“If you steal music you can’t be a real music fan”.
These are the words of John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
In recent years, stealing music has become more than walking into a store and hiding a CD under your shirt.
Since the introduction of the Internet to common households more than 15 years ago, the music industry has had the carpet pulled out from underneath it.
The rise in peer-to-peer file sharing of songs has been phenomenal and has left a significant dent in the cash boxes of record labels and artists alike.
However, despite the fact that the impact of the Internet on the music industry has been portrayed as somewhat devastating and CDs are becoming a thing of the past, walk into any major record store and you will be faced with a different story.
On any given afternoon, HMV in Bourke Street is never empty. There are people everywhere, flicking through various genres, looking for an album that catches their eye.
For many people, flicking through the CDs is all part of the experience.
“I personally quite like going around music shops just browsing. You don’t get that same sort of feeling if you buy music online,” says Austen Cruickshank, Press Officer for Visible Noise, an independent record label based in London.
But according to a recent Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) report, “consumers are looking to alternative sources for their music because they are finding that CD stores are offering fewer choices than ever before.”
This is the dilemma facing the music industry today and many major record labels are unsure what to do about it.
Independent record labels are leading the way, allowing their artists to create an album that is more than just an hour worth of sound.
“As a label, we’re encouraging artists to make really amazing artwork, not just a track on your mp3 player,” says Cruickshank.
“Now it is so easy to get music to labels, literally in three clicks, but so much of it is irrelevant which has annoyed a lot of people in the industry.
“We are a rock and metal label and we get sent singer songwriters saying ‘please add us, please check us out’ and we don’t do that music at all.”
Visible Noise is home to some of the biggest acts in rock and metal today, including Welsh bands Bullet For My Valentine and Lostprophets, the latter signed more than eight years ago.
“They’re still signed to us and they sold out Wembley Arena last year and they’ve toured the world.”
They’ve gone from being a tiny band from an even smaller town in Wales to one of the biggest hard rock acts the UK has ever seen.
According to Cruickshank they wouldn’t be where they are now without the help of Visible Noise.
“I think in no small part, their success has been due to the label.”
Another cloud hanging over the music industry’s head is the fact that there could soon no longer be a need for record labels.
This is unlikely to happen any time soon according to Cruickshank.
”Bands really do need someone to guide them through it. It’s a business at the end of the day and it’s like any industry where there are people who will screw you over.
“Bands really don’t need to be messing around with [contracts] when they could be spending their time focussing on what’s important which is the music.”
Very few bands have dared leap off the bandwagon and give their music away, but those that have are showing that it is not all bad news.
Recently, punk veterans Pennywise released their latest album on Myspace Records, offering the record in its entirety for free download via their Myspace page.
Many major labels are failing to embrace the Internet revolution, only blaming it for their decrease in revenue and failing to understand that not everyone wants to be forced to buy the latest releases.
Until such companies are run by the new generation, many record labels and highly commercial artists will continue their bitter battle with the Internet.
It is the small bands and artists however, that are finding it easier to get their music heard through sites such as Myspace.
“In one way that’s the beauty of it because we can find out about new bands without having to go through all the processes,” says Cruickshank.
“It’s great that anyone can make music but the amount of crap we get sent is incredible.”
The Internet has allowed artists to offer their music directly to fans but this has caused some problems with illegal file sharing.
Piracy has wreaked havoc within the industry but it is more to do with the fact that people are not educated.
Many of these ‘pirates’ are young teenagers who have grown up with file sharing programs such as Limewire and simply do not know any other way of listening to music.
In 2007, the worldwide music industry was worth over $USD20 billion with the Australian industry worth around $AUD743 million, according to an IFPI report.
In Australia, only eight per cent of the market is made up of digital sales, compared to America’s 24 per cent.
“It’s natural for them and they wouldn’t think any other way. Kids just expect is. They expect instant music, instant news, instant everything,” says Cruickshank.
But according to Jamie Oliver of Lostprophets (no, not the chef), this ease of accessing music will increase the quality of the music we are exposed to.
