Why Do Musicians Still Need Record Companies?

"Why Do Musicians Still Need Record Companies?"

Another factor is the recordings themselves. Very few musicians have the ability to record an album as well as a record company can.

"09-30-14: Martykl
Truth is, they don't. Which is why record companies are bleeding to death. But...."

The record companies are bleeding to death because they did a really bad job with audio. Instead of marketing based on the quality of the product, they chose to sell on features. An mp-3 player can hold a million songs, the ipod is tiny, you can easily transfer music from one device to another. Those types of things. While those are great features to sell the product, is was a big mistake to not include sq in all this.

If you look at video, its the complete opposite. Why is DVD better than VHS? Picture quality. Why is Blue Ray better than DVD? Picture quality. With video, value in the product is created. With audio, they devalued the product.

"10-01-14: Martykl
Zd,

I think most data suggests that SQ is the least of the contributors to the problems killing record companies. Consumers overall don't give a sh*t. They want cheap, fast, convenient. Low quality downloads and streams are the fastest growing segments of the business."

I agree. That was my point. Music playback is sold on features, not sound quality. With audio, consumers don't grasp digital quality as they do with other digital products. If you ask the average person about the sound quality of digital music, the typical reaction is "it's digital, so its the best. it's digital, so there's no loss, so it's the best quality.", or other phrases similar to that. Ask the same person why you would want a Playstation 4 when you can get the 3 for less money, they're both digital, and you'll get a completely different answer. Same thing with video and computer products. The average person doesn't understand digital audio quality the same way they do other digital products. For the most part, I think that's the industries fault.

"10-02-14: Martykl
Zd,

If I understand you correctly,you're suggesting that the music industry hasn't made sufficient effort to market sound quality"

Yes.

"and, if they had (successfully) educated consumers on the subject, they wouldn't be "bleeding to death" (my original phrase)."

Probably. We can't predict what didn't happen with 100% accuracy, but I think marketing for quality over features would have made a difference.

"You're point is taken, but - in the big picture - it's hard to see how a better effort would have materially changed the fate of the major labels. Every bit of market research I've seen (and I banked the industry for decades) says that high performance (or hi-rez) formats - at best - offer only a short term sales bump."

Its certainly possible, but we really can't know for sure because they never tried it. The right marketing can pull off some pretty impressive results. Look at every other area of consumer electronics for entertainment. Computers, video games, movies/theater, phones, etc... In every other area, there's a combined effort to market features and quality. Consumers are so much more educated with just about every other type of digital product but audio (and the people who sell it.). If the quality approach worked for every other market segment, why not audio?

I just want to clarity my post. I'm not saying my ideas are the only ones to consider. There are plenty of other factors that will effect the audio market than the quality issue I bring up. I'm just saying to consider it, along with other factors that were brought up in various other posts.