Andra intäktsmodeller för skivbolagen

Postat: 2006-12-12 kl. 01.11

Igår skrev New York Times om nya intäktsmodeller för skivbolagen, nu när deras primära inkomstkälla de senaste tjugo åren — cd-skivan — slutat vara en kassako:

“Konvicted” sold more than 283,000 copies in its first week — enough to start at No. 2 on the Billboard chart. On top of that were the album’s two singles, which at digital music services like iTunes together sold more than 244,000 copies that week. And a week later, snippets of the same songs captured two of the top three spots on a new chart tracking sales of ring tones, selling 269,000 of them combined.

As a recording that has sold modestly, but in an array of forms, Akon’s music illustrates the new definition of a hit in pop music — instead of racking up sales of half a million CD’s or more in the first week, it arrives with solid if less impressive sales, but with several revenue streams.

It is an example of the business model that the retrenching music industry is embracing as sales of the CD, its mainstay product for two decades, slowly decay.

[...]

According to the data, sales of the CD accounted for roughly 74 percent of domestic revenue the company took in from the project, or roughly $17 million. But sales of an array of digital products added almost $6 million — about two-thirds of that came from ring tones of hit singles. The figure also included roughly $330,000 from mobile phone games related to the performer and $94,000 in sales of cellphone “wallpaper,” or screen backgrounds.

New York Times Squeezing Money From the Music (2006-12-11)

Istället för att bara fokusera på en intäktsström försöker man hitta flera och dessutom ser man de otappade resurserna, för skivbolagen, att dra in andra pengar på sina adepter och då rör sig skivbolagen från att vara skivbolag till att bli något som mer liknar musikbolag med kringvaror.

Lately, the major labels have in effect tried to move into the talent management business by demanding that new artists seeking record contracts give their label a cut of concert earnings or T-shirt and merchandise revenue — areas that had once been outside the labels’ bailiwick.

Ibid

Problemet blir väl bara vilken musik skivbolagen därmed kommer satsa på. Det är svårare för en electronica-artist att turnera land och rike runt på stora inkomstbringande turnéer och sälja t-shirts än för The Rolling Stones.