“The ease of access and presentation of music levels the playing field so that quality can rise to the surface,” he says.
According to Oliver, record labels are becoming anxious about the evidently declining CD sales and are using every possible avenue to keep their hip pockets healthy.
“Smaller signed bands used to survive not on record sales, but on selling merchandise and touring.”
“In the past, these things were out of reach of the record labels greedy fingers, but since music is being shared and record companies were taking losses, they’ve decided to dip their hands into the touring and merchandise rights of the new bands, hence making it even more difficult for upcoming bands to survive.”
But now that labels have money at stake in a bands touring schedule, the harder they push for bands to play as many shows as they can.
“With this heightened frenzy for bands to tour in order to survive, the touring circuit gets flooded with show after show, the venues are booking band after band, however the scene eventually gets diluted, and with so much available, the apathy grows in the people who usually attend shows and venues get more empty,” says Oliver.
Since the introduction of the Internet, music fans are able to pick and choose what music they listen to and no longer have to rely on the press and moneylenders to tell them what is worth listening to.
According to Oliver, “Gone are the days where a label has the power to force feed their weaker bands down the throats of the buying public. Gone are the days where money dictates the artistic fashions.”
“Now, music and art can speak for it self, it doesn’t need a sugar daddy to push it into the spotlight. It goes straight to the source, the most important source, the listener."
Although downloading music for free is frowned upon in the industry, it may not be as harmful as first thought, as evidenced by an avid music fan, Matthew Wood.
“I download illegally all the time and the reason is simple. It’s easy and it’s free,” he says.
“I usually only do it when exploring new artists. If I start to like them then I will go out and buy their music to support them.”
Many rare demos and live music from artists are only available for free download, but as Wood explains, owning a physical copy of a CD is all part of the experience.
“Having a CD is more authentic than something digitally downloaded.
“I like the cover designs and artworks and it is more enjoyable put a CD in a player than listening to it on an iPod,” says Wood.
According to an Australian Recording Industry Report, digital album sales have increased by 43 per cent since 2006, with 780’000 digital albums sold in Australia in 2007.
There are over 500 legitimate music services worldwide, offering over six million tracks, over four times the stock of a music megastore.
Rolling Stone Australia Editor Dan Lander says that recording artists are not the only ones who have had to change their mindset in order to embrace the Internet.
“The internet has made it much harder to do breaking news in a monthly magazine so we’ve had to make things within the magazine more timeless,” he says.
Many magazines now have a prominent online presence where people can read breaking news instantly.
“Why would anyone want news from a month ago when they can just go on the Internet and find out within seconds,” says Cruickshank.
Kerrang.com in the UK and fasterlouder.com.au in Australia are two of the major sources for industry news, much more current than a monthly magazine.
According to Lander, it is going to be a while before we see any major changes in the way the music industry operates.
“I think ultimately there is going to be more music more readily available to everyone,” he says.
“At the moment everyone is still trying to find their feet and adjust to it even though they should have well and truly done that by now.
“I think it’s going to take years and years. It’s exciting but it is a long way away.”
If the industry learns to use the Internet in a positive way, the benefits will be endless.
Cruickshank says that in order to get signed and become successful, bands still have to work just as hard, if not harder, than ever before.
“Bands who have actually sent us in a package shows a lot more effort rather than someone who’s added us a million times on Myspace and sent it to every single person.”
“In a way, it feels [music] is becoming redundant because so much of it is crap and we start to lose faith in it.”
Some wise words of wisdom from Oliver will be sure to set many upcoming bands straight.
“If you’re crap, bad luck. No amount of money will make you any less crap.”
But it seems although there are millions of unheard tracks floating around in cyberspace, only the ones worth listening to will be heard.
“Music is being seen and heard for what it is,” says Oliver.
“It seems that the balance is being readdressed and the priority has moved back to where it should be. Only quality will survive the test.
“It is not the reviews or the record labels or the press that will let you know how good or bad you are. It’s the real people who would want to or don’t want to listen to your art.”
