it’s okay.
DRM as it was applied to digital music is an unbelievable example of refusal to look at the whole picture. While labels and technology providers developed multiple forms of DRM, created differing levels of licensing and access for the consumer, and in general spent a whole lot of time trying to “get DRM right”, it was completely useless tech and a huge waste of time.
Anyone who wanted a perfect digital copy of a record without any copy protection whatsoever could just walk into a big-box retailer and spend $9.99 for the CD. (CD copy protection was tried, but there was never any indication that it was ever going to work, and it didn’t.) This went on for years.
Barring your front door doesn’t work very well if there is no back wall on the house.

DRM thinking is what holds back companies from innovation.

At the core of social media today is relatively new consumer behavior in terms of not just a willingness to share content, personal information, and so on- but a downright passion for doing so. The nature of the Web begets sharing, for sure- but the first widespread activity requiring sharing of information not usually publicly exposed may very well have been peer-to-peer music filesharing.

A regret of mine is that we weren’t able to use the information Napster users exposed on their hard drives to create “tribes” or “collectives”, or to connect our users in other ways. Our “Someone Like Me” feature allowed users to search for others with similar music in their collections. This enabled better trading and music discovery, of course, but we always thought it was the beginning of a social network as well. (Not to mention a GREAT dating service….) “Someone Like Me” was disabled through most of Napster’s existence for legal reasons.

We loved the sharing concept and it was at the core of the Napster tagline I created: “Thanks for sharing.”

My friend Derek Sivers, someone I am very fortunate to know and occasionally break bread with (should be more often) wrote an ebook for musicians on how to get music noticed- how to rise above the noise. He should know- Derek founded CD Baby, possibly the most successful independent music aggregator/manufacturer/digital distributor ever, and indubitably the nicest and easiest to do biz with. One of the most beautiful things about Derek is his generosity of spirit, and he makes this ebook available for anyone, free, from sivers.org. You can also download it here:

http://derek.s3.amazonaws.com/DerekSivers.pdf

Derek wants you to spread it around- just please, credit Derek Sivers and link to sivers.org. That’s all.

AT&T offers me a full support center for the 3G microcell. Small problem: I can’t buy one yet. Then again, they’re ahead on their web buildabout 23 hours ago from TweetDeck

@Steve_Gonzalez may go to SXSW, figuring it out now. If you’ve never been by all means, go.

CNET on Lala, iMeem,SpiralFrog. Labels REFUSE to license DRM-free AAC /mp3 to SpiralFrog!? That’s what SpiralFrog says. http://bit.ly/VsOn10:13 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck

Is the #Skittles webpage “brave” bc it focuses on social media & less on the product? There’s direct nav to products front and center10:03 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck

Realized yesterday that I haven’t worked at a company since Napster where I could make salacious t-shirts for the whole engineering team8:24 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck

@guykawasaki the pool at the Hotel du Cap is better than almost all pools listed. Although the Icelandic geothermal pool is trés sweet2:26 PM Feb 28th from TweetDeck in reply to guykawasaki

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Bluehost to adopt a policy against hate speech rather than blocking countries w/ messy regimes? Free speech?2:23 PM Feb 28th from TweetDeck

RT @Scobleizer: It’s a real bummer that Bluehost is kicking off Iranian bloggers: http://tinyurl.com/ccsfqv2:18 PM Feb 28th from TweetDeck