Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Digital Music Forum East: The State Of Your Digital Union

The music industry is basically treading water against a mighty current and progressively being swept away.
By Eric de Fontenay, MusicDish e-Journal

I recently had the opportunity to attend a portion of the Digital Music Forum East event last week, which was sort of a brainstorming pow-wow for music industry honchos who debated the best way to orchestrate a return to the industry's heyday (or at the very least stop the hemorrhaging they are currently experiencing).

In addition to the usual luminaries and speakers I'm sure you've all heard from at some conference podium, there were several notable German delegates at the conference, including SoundCloud Founder Alexander Ljung, Musicload's Joachim Franz, and Songbeat Founder Marco Rydmann who has been entangled in a lawsuit with Warner Music. Look for more information these gentlemen in upcoming issues...

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same)

Much of the talk today is the 'perceived' growing dominance of the internet in developing artists and selling music, whether it be the indie download-only album or a belated embrace by major labels. So the acknowledgment of the continuing and very 'real world' dominance by traditional media was perhaps one of the most surprising fact shared during the conference.

NDP Group's Russ Crupnick provided some statistics that would probably raise a few eyebrows, such as:
* 66% of music purchasers only buy CDs
* There are 20 million fewer CD buyers today than in 2006; and the majority of them have not shifted to digital alternatives such as downloads or subscriptions
* Broadcast radio is still the leading music discovery source, second only to TV

For the complete article, visit MusicDish e-Journal

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