Matthew Racher's Online Journal: Music and File sharing, a Way to Higher Profits?

Music and File sharing, a Way to Higher Profits?

Rock star and actress, Courtney Love gave a speech at a New-media conference in Manhattan's SoHo. Her message stunned the many audience members who listened. "Stealing an artist's music without paying for it is absolute piracy," she said. "And I'm talking about major-label recording contracts, not Napster." As many people already know, recording contracts are made for one simple reason: record labels want to maximize profits by limiting the profits of the talented artists they produce. Of course, these artists can do well for themselves, yet it is a question of comparison. Who makes more money, the label or the artist? And, who deserves to make more money? In the case with Courtney Love, she wanted to leave Geffen Records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group, and find a more independent label that appeals to the needs of the artist. In fact, Love visualized the growth of music based file- sharing as a chance for artists to leave the constraints of the music industry and make their own regulated profits. This idea would certainly give artists more freedom in sharing the music they want at the prices they want, yet would it maximize their profits? Record Labels distribute music rapidly and worldwide, and the web does the same thing, yet the web may be limited in the number of capable and willing users who would buy the music. Although computers continually evolve technologically and their numbers within households continually increase, is it certain that this would be the best way for artists to share and control their music in a way that would lead to the greatest profits?

Trackbacks

Trackback URL for this entry is: http://blog.case.edu/Racher/mt-tb.cgi/6203

Will musicians lead the revolt against corporate middlemen?
Excerpt: This is the fifth of a series of posts introducing the NEO community to the intrepid students who have taken on an optional assignment in MGMT 251 this spring. The fourth student I am highlighting is Matt Racher, whose blog focuses on Management in the...
Weblog: Management Professor Notes II
Tracked: March 1, 2006 04:56 PM

Comments

Posted by: Aaron Shaffer
Posted on: March 1, 2006 08:29 PM

Didn't Universal or someone like that just buy MySpace? There is a reason for that. The indy label support on MySpace, arguabley an artist empowering environment, may have seemed like a threat to traditional labels.