Sony BMG has joined the We7 band wagon, pushing the advertising driven music venture into the mainstream media spotlight. Presumably the founders thought that the name We7 would make people think of community and openness. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In yet another desperate attempt to wrench every last drop of revenue away from the artist and into the hands of the faceless and talentless executives, Sony BMG have infected their back catalogue with advertising. It is now possible to listen to any Sony BMG track for free as long you are happy to have your ears bludgeoned by a clumsy 10 second advertisement before the track begins.
You can still download the track without the advertisement but, of course, you have to pay for that.
Whichever method the listener chooses the money still continues to flow into the sweaty palms of Sony BMG and not the artist.
The pricing structure deliberately encourages the ad supported download route. If you download a full album of ad free music you will pay more than if you had simply ordered the physical CD, along with all the benefits of higher sound quality and usability, from a discount online retailer.
Many naieve commentators such as the music industry lap dogs at BBC Radio 1 have applauded the move, saying that it will be a blow for piracy and will allow people to download free music in a legal and legitimate way.
What these commentators, and the record label executives, continually fail to accept is the basic rule of music piracy. Anyone who wants to pirate music will pirate music and anyone who wants to pay will pay.
Music piracy is on the increase for the simple reason that people do not like paying record companies for music knowing full well that little or no money ends up in the artists pocket. When artists engage directly with the public the real music lover is happy to pay the artist for their work. Recorded, live, written, it doesn’t matter. It is the nature of the direct connection that counts.
Non music lovers, and those people devoid of any musical taste, will no doubt be happy to play into the hands of the dinosaurs and fill their mp3 receptacles with adverts, idiotically claiming to be doing their bit for the great fight against illegal downloading. However, even the most ignorant We7 user will soon get frustrated with the imposed download limits, not to mention the fact that their device now has room for less music thanks to all the adverts.
As always, the artist is left out in the cold. Will the artist have any control over the advertising? No. Any artist that is unfortunate enough to be owned by the Sony BMG circus can now have their music, and any creativity, totally undermined by a babbling marketer, peddling anything and everything.
We7 tries to make independent artists submit their material so that they too can have their work branded and defaced by the ad men. Of course, behind the scenes there is a strict vetting system in place, keeping out anything that isn’t in line with the corporate ideal. The only artists to get through will be those who We7, and Sony BMG because they are almost certainly in the driving seat now, consider acceptable.
Now that the proverbial has hit the mainstream news fan it will probably take around a week before someone releases some free software that automatically strips the 10 second ad from a We7 download and allows it to be listened to as origianlly intended. We7 already mention this possibility, discounting it by claiming that anyone wanting to do this might as well just grab a free copy via bit torrent.
This won’t put any money in the artists pocket directly but at least the potential fan can enjoy the listening experience and then make a decision to seek out the artist directly if they wish.
The sooner the better. Ask yourself the question. You listen to two versions of the same recording. One has a marketer selling to you for 10 seconds and the other one doesn’t. Which one is more likely to turn you into a fan?
Real independent artists, those who make direct connections with their audience have nothing to fear from this nonsense. The solution for them is simple. Submit a preview album to We7 and only make your full albums available for sale direct from your own website. That way you get your music heard by the We7 crowd, as long as it passes the corporate inspection, and still retain
Real music fans, the ones who are happy to reward real artists, will always find their way to the original, unedited and unencumbered, source.
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‘It is the nature of the direct connection that counts.’
I concur.
I think the above statement is the salient point of your argument, Ash. And I believe all those real music lovers and fans fans out there that you mention will agree with you wholeheartedly in general - and with the above point in particular.
i absolutely avoid any form of advertising. i quit watching videos on C-Net when they stuck those clips before their reviews. I have every plugin, add-on and script blocker that keeps my browser ad free. I even strip extras from my DVDs. It’s a bit insulting and it doesn’t work.
I do, however, purchase music that I like. My recommendation to the music industry: give us some choice.. we’ll do the right thing.