Berklee today

JAN 2013

Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.

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Nissan Wasfie, a professor at Columbia College in Chicago who specializes in the music business, echoes Tompkins sentiments on the pros of digital-only release. "The major benefit is the lower costs associated with both production and distribution," Wasfie says. But Wasfie adds that though digital music has emerged at the forefront for consumers, there is still a benefit when it comes to old-fashioned tangible releases. "While the costs associated with digital distribution are lower and, therefore an advantage to the new artist, there can be benefits for tangible music—for example, the vinyl 'revival' and its associated cache of cool." The Digital Makeover There's no question that the shift toward digital release has had a dramatic impact on the music world. But it's not just artists and composers who are feeling the financial difference. The entire economic topography of the music industry has undergone a transformation. According to DiCola, the shift to digital downloads has affected the economics of music in two ways. "One is unbundling: the ability to download individual songs," he says. "That hurts profits in some ways, because consumers might just buy one song instead of a whole album. A second is the very recent emergence of on-demand streaming services, which offer a great product to consumers but very small royalty streams to artists." DiCola added online retailers and record labels are the biggest beneficiaries of digital downloads. He says that artists who are on major labels are actually receiving rather small shares and that those on indie labels get shafted as retailers take larger cuts. "The intermediaries usually benefit more than the creators," DiCola says. When it comes to life in the digital age for musicians, Byun notes that artists are now changing the way that they release their music, which ultimately affects their personal revenue streams. After all, though digital downloading makes it easier for consumers to get music whenever they want, artists now have to worry about more than someone copying their music onto cassettes. "With file sharing, it's virtually impossible to enforce intellectual property rights over recorded music," Byun says. "As a consequence, the way musicians make a living has changed. Some artists even offer free copies of their albums at concerts. Radiohead made headlines when it announced it would give away the In Rainbows album on its website and invited fans to pay whatever they felt was a fair price for it— even nothing if they chose. Radiohead recognized that it was impossible to prevent music piracy, and they have switched to other means to make money from creative work. Now, the real money is made from live performances, T-shirt sales, specialty box sets, ringtones, and the use of music in video games and movies." Ultimately, according to Byun, though musicians and composers alike are now dealing with more nuances when it comes to generating revenue, the core of the professional music world has remained the same amid all the changes. "The economics of the music industry have simultaneously changed and remained the same," Byun says. "It's the same problem artists have trying to make a living with their creative work and trying not to let the business side of things hinder their creative process. It's the same issue for record companies and middlemen using their business skills and networks to find and promote marketable artists. The endgame is the same, but the means by which we get there is different." Andrew Clark is a fourth-year law student living in the Boston area. Spring2013 21

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