Ping - It's the end of the Music Industry, and I feel fine...
Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8:07PM It took me a little time for the implications of Apple's new "Ping" Service to sink in. I set up an account (it's my job to test these things) and really found it frustrating at first… I couldn't figure out how to post independent of songs, I didn't understand why some posts were visible and others weren't… But soon, I was addicted. I am a former Music Director and the opportunity to share music that I'm fairly certain many people don't know, but should, got me excited.
More importantly, I started to watch the following of bands like U2 and Lady Gaga grow exponentially. They are tracking for a million followers in less than a month. And I realized, this could be Apple showing the Music Industry what a fully operational battle station looks like.
Why?
For a long time, Apple has had the ability to build a completely vertical market. They sell end tracks but they also sell the creation tools (Logic, etc). I found it odd that they didn't tie them together. I assumed picking this fight, for Apple, was high-risk. Why stir up a storm if you don't know if it will work?
Ping is different. Apple is simply adding a social component to iTunes. In the short term, this is very good for the "Industry"… they will sell more songs, possibly a lot more songs. But, as we look a little further down the path, their future begins to cloud.
Let's say U2 builds up 10,000,000 followers… They email their online fans, talk it up at concerts, do promos with Apple. These are folks that are fairly likely to buy U2 tunes. Let's now say that U2 releases a new acoustic version of "Sweetest Thing", only on iTunes… and posts it to their followers… How many will buy it? Probably at least 10% of their followers. Let's say they do this once a month… They will probably do better than releasing a CD… especially with a record company… and that's the point. With 10,000,000 followers… inside of the largest music store in the world… U2, really, doesn't need a label… nor does Sting, Peter Gabriel, Madonna…
Those are obvious… but this is also great news for Nine Inch Nails, XTC, the Decemberists, Arcade Fire, Zee Avi, and many many other artists that don't have a "household name" but do have a huge and growing following. They are not just building a fan mailing list on a website, they are building it inside the music store.
And if you are band just starting… building a following on iTunes will probably give you better chance of success than a contract with a record label. Build your following organically... and they can buy as you produce.
If is good for big bands, good for medium bands and good for small bands… who is it bad for? The labels, of course. Staying relevant was already hard… now it's about to become downright unforgiving.
So what do you think? Post here...
Reader Comments (13)
I think the biggest problem right now is that there seems to be no way for artists to get a page. There are a couple dozen major-label artists in the system, but I've seen artists on twitter saying "How do I get an artist page?"
AMEN. With one caveat...
There are no indie artists in Ping yet. Once that changes, it might be a good thing for music entrepreneurs like me.
Aside from that, I don't think labels are going to go AWAY. They are simply going to change to a smaller, more effective model: Marketing agents. Even independent artists need a booking agent to manage live shows, a record label- now stripped of its role as distribution, duplication, and recording budget roles, really only serves one purpose: Marketing.
And bands need marketing help from people that know how to do it. Once record labels shrink down to the size they should be, they will be exactly what an artist needs: a marketing agency, just like one any company would hire, but an agency that specializes in growing an audience for a musician. That's something that I can get behind!
Pax,
Matthew
While I think it's a good thing for bands, I think it's a very modest start and don't view this as the end of anything. Simple reason is bands are flocking to twitter and to facebook for publicity. Twitter you don't even need an account to view any of a bands updates. Ping...you not only have to have an account but it doesn't export out to Facebook or Twitter. It's locked into Itunes which is to constrictive. Being able to choose just three types of your favorite music...cmon is this day and age...people listen to more than three types. Choose ten bands. Even that's too limiting.
Good thoughts however the fact that ping is a pain to use and as you said it's difficult to even post anything to it, means that it might lose followers before bands could ever reach those sorts of followers
Agreed. Now, we need Apple to add a few more tools to the toolbox ...
(1) A Ping API which allows folks to manipulate the data for mashups and RSS feeds to their websites. THink Twitter & Facebook.
(2) Better tools for packaging and distributing virtual albums/DVDs for release inside of iTunes. This should be part of GarageBand/Logic and iMovie/FCS.
(3) More transparency/support for the iTunes affiliate program that allows folks to monetize their position as "tastemakers" by giving them a cut of the sales they drive to iTunes via their referrals and iMixes.
Once these itms come online, we'll see the true power of
the Dark SideApple's Ping.OH YES... one more thing...
Ping will be an indispensable tool for independent artists like myself IF we can see what fans of ours are buying. If I knew what other bands my fans were into, I'd know where else to market my music. A lot of my fans like Ben Folds? Hmm, then I know to list that among the "sounds like" section of any band site I sign up for.
Pax,
Matthew
Great comments! Yes, I think marketing agents will be much more important, Apple needs to open up...
AND - letting tastemakers make 2-3 cents a purchase would turn the fire into a ranging inferno.
a
World population 6,867,000,000
itunes population 220,000,000 (not known if they actually purchase from itunes)
Am I missing something?
The record labels have one thing on their side that budding artists can't touch: better lawyers who will figure out more ways to lock up ALL content produced by the artist.
I am also a former Music Director (Metal, Rhode Island College) and the idea of being able to direct people to the fringe stuff - being able to crack the lid on a band that everyone SHOULD know about is very very powerful.
Ping needs the affiliate program in order to move mountains. The ability to market directly for superstar musicians that have already been established WITHIN the old paradigm isn't going to be an indication of how things will go for a smaller artist, an unknown... But - an affiliate program COULD change that. But would we see marketing agencies calling up "tastemakers" and shilling for an "add" on Ping, the same way that they do at radio now?
One thing is certain, Apple has the ability to shape, and shape BIG, an industry. It'll be interesting to see what they choose to do.
Alex, this is great, so much of what you say is just never going to occur to most people (and I think a lot of those people probably work at record labels). You should do a podcast about the music industry. There just aren't enough good ones out there that I've been able to find, anyway.
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