Since Monday, October 8th 2007 the record industry has lost : Nine
Inch Nails, Oasis,
Jamiroquai, and now the “Queen
of Pop” Madonna.
The Music Revolution is officially started. The recording industry had more
than enough time to get their act together and give bands what they wanted, their
unwillingness to change with the times is what has brought us to where we are.
Much like other revolutions, a people can only be pushed so far before their comfort
with their current circumstances overcomes their natural human aversion to radical
change.
But we should take a moment to recognize what will be recognized as where this started
by history, Radiohead.
Much will be made about Radiohead’s announcement last week that they were ditching
the record labels to go independent, and correlations to the historic battle of Lexington
and Concord are inevitable (at least in the U.S.). The comparison is fair, as
long as you realize that even in the American Revolution many patriots fought the
British well before Lexington and Concord. Likewise, many brave bands of lesser
name have broken away, or just never started, with the recording industry. The
key of the phrase “The shot heard ’round the world” is not shot, it’s heard.
The dominos are falling, and I predict you can expect the next steps to be more bands
(obviously) followed by top Recording Industry executives beginning to parachute out
to promotion firms like Live Media (who Madonna is using) and others.
Tim Rayburn is a consultant for Sogeti in the Dallas/Fort
Worth market.