Got Filter?

Keeping up with the music biz as well as music itself is important to me, and if you've not reading the Lefsetz Letter, you're missing some good stuff. Just have to pass this on from a recent entry of his, "What If We Had Elections In The Music Business?"

This war against consumers is unwinnable.  And it’s ruining the business’ economics.  The only people who won’t admit this are those with the power, trying so desperately to hold on to it.

But holding on to the old ways, aligning with despised power, got the Republicans neutralized in Congress, going from the majority to the minority.  And caused them to lose the Presidency.

John McCain tried to throw the long ball.  He signed Sarah Palin.  Just like the labels made a deal with MySpace.  But just like Sarah was the wrong female, MySpace is the wrong social networking site.  And Sarah may be a female, but she was not the woman the female electorate was clamoring for.  Women wanted Hillary...

  To the degree MySpace is shiny, it’s definitely not what the public wants.

Nor is the music being purveyed.  All those simpleton Top Forty hits?  If not being tuned out in droves, all that’s selling is the track. Labels lamenting single track sales on iTunes is like the Republicans decrying early voting.  The tide has turned.  Change has come.

It's going to be fascinating to see what happens to music now. There is so much great music being made today, more than at any time in my life, and there's also metric tonnes of total crap out there as well (clogging the tubes). Just when things change, they often stay the same.

It used to be that the record labels had a function, and that was introducing the public to that next great song or artist. "Look here! This one has made it through our system - nicely packaged, wrapped up in a pretty bow for you! You need not scour the country and listen to all the others, because we've done it for you."

Now we have search engines, and our personal filters (whether they're friends, podcasts, satellite radio, or any of the other ways we find music in our lives), instead of record companies, have become more powerful. We're making the decisions; we're in charge, we're in the driver's seat. Hang on!