Scott Andrew - lo-fi acoustic pop superhero!

This was a very illuminating panel. I really expected to hear a lot of “fear the Web! Keep your songs off the Internet! Napster pirates are out to screw you!” sentiments from the panelists but in reality in turned out to be the exact opposite. The panel included a former RIAA member and a former honcho at MP3.com, one of the directors from the Future of Music Coalition, and several music industry consultants.

Panel in a nutshell: the big music labels are dead. File-sharing went way past the tipping point awhil ago (see Gladwell’s book) and the consumers have spoken: they want digital music to be free and unfettered.

Napster raised the bar way too high with it’s all-you-can-eat-for-free model. Latecomer subscription services like PressPlay, MusicNet and Rhapsody can’t hope to match the quality of service and reach that Napster had. Plus, these subscription services reek of corporate control. They are not in any way meaningful and the public will ignore them.

The music industry is not equipped to listen to the consumer. It’s too busy dealing with the demands of radio, promotion, etc.

Most likely future scenario: a per-month (not per download) charge at the service provider level for unlimited access to digital music. Like Napster, but with an AOL-like pricing model. It used to be that record labels were the gatekeepers of music; soon it will be those who control the broadband pipes.

Fleischer: adoption rates and licensing schemes will not work in the end. We’re fooling ourselves. The consumers have spoken.

Labels usually can’t agree on anything, but they’re in lockstep over file sharing because their prfit margins are eroding and have been for some time. Why?

- The end product is broken (me: he means the music sucks). Last year, none of the Top 10 albums sold over 5 million, which is something like a %25 decline. That’s death to the industry.

- Music is way too expensive to promote. Radio, independent promotion, payola, etc. Music industry has allowed themselves to become trapped.

Bottom line: It’s over. File sharing has won; the only thing to do is to wait and see what new gatekeepers will emerge.