And so far this music fan is impressed.
Yesterday's launch of
RCRD LBL, took off with some well placed press in the
Wall Street Journal outlining the business model - sponsor/ad supported free downloadable music from new and emerging bands who get paid for their music. It's a joint venture between
Downtown Records and journalist/blogger/entrepeneur/tech guru
Peter Rojas.
In a year when the bigbig story is which business model (or models) will pull the slumping industry out of its dark hole, the conversation is super-charged. Rick Rubin talked about a subscription-based model in the New York Times magazine recently. Lyor Cohen has publicly touted labels as brand companies, not record labels. Madonna is now sleeping with Live Nation, now a record label, also. Radiohead's In Rainbow direct-to-fan experiment was a bold move & still open to analysis. And while there's no clear model emerging, the real winners at this point are at least the companies that are doing
something to monetize their content and potentially offering more equitable opportunities for musicians. Unfortunately the major labels are so weighted down in organizational culture and infrastructure and archaic business modelling so steeped in old school mentality, its unlikely we'll see anything emerge from them for a while.
So, I was excited for the launch of RCRD LBL and have to say that they're already doing some key things right. For one, they're giving away free music, sans DRM. Duh, right? They are listening to the conversation of the market. Second, it's cool and hip and they don't need to tell you that. They've got that Gnarls Barkley/Cold War Kids and soon-to-be Mos Def hipness leverage working for them, and a co-founder with proven success. And with an assortment of credible indie labels as content partners, they're branding themselves in to cultural niche that has potential revenue opp written all over it - even in its own long tail kind of way. And Downtown, very smartly, has found a somewhat innovative way to keep paying its employees.
So while we've been able to download some cool exclusive stuff so far more questions than answers remain. Questions like: Will musicians be drawn to their new A&R model? (I'll bet right now RCRD LBL's inboxes are filled with hundreds if not thousands of e-mails and MP3's from bands). Is there an ad rev-share for artists? What criteria will new bands have to satisfy to get further streamed in to the Downtown system for a more traditional release? Who will the be the first mainstream band to be broken by RCRD LBL? Will RCRD LBL's hip musical niche be mainstream enough ultimately to keep their stockholders happy? And while I am sure more partnerships are inevitable to reach the normal music fan (not the music hipster snobs like me), how long will it be before we see that iTunes/RCRD LBL collaboration? Or how long before they either launch their own killer social media app or partner with an entity where the shit will just veer out of control?
Bottom line for the music biz however, IMO, is that RCRD LBL has only massive upside. Sure, the sight moves too slow and sometimes there's way too many clicks to download a song, but that'll be worked out. In the meantime, if you haven't yet visited, check it out.
Music MP3 music
