Musical Paradigm Shift

Prince just gave away copies of his latest CD with every copy of the London newspaper, the Mail, which of course resulted in it being available all over the Internet that same day. He also promises to give away copies at his concerts; 21 concerts in a row in London alone, each different, each priced so anyone can attend. Record stores go ballistic:

Kim Bayley, director general of the Entertainment Retailers' Association, said the move devalued music.

"The losers will be new artists who are trying to come through who won't have any support from recording companies because established artists are chucking out their music for free," she said.

— Prince album set free on internet, BBC, 16 July 2007

Well, let's see.

Meanwhile, over on iTunes:

Last week, iTunes started a section on its site entitled "Next Big Thing" featuring 40 albums by developing artists, including Ms. Bareilles, for $5.99 and $6.99.

Within a week, Ms. Bareilles's album had cracked the top 10 and soon nabbed the No. 1 spot, selling about 14,000 downloads. By comparison, albums from Paul McCartney and the White Stripes sold around 16,000 digital copies during their first week of release earlier this year.

— Bargain iTunes price helps a newcomer reach No. 1, By Jamin Brophy-Warren, July 14, 2007; Page P2

Well, it looks like Sara Bareilles came through without support from record companies.

One observor asks:

What the article fails to point out however is that her single Love Song was also iTunes Single of Week, which undoubtedly gave it a massive amount of exposure that pushed it over the top. It is hard to imagine she would be topping the iTunes Top Ten Albums unless that had happened.

So how does one become a FREE single of the week? Good question. There are only 52 weeks in a year so there are definitely a finite number of slots for new artists.

Regardless, it appears more and more iTunes is showing it's clout as a medium that makes and breaks bands.

Does that scare you?

— Another 25 Year old independant female songwriter makes iTunes Top Ten, by don, Blogging Muses, 16 July 2007

Well, no, it doesn't scare me, but it should scare the record companies. Maybe even more than Prince....

While record companies have been suing customers, Steve Jobs and Prince have seen market demand and found ways to meet it. Let's see who else can do this.

Hm, what does this remind me of, from years ago; who used to make most of their money from concerts and give away recordings? Maybe more people can figure out how to do what the Grateful Dead did decades ago: make art and money without depending on record companies or record stores as doorkeepers.

-jsq