Reconsider

Maybe I am moving a little off topic, but this post has been building in me over the last week and I just had to let it out. I previously wrote about the publishing industry's resistance to their changing marketplace- traditional newspapers and other publishing entities railing against lost advertising dollars and emerging troublesome internet journalism -but, I perhaps should have noted that they are far from alone in their fight. Traditionalists in the film, television and software industries are all struggling to come to terms with the horrifying openness of their new world.

And then there is music.

The big music labels and the RIAA were among the first to show their unwillingness to adapt when they started dropping lawsuits on twelve year olds in Wisconsin and old grannies for downloading a handful of mp3s. I don't intend to comment on their litigiousness, however. Rather, I am taking issue with their product launch model.

Grizzly Bear are a relatively 'big' band, by most standards: they opened for Radiohead on their last stadium tour and are capable of headlining large shows on their own, they make the standard talk-show television appearances on a regular basis, and each new album is met with a swarm of hype on and offline. They are a very good band with a substantial popular and critical following. Cool, right? They also have a new album due out on May 26th.

Want to hear it? No problem! Just google it. Veckatimest leaked two weeks ago.
... Three months before its drop date.

The current method of release is ridiculous. The band probably finished work on this album early in the year, handed it in to the label and were told to sit on their hands for awhile. The label then sent out a few copies out for review purposes and let one or two mp3s hit the Hype Machine, through bloggers or official downloads. Those lead singles sounded great and the fan got excited. Anticipation was high. The first reviews were glowing. Did the label honestly believe this album would stay under wraps until May?

This leak, like the other hundreds of leaks in the last five years, highlights the inadequacy of the music industry's business model. The Radiohead experiment proved that online downloads will not necessarily cannibalize later in-store sales, so long as the band has strong brand equity and the released product is high quality. So why not stagger the releases? Lead with online, hit the brick and mortar stores at the scheduled date. Even if the label is not comfortable with that idea, now that their consumers are downloading a poorly ripped, unofficial version of the album from torrents, why not provide them with a legitimate alternative? In my opinion, Veckatimest should have been up on iTunes, or the band's website or anywhere(!) as soon as the leak occured.

You can either rail against the internet, or you can learn how to make it work for your business. The music industry cannot expect its old models to work the way they did fifteen years ago.

Just as a bonus, here is Grizzle Bear performing 'Deep Blue Sea' during a show with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Check it: