How File-Sharing Informs the IndustryThe classic case for how BigChampagne (bigchamgagne.com) supports a client –who can range from struggling new artists to the entire roster of a major – is byanalyzing whether listeners have found a hit before radio. Let's say that in a givenmarket, a single hasn't broken onto radio, but BigChampagne discovers that listenersin that city are swapping it in huge volume; the label can take that information toradio programmers and urge them to spin the song to death, turning it into anofficial hit.“The majors will embrace any formula that sells records until it stopsworking. As a result, the corporate machine cannot deliver an adequatediversity of sounds, only a homogenized, prepackaged product.”– Michael Roberts, in Rhythm & Business (2005, Akashic Books)How fast will the sun set on the compact disc?Quarter-size CDs that can float among compatible music players, computers, game
devices, digital cameras and personal digital assistants are already developed.
But a massive installed base of CD players means that the traditional recording
industry markets are not going to disappear or even be impacted by digital
distribution any time soon.
in Indie Marketing Power: THE Resource Guide for Maximizing Your Music Marketing by Peter Spellman