[NewMusic] Death of the record industry (cont'd.)

[Linda Seltzer]

I worked at a large telephone company's research lab in the late 1990's,
when it was contemplating a service to offer music over the Internet. 
None of the people running it had any knowledge of music and they had no
regard for it.  Music was referred to as "content," something would get
from "content providers."  Any thought about what that "content" should be
was completely lacking.  I had brought up the suggestion that people would
want to trasmit their own music and no one there even began to know how to
deal with that.  The main personal objective of some of the executives was
to wangle an invitation to the Grammys.  A lot of money was donated to the
Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame; I assume that the executives wanted to get in
with stars they thought were cool.  The professional classical music scene
in in NY - that's a different story: nepotism, family money, etc.  No
entree for outsiders from mere academies such as Princeton or Berkeley
that let in people who aren't from an influential family.

> I think what Rick Rubin does in the industry is a pretty important and
> mostly missing element. I wouldn't necessarily make the same choices
> that he makes, but I do appreciate his position on a few things. (For
> example, writing songs 'for the ages' rather than to finish an album.)
>
> I think one of the main reasons that record labels are in danger now
> is because nobody is currently making decisions based on the music.
> I'm still surprised by how little popular music has changed since the
> 90's. That's touched upon in the article: "There was a time when if
> you had something that wasn't so good, through muscle and lack of
> other choices, you could push that not very good product through those
> channels. ... Well, the world has changed. And the industry has not"
>
> I kind of see Rick Rubin as a throwback to early record label heads
> who were originally music geeks.
>
> Matt
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