BIG Music Industry Shake-Up Happening

[Kaidy]

Just read this story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4045638/

For those who have issues with long articles, here's the key points:

 - Lyor Cohen is most likely leaving Universal (where he is CEO of Island/Def Jam) to take a top job at Warner Music.

 - Time Warner are selling Warner Music, meaning it will technically become an independent label (with a huge bank balance and connections). AOL Time Warner will no longer be a part of the music business.

 - LA Reid possible to take over as CEO of Island/Def Jam after being fired as CEO of Arista last week (due to losses of $100 million last year).

 - Sony and BMG (two of the 'Big Five' majors) are merging.

 - Clive Davis promoted to head of RCA. Possible he will take over Arista again too.



Lot of shit happening, the industry is clearly in somewhat of a turmoil and not knowing what to do next. The fact that the Big Five (Sony, EMI, BMG, Time Warner, Universal) will soon only be the Big Three (EMI, Universal, Sony/BMG) is really a shock, and it should have some major implications on the whole industry.

Interesting times ahead...

[Trauma-san]

^ Keep in mind too that Sony fired Tommy Motolla shortly after Michael Jackson's "Invincible" album came out, and Michael was calling Tommy a racist and all of that.  Nobody ever thought Motolla would leave, he's the guy that married Mariah Carey, etc. One of the most important men in music.

I think it's all because of the problem with the net.  Children like to pretend there's no problem, but come on... look at the record revenues in the past few years, they're down almost 40%!  Now, I'm not crying any tears for these guys, because I think they've been getting fat off of the backs of artists for decades, but that's the problem they're faced with, that's why all the shakeup.  The ONLY solution I see to the problem is lowering the price of CD's down to about 5 or 6 bucks and making money the old fashioned way, ticket sales, and hard work in the studio churning out more albums.  

[SGV]

Damn! That's a lot of people going up and some people going down. Crazy shit.

[Kaidy]

Yea Trauma, Mottolla is at Universal now and has his own sub-label to run. I'm sure he'll be alright.

But yea, obviously the piracy issue has got everybody running round like headless chickens. Clearly they havent even begun to get a hold on it. Lowering CD prices is a sure bet, but the whole industry needs to re-think its blueprint. Like you said though, its pretty good watching the bigwigs squirm like this. Hopefully there will be more opportunity for smaller labels. Who knows.

[Don Seer]

lowering prices? what a joke.. peep this

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Jan/gee20040123023566.htm

[Lord Funk]

lowering prices? what a joke.. peep this

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Jan/gee20040123023566.htm

And - I presume on the back of that as it happened the day after - playusa.com will no longer ship CDs to the UK. Only found out when I logged on to order C-Style and RBX  

[NobodyButMe]

and....AOL Time Warner is NOT AOL Time Warner anymore. it's just Time Warner. they split cuz AOL wasn't making enough money. i work next door to the AOL/Time Warner building in Rockefeller Center in New York City and since about two weeks ago, they took down the part that says "AOL" and seperated.

[Trauma-san]

In the US, a couple manufacturers (I THINK it was Sony and BMG) just decided to lower a ton of prices, but it was only a dollar or two.  I havne't really seen any difference at the store, oh, the 1 or 2 times I've bought a CD in the past 6 months.  

[Don Seer]

^ our prices would shock you... a 'normal cd'  example.. g-unit since thats kinda current is about £15 right now, thats about $25 -> $30...

[Conan]

See, that's one example of why more people may turn to music downloading. After reading Lord Funk's post about playusa.com no longer distributing imported music CD's to the UK, and CD-WOW soon raising their prices (not to mention the facts that big retail chains like HMV will probably not stock independant, low key releases like the mentioned RBX and Lil C Style) I can't blame people who turn to file-sharing programmes if it is the only way to gain access to one of their favourite artist's music. And I'm sure this probably goes for many other countries too. This still boils down to record companies greed. Companies like CD-WOW are charging a reasonable price and surely still making a decent profit - I don't have any exact figures but nowadays I assume the price of manufacturing and distributing CD's must be falling all the time. 'Seer posts alerted me to the fact that at this point I am not willing to pay such absurd prices for a CD if I am perfectly aware of a cheaper and efficient alternative. I'm not saying that is a good attitude but its mine. Record Exec's need to sit up and take notice that, with a world filled with the likes of MP3 players and Mini Disc systems, if they want to continue making any form of profit prices must be dropped.

[Trauma-san]

^ our prices would shock you... a 'normal cd'  example.. g-unit since thats kinda current is about £15 right now, thats about $25 -> $30...

Sucks for you!  In America, we've got several options of places to buy Cd's... if you go to a CD store, like FYE, or Camelot, or something, a regular CD price is about 15.99 or 16.99.  That's for more 'catalog' type cd's, which they have more of, basiaclly any cd you need they have.  When a new CD comes out, they'll have it on sale for 12.99 or 13.99.  We also have places like Best Buy, which frequently have new CD's on sale for 9.99 or 10.99.  Wal Mart always has 9.99 or 10.99 cd's.. etc.  I have no doubt I could go buy G-unit's cd for less than 12 bucks within 2 miles of my house, if I wanted.  They're RAPING you.  

[Don Seer]

we do get the cheaper deals too.. but pretty much the rule is.. whatever you pay, we pay roughly double.

which is why i import so much  

[On The Edge of Insanity]

we do get the cheaper deals too.. but pretty much the rule is.. whatever you pay, we pay roughly double.

which is why i import so much  

Yeah, and the pound is so strong against the dollar, it makes importing an even better alternative. I hardly buy anything in UK stores anyway because they don't actually have half the shit i'm looking for. Only really check them when they have a sale on, because they always seem to overstock hiphop, and there is loads of good shit for cheap prices.

[NobodyButMe]

we do get the cheaper deals too.. but pretty much the rule is.. whatever you pay, we pay roughly double.

which is why i import so much  

not to correct you seer, but i work in foreign exchange markets and it is roughly double but right around 1.7217 times the dollar equivalent. so for a 15 dollar cd it's about 25 dollars in Great Brittain. or for a 15 dollar cd, it'd be about 19 dollars in Euros. i know that this is useless information, but i'm sitting here in my office working with exchange rates all day, so i thought i'd plug that in there.  

[Don Seer]

yeah.. but by the time you incluide postage to the U.K... normally $3 or $5.. sometimes up.. its *still* not a bad deal

mostly i'll buy $120 worth of stuff in one go.. i do end up about even... but i'm gettings stuff i cant get here.. or paying the same as it would be for stuff that isnt out yet