According to industry groups, piracy has the music industry on the brink of extinction. The IFPI's (International RIAA) Digital Music Report 2010 labels digital piracy as "Climate Change for All Creative Industries" and asserts that piracy is stronger than ever.
Some quotes from the report:
“What I worry about is that we are heading into a world where copyright has no value and where there’s no incentive for anyone to provide patronage and support for the creators of intellectual property.” Simon Renshaw, Los Angeles-based manager of a long list of major artists including the Dixie Chicks. (p.20)
“We have to find a way of funding our future and not pretend that new revenue models are magically going to rescue us as the world of recorded music is destroyed by piracy .” Björn Ulvaeus, singer-songwriter, formerly of ABBA
Assuming for argument's sake they are correct should we care about the survival of the recording industry?
I do mean this as a serious question, not just anti-big music rhetoric.
Note the question asks about the recording industry and not the music industry, which is an important distinction. The basis of this question is a chart I came across a while back, indicating that total artist revenues are up despite drops in recorded music sales. The heart of the question is the role traditionally played by recording studios and whether they are necessary to the music industry of the future.
The traditional role of recording companies has been primarily to 1) discover talent, 2) record, produce, manufacture, and distribute physical albums, and 3) market artists. Are these services needed?
All three of these can be cheaply replaced by the Internet and social networking. Talent can self-promote until they reach success. Albums can be created with a laptop and $1,000 worth of mics and digital audio gear. Artists can use peer-to-peer networks, websites, Facebook, Twitter, and whatever the next big thing is to connect with fans and build a following in ways unimaginable a decade ago. The Arctic Monkeys are Exhibit A.
If record companies insist that their business models be adhered to and the market changes to them (through copyright laws and "education") why should we care if they die? Music will survive and succeed without them. Musicians will survive and succeed without them. If record companies cannot provide valuable services to artists in the 21st century (and they haven't yet) why should we care if they go out of business? It seems like fretting of the demise of buggy whip makers.
