The RIAA cartel is all about product, not about music, as should be well-understood. The very notion of the album and its successor the CD is a form-factor decision, not an artistic one. I heard an artist this week referring to how she had to write more songs to fill up a CD: it starts to sound more like those awful term papers where you had to write 1500 words on something, no matter how many original ideas you had on the topic.
So it’s interesting to see what the RIAA thinks is compelling for shoppers this festive season.
In addition to tips to avoid being duped by counterfeit product, the music industry is offering exciting legal products to satisfy music lovers’ appetites for innovative content this holiday season and steer shoppers away from cheap, illegal products. Just a few examples of popular offerings currently in select stores include: –
- USB card wrist bracelet with the new Matchbox Twenty album “Exile on Mainstream”
- K.T. Tunstall iTunes Digital Album card for “Drastic Fantastic” available at Starbucks
- Taylor Swift’s “Sounds of the Season” Special Holiday Album (custom for Target)
- U2’s “The Joshua Tree” in four configurations, including a 2 CD-set bound booklet deluxe edition and a super deluxe edition in a case bound book and 5 portfolio prints (2 CD/DVD set)
- “Into the Wild” Soundtrack iTunes Digital Album card available at Starbucks
- Linkin Park’s “Minutes to Midnight” Music Video Interactive (MVI) DVD + Bonus CD featuring superior sound quality, a wide range of video features, and interactive digital content
- Special festive cell phone ringtones like Maria Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”
- Norah Jones iTunes Digital Album card for her latest release “Not Too Late” available at Safeway [From RIAA]
Can you say “packaging?” What’s new about any of this? Ranging from music that was released 20 years ago to new stuff, it’s all about packaged goods, not about music. They’re not a music organization but a manufacturing concern. They think like an organization that has an easily duplicated product and no clue how to get beyond that. And I suppose they’re right, since they are not the originators of the music, the stuff people actually want. I feel like I am watching someone pitch me on a new line of shopping carts, as if that’s the reason I go to the grocery store.
The last “record company” will be the best one, by definition, but in the same sense as the last maker of buggy whips and coach lamps was the best in its field.