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Fox 411 gossip Roger Friedman has a crackpot idea for stopping the tide of record-store closings, and he can at least blame some of the genesis for it on the guy who helped shepherd Michael Jackson’s career back in the day: “Frank DiLeo, Michael Jackson’s former manager, recently suggested that the labels get together and open a ’state’ store, one in each big city, to carry their catalogs and new releases. It’s not a bad idea. Otherwise, the record industry will soon have no public face at all.” Well, first of all, the record industry does have a public face–although it resembles that of a snarling, wild-eyed lawyer–and second of all, I don’t know if a “state-run” store where only product from and distributed by the major labels would really help that perception so much, given that said idea is pretty much in line with the “bumbling cartel” front they’re currently presenting to the world. (Although I have to admit that watching it get launched would probably be great fodder for future blog posts.) [Fox 411 via Coolfer]
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The problem isn’t people finding the product. The problem is people finding product they actually want to pay money for.
OMG, so basically he’s proposing a Pennsylvania-liquor solution?
Speaking as someone who married a Pennsylvanian and, while visiting her hometown, has had to purchase booze from a “state store” (the only game in town), allow me to laugh right out loud at the vision of buying CDs at a store with bad fluorescent lighting and bulletproof glass.
A variation on DiLeo’s idea is reputedly taking shape online: there’s a rumor about the majors bypassing the iTunes and the eMusics and offering their content to consumers exclusively.
‘You want Beck, The Noisettes, Soundgarden? Come to Universal.com, the only place you can find it.‘
‘Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Judas Priest? Sony.com. Nowhere else.’
You get the idea…if they managed to get the technological end straightened out–yeah, I know: a big ‘if’–they could do it, as well as offer digitized versions of their out-of-print albums. If price and compatibility are not an issue, the consumer does not care where they get their music from.
Of course, if they were smart enough to pull this off, they would’ve done it already.
So music is only bought in big cities?
Each day, it seems, the industry reveals components of its business model they seem no longer to understand. This one surprises me.
Here’s a lesson for all industries, as demonstrated by the majors and the broadcasters: when the guys from the sales department take control, you’re in big trouble, and it may be too late to fix.
@KikoJones: If I’m Beck, Noisettes or Soundgarden’s management, I ain’t havin’ THAT buuuulshit