The business model for book publishing is in many ways quite different from the music publishing model. (I wish it were the same.) First of all, recording an album can be quite expensive. Producing one music video at the level of production the public is accustomed to is also quite expensive. And I’m not including the cost of producing the physical CD. There is no equivalent to these costs in e-book publishing as far as I can see.
There was a time when a record company was founded and/or run by people who knew and loved music. They actually performed a useful function as gatekeepers back then, at least to some extent. They were better at finding artists with raw talent that could be nurtured into producing good music. For example, look at the role George Martin played in the career of the Beatles. Of course a few multinational corporations have since bought up most of these record companies. They are powerful and the laws are skewed on their behalf. It will be hard to break their stranglehold on the business.
If each artist is forced to “go it alone”, it will be hard for them to fund projects to the level we currently expect. Even Alizée may have trouble affording all of it, and keep in mind the money she has came from the current system. How would new artists with no money fit into this new model? No new business model will be successful if it doesn’t sustain music on into the future and allow for new “Alizée’s” to be discovered and developed. As much as I dislike the current model, I would hate to see music devolve into a lot of poorly made recordings and video because of a lack of professional funding and artistic support.
Maybe the answer is a new music business entity, like a musician’s co-op, so to speak, that could exist under the umbrella of labels like Institubes. Musicians could pay a percentage of their profits in dues and this money could be leveraged to fund projects. Maybe they could also get their fans to subscribe for a few bucks a month, as well as raise money from wealthy private, corporate, and governmental benefactors who are interested in music.
If we want to see the level of production quality we are accustomed to, and if we want to see the current corporate structure out of the mix, there needs to be a way to fund these artists’ projects in any new model of doing business.
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