50 Cent is an Industry Expert; Digital Pirate Sympathizer
Ok, so this might be old news to some but I think it is still worth mentioning.
Earlier this month, rapper 50 Cent did an interview with TorrentFreak where he acknowledged the current role of technology and file-sharing in the music industry and expressed an unexpected view point.
“What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn’t hurt the artists.”
Wow. This is coming from a man that has his own music label (via Interscope) and does historically well in record sales. As if that wasn’t enough, he drops another bomb on the record industry’s ideology with this statement.
“The concerts are crowded and the industry must understand that they have to manage all the 360 degrees around an artist. They, (the industry), have to maximize their income from concerts and merchandise. It is the only way they can get their marketing money back.”
Excuse me? This sounds more like a forward thinking executive than a rap star that dealt crack at age 12 and got his GED at a shock incarceration bootcamp in lieu of doing 3-9 years in prison. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise me, his new single is called “Ayo Technology” and it sounds like he has webcam girlfriends. Either way, I have a new found respect for 50 cent.
More importantly is the fact that 50 recognizes that there is much more to the music industry than simply record sales. With 3.4M downloads 50 understands that if file-sharing allows more people to hear his music and that these people (who will never pay a dime for a song) pay $50 for concert tickets he will be making enough money to be on MTV Cribs. Sorry, rocking arenas from LA to Biloxi to Boston doesn’t lose money. If the record industry is smart they’ll spend their time and money getting a bigger cut of merchandise and ticket sales by doing more marketing to that end rather than suing 10 year olds with disabled parents.
50 Cent’s view on the state of the industry is an unexpected breath of fresh air from a big time artist not named Radiohead. 50’s comments validate a belief that many have held (myself included) about the music industry - that with the average person listening to more music, more often due to file-sharing there is money to be made. The risk associated with experiencing new music has been reduced to next to nothing which allows more hesitant, casual fans to simply download a few songs of an artist and give it a chance. In the past, there was a great deal of risk involved, especially for young fans. For example, I remember when I heard Sugar Ray’s “Fly” on the radio and couldn’t get enough, so I walked to the music store one day after school, paid my $18 and purchased the album, “Floored”. I was expecting pop-rock with a reggae twist and I got a hardcore punk album that was not in line with the teen angst that I had not yet developed. This is the risk we were expected to take to be music fans.
Today, the risk to try out a new artist is only the time it takes to download and listen to the music, which explains why I have 472 artists in my iTunes. Theoretically, the more people that listen to an artist, the higher potential for ticket and merchandise sales; and that potential is higher than ever. It has never been easier to find merchandise through online outlets and Hot Topic, which turned what is essentially a giant merch table into a public company. It has also never been easier to go to your favorite artist’s shows since every band posts its tour dates and often sells tickets directly through their website.
So as it becomes increasingly easier for artists to reach their fans with tickets, merchandise and most importantly the music itself (through file-sharing) the record companies that have acted as the middle man in the business for years are losing out. The artists know it - there is money to be made if they are willing to adapt - but do the labels accept this fate?
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