Truth hurts

The "crisis" of the music industry has been filling newspapers, blogs, magazines, and books for some years now. For all those in need of a summary, Berlin daily "Der Tagesspiegel" features a nice article. For those even more in need of a summary, I'll just cite the most relevant passage. After all, it is quite indicative and symptomatic for the state of this fucked up industry that it's not dickhead Smudo or some other jerk bur rather Staiger from RoyalBunker Berlin who has to offer the most poignant insight:


Auch Marcus Staiger kennt das Problem. Ihn trifft es noch härter, weil seine Klientel fast gar keine CDs mehr kauft. Er ist Chef des Berliner Hip-Hop-Labels „Royal Bunker“, bei denen auch K. I. Z. unter Vertrag sind, eine der angesagtesten deutschen Hip-Hop-Bands. „Unsere Zielgruppe sind Jugendliche, die nicht mal eine Kreditkarte haben, mit der sie legale Online-Angebote bezahlen könnten, wenn sie wollten“, sagt Staiger. Die Fans seiner Musik sind mit illegalen Downloads groß geworden. 10 000-fach seien die Lieder von K. I. Z. auf illegalen Tauschbörsen schon heruntergeladen worden. Die CD-Verkäufe halten da nicht mit.

Resigniert ist er deshalb nicht. Er gesteht es sich nur einfach ein: „Mit Musikvertrieb ist kein Geld mehr zu verdienen.“ Staiger arbeitet nebenbei längst als Industriekletterer. Dass seine ganze Zunft bedroht ist, stört ihn nicht. Für ihn ist das Geschäft mit der Musik nur ein Wimpernschlag der Geschichte. Erst mit der Erfindung des Grammofons 1888 haben Musiker begonnen, Geld zu verdienen, obwohl sie gar nicht live spielten. Später kamen Manager und Plattenfirmen hinzu. „Mittlerweile ist das ein großer aufgeblähter Haufen.“ Staiger will Einzelschicksale nicht ausklammern, schließlich trifft es ihn selbst. „Für die Menschheitsgeschichte ist es aber egal, ob die Musikindustrie stirbt“, sagt er. Heute könnten sich Künstler ganz einfach wie früher auf dem Dorfplatz im Netz auf Seiten wie Myspace präsentieren. Über virtuelle Communitys werden Bands weiterempfohlen. Und wer live gut spiele, verdiene auch Geld. „Die ganzen Zwischenschritte mit Marketingkampagne, Produktentwicklung und Imageerstellung fallen weg. Die Musiker sind befreit.“


As far as I can tell, quite a lot of publishers run the risk of repeating the errors of the music industry.

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