When emotion drove stock-market prices to absurd new highs during the ’90s tech boom, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan famously said the financial markets were going through a period of “irrational exuberance.” The flip side of this is periods of groundless pessimism. Right now, the music industry is at the tail end of one of those periods.
The media haven’t helped. Since 1999, there has been an unyielding stream of stories talking about the music industry’s ill health — “Burn, Baby, Burn” (Time, May 20, 2002); “Fight Back or Death Rattle?” (The Economist, March 31, 2004); “iTunes and Lawsuits: The Labels Still Don’t Get It” (Newsweek, May 3, 2004). These stories have given many people the impression that the industry is in a death spiral.
Yet the business has been restructuring itself in insanely positive ways. Here are a few myths about today’s record business:
MYTH NO. 1: The prevalence of file-trading services and free music on the Internet indicates that recorded music may no longer be an economically viable business.
Related Posts
- Canadian File-Sharing Myths Debunked
- Thomas Edison, Intellectual Property and the Recording Industry
- Business 2.0 tells recording industry: Embrace MP3
- Recording industry, students discuss copying and sharing music
- Canadian recording industry begins fight to stop music uploads
Loading ...
