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Is Digital Rights Management Dead?
• Yes, says former Pink Floyd Manager Peter Jenner
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By
Lady Tek-ee
Friday,
3 November, 2006
For The Register on line e-zone, Andrew Orlowski recently interviewed music industry veteran manager, Peter Jenner, on the future of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the major record labels. He found Jenner doesn't like what he sees.
"Few people know the music industry better than Peter Jenner", writes Orlowski. Pink Floyd's first manager, who subsequently managed Syd Barrett's solo career, Jenner has also looked after T.Rex, The Clash, Ian Dury, Disposable Heroes and Billy Bragg - who he manages today. He's also secretary general of the International Music Managers Forum.
And he doesn't pull his punches.
The major four music labels today are "fucked", Jenner says. "Digital music pricing has been a scam where the consumer pays for manufacturing, distribution, and does all the work - and still has to pay more. Labels should outsource everything except finance and licensing".
But he's also optimistic that for almost everyone else - indie labels, musicians, songwriters and budding entrepreneurs - as well as network providers - the future's going to be pretty bright. "The Big Four know that the DRM era is nearly over" - and within two or three years, he predicts, "most countries" in the world will have a blanket licensing regime where we exchange music freely, for a couple of quid a month.
In the future, he also suggests, artists, co-ops and managers will raise their own investment on behalf of artists - and pick and choose their marketing teams.
"I see music as a commodity as being the driver. There's far more casual access to music and for those people, you need all of the music. It's no good just having Sony's catalogue. While for the fans, they want more from one artist. They want to get close to the artist, they want better packages.
"Real fans might want many versions of a song from a demo, to the final version, to the mash-up version, as many as 20 - it's a continuum. And you can give them it now. You've got that sort of market for the fanatics - they want the live recording, the backstage photos, the singer's blog when he's on the road.
Interested in reading more? The full text of this article can be found at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03/peter_jenner/page1.html
For regular updates on this and related issues visit www.theregister.com
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Record Industry In Crisis?
The IFPI's recently reported 4% global decline in music sales for the first six months of 2006 is compounded by a massive 22.4% drop in US album sales in Hip Hop (Soundscan) the US market's second largest and traditionally "growth" genre, across the same period.
This looming crisis was further exacerbated by the recent fire-sale of some 90 US Tower Record Stores, which flooded existing retailers with cheap CDs during the industry's busiest period, and left a string of unsecured creditors in its wake.
Meanwhile governmental and transnational reviews abound, scrutinising the role of DRM, the European levy system and digital content delivery industry, and the future infrastructure of intellectual property itself.
Find out more here
http://www.musictank.co.uk/bts_conference.htm
Abridged report available
http://www.musictank.co.uk/bts_%20exec_%20summary.pdf
The Naked Reader 2006
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