The new year brings more bad news for traditional record labels as another music heavyweight jumps ship for the future of music distribution.There's a "confirmed" rumor up on the Boy Genius Report blog that mega superstar rapper Jay-Z is going to team up with Apple to launch a new record label. Set to step down from step down from his post as president of Def Jam Recordings, one of the world’s best-known record labels, after the expiration of his current contract, the move could create a new powerhouse of music innovation and artistic expression. Though Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, still owes Def Jam several more albums himself, the new record label could harness his talent at spotting and nurturing an artist's potential. More importantly, it could mean an influx of more music singles, presumably on Apple's iTunes, that could be available for people to download within hours of their production instead of the usual 6 months or so it takes so that record labels are able to "figure out how to market them." Either way, following news that music sales were down 21% for Christmas 2007, 2008 is shaping up to be a terrible year for the traditional music industry. I'm not a big Jay-Z fan, but this move proves once again that at least he knows music and what its future lies. With a majority of music fans buying digital MP3s from iTunes to play on their shniy iPod it's a no-brainer that teaming up with the hub of all this action is the way to go. Way to go Jay-Z! Looking for more stuff to watch or download?STUDY: Mac Users More Likely to Pay for Music than PC UsersCanadian Music Creators Also Support Legalized P2PSaul Williams Follows Radiohead's Lead, Lets Fans Decide What to PayRIAA Argues that Ripping MP3 from CDs Is IllegalSir Paul McCartney: 'I Also Downloaded Radiohead's 'In Rainbows''Songbird, the Firefox-like Media PlayerRadio Blog lets you play music for free and put tracks on MySpaceStream thousands of Rock N' Roll concert classics for free on "Wolfgang's Vault"TVLinks Alternatives for Free TV Shows & Movies3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREENews Tip? Comment? Suggestion? jared@zeropaid.com |
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But good on him for getting on the bandwagon, he'll have much more success this way.