To DRM or not to DRM… is this really the right question? The problem with drm in the music space is a terrible music experience and lack of interoperability. DRM itself that is the problem, but the lack of transferability between the DRMs of the various players like iPod/iTunes, Zune, Napster, Rhapsody, and SanDisk, among others.

The bottom line is that people want music and they want it in a format that’s convenient for their lifestyle. If the typical music consumer wants the same download they’ve paid for on their iPod for one reason, or on Zune, their mobile, their mini disc player or their MP3 player for yet other reasons, why should they be punished?

Consumers aren’t meek like they were in the days of yesteryear… ask any Advertising exec and they’ll tell you. Once upon a time a consumer did as he or she was told. Those were the days when companies and corporations were infallible and unassailable. Those days are gone and they have been for quite some time. The more manufacturers and producers of goods attempt to force consumers to toe the line, the more modern consumers will rebel. And these days, consumer rebellion is openly hostile. The column inches dedicated to stories involving music downloads and file sharing show that the music industry is on the front line of this rebellion.

While I don’t have a magic wand to magically fix the sorry situation labels are now faced with… I hope I can lay claim to that most British of virtues: Common sense.

An informed and open discussion with music consumers is long, long overdue. No clever marketing surveys are needed, no expensive media campaigns to win hearts and minds and no heavy handed threats and legal actions required. It’s time for the music industry to, well, face the music and dance. It would naturally be impossible to ask every man, woman and child who buys music what they think. An effort could be made to initiate dialogue with enough music lovers around the globe to find out what, exactly, they want. What music formats do they want, how do they prefer to listen to the music they purchase, do they think the current pricing structures are equitable and fair?

This can be accomplished relatively simply with an open, moderated online forum. Labels (major and independents), music publishers, industry organizations, collection agencies, retailers, manufacturers and distributors could post their case. Consumers would post theirs. Polls, online forms and similar vehicles would be the conduit to ascertaining the answers to questions which need to be asked. Specific forum categories would be easy to create to address main areas of discussion.

While it seems a straight forward way to proceed, it does require two essential ingredients: compromise from both sides and understanding. The music industry will certainly hear some uncomfortable home truths. Not all consumer demands can be met. If both parties could accept those starting terms, then let the dialogue begin.

At the end of the day, this label is in the business of getting its music to the people who want to buy it in the format they desire; without difficult hurdles to jump over or fiery circus hoops to jump through.

Written by Aardvark Records

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: http://www.music-career-guide.com

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Maybe many of you have already thought about this type of a technological solution to the dilemma of smaller and indie artists never showing up in ASCAP’s or BMI’s periodic samples for music performance royalties – but wouldn’t it be ironic if the growing anti-piracy trend to dynamically filter uploads to YouTube and MySpace (and the recent proliferation of audio watermarking efforts from companies like Activated Content which are quickly becoming the new and improved DRM) became instead – the new standard to accurately and fairly track public performances? Forget bar codes, ISRC codes and acoustic fingerprinting for a minute…

The global music industry could feasibly migrate from piracy to promotion to payments…

Think about it… if suing customers is not the real savior of the floundering music industry that the RIAA hoped it would be… then perhaps a technology that’s mostly associated with crackdowns on music and movie pirates could instead be used to help longtail artists actually get paid when their music is played… Sounds crazy, right…? Well, maybe not…

DISCLAIMER: I acknowledge that it would be incredibly cost prohibitive and resource intensive to re-encode the world’s library of previously recorded music with watermarks and add additional meta data to all the content closely guarded in the label’s vaults, so for simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that I could wave a magic wand through legislation [or magic] and declare that all new music released from Jan. 1, 2008, — in the U.S. to start — would have a unique and inaudible identifier embedded into the actual audio file. It would then be up to the owner of each individual file produced and subsequently released into the market to put their tracking information into the file and register with an overseeing entity if they want to get paid for actual usage. Tiered royalty rates could then be paid out for different use cases like streaming, legal and p2p downloading and even analog transmissions, etc… All this with a 1-to-1 ratio with NO SAMPLING.

Hobbyists and professional musicians that use software like Digidesign, Apple, Logic, Cakewalk etc. could all easily access this type of technology as a plug-in and then the traditional studios and mastering houses could also make this a standard part of their “service.” Within a year or two, all new music released in the U.S. would easily be identifiable when it was used on the radio, television, cellular networks and the internet – and then ALL artists (big and small) could get paid proportionately. WOW, what a concept!!!!!

Then Congress and major organizations like NARAS, AES, CEA and all the PRO’s would quickly endorse it, because it’s the law and it’s so easy and it makes sense… and… it’s completely fair… OK, that’s my pontification for the day. Anybody want to help me build such a system?

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: http://www.music-career-guide.com

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