Viacom the owner of MTV has recently cut 850 jobs in the rise of this recession. This recession has also allowed anybody to be apart of the music industry… WMG’s stock is at $2.67 a stock. People claim it is an old business plan, others say music is not a monetary market anymore. Every week I keep seeing album sales every week, but digital sales have been steadily rising. Kanye’s single sold 1.3 million times on iTunes to date (2/4/08). So is digital the answer?
In Business, sales have to show growth and improvement otherwise stocks will drop and investor confidence will drop as well. Usually when a business grows too fast, and even a slow down of growth can strike fear. There will always be this wall where all business’s hit where they have to cut some expenses to continue growth until it can not make money anymore. That is where the flaw of iPods come in. If everybody has an iPod, where can the growth be? What improvements can they make? iPod sales drop now, but that is expected and still people lose confidence in them still. Where to go when you make the top?
Music is a business like any other, and no matter how much you market something, if people don’t need it they won’t get it. You can make it all pretty and everything, but if people can get it for free they still will. Digital sales, album sales, all music sales are close to fail soon, and I believe it is an end to ‘music sales’ but not an end to music. I see labels changing to the 360 deal which I believe is great to keep income and allow labels to not give up in pushing their artists. Yes, it is still mafia tactics where if you can’t get revenue from one place, you squeeze em in other area’s. The more I study business and marketing, the more I realize that without the push of a strong team, nobody can make it. As a more entrepreneurship mindset comes across America, we are becoming more DIY (Do It Yourself). DIY can only get you so far, and with the help of the internet, everybody can DIY, but than comes the ego with that thinking your as strong as a label.
The way to a new beginning is not the end of an old. Every day should be a new beginning in expanding from what was of yesterday. People settle for one plan, one product, one everything. That is why I love places like target. They can get income from many places, they do not have everything in one product which is what most labels do. We need to learn to do more than just music, artists need to expand from just singing/ rapping whatever they do. 50 Cent invested in Vitamen water and got close to half a billion dollars.
My point is, it is the end of one sided music. We need to learn to multitask more than what we are already doing. Regular grocery stores should expand with music, and more mainstream items for kids, teens and more. Record stores should sell more band merchandise, open up a place for shows and etc. Places need to come on a major/ minor system where they are mostly this, but they also have this. Most places have that, but it needs to become more apart of the business plan, rather than just a side thought
From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts
