If there was any doubt that the Music Recording Industry doesn’t understand the industry, technology, and their own customers it was shattered in the Forbes article about DRM, which conveyed the sentiments of the Recording Industry.

The reasons for the Music Recording Industry actions are complicated and have little to do with what is publicly stated.

It is important that people understand the facts. There is no doom courtesy of piracy. There is no destruction around the corner. BIG MUSIC (TM) has become lazy and use these, and any other excuses, to avoid actually having to work. Kuro5hin – D Jade

Since they seem unable to reinvent themselves one can understand the “Music Recording Industry” reasons for digging in. They are fighting for their very existence, as it is, in a industry where they’ve become the middle man that brings little value to the process while adding overhead. In many cases they have become the parasites of both the music artist and the music consumers.

The major distinction that BIG MUSIC (TM) doesn’t want you to make is that the recording industry is not the music industry. It is a minor facet of the music industry, which provides the end user with a copy of a musical recording. It is also the facet of the industry that has consistently not made money for the recording artists. Only one in thirty thousand releases will ever see artists recoup their royalty costs; 1 in 30K! The real money is in live performance, licensing and publishing; which never feel any major affects of piracy. Why? Because they do not provide any avenues for piracy. How do you pirate a club night, a live show, a mass-media advertisement or a film soundtrack? Kuro5hin – D Jade

The Music Recording Industry clearly has it’s head stuck in the sand and has been stuck that way for so long that they are out of touch with the markets and the current customer/technology demands.

Kent Newsome states that the actions of the Music Recording Industry isn’t based upon confusion, only greed and shortsightedness.

It’s about trying like mad to protect a monopoly built on a dying business model.

The Music Recording Industry desperately needs to reinvent itself. DRM was never about protecting or promoting the artist or the music, it was about protecting the “Music Recording Industry” and their shrinking relevance. New priorities for the industry need to be focused on providing valuable service to both those that make the music and those that consume it. It must promote the health of the music industry itself as a basis for any new long-term business model.

It’s past time for them to wake-up and hear the music.

Turn the clock to zero, boss
The river’s wide, we’ll swim across
Started up a brand new day!

Technorati Tags: drm, Music, music+recording+industry, forbes

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