Seems like this year’s Midem has been the ideal locale for rethinking a few preconceived notions about the monies involved in music. My (overly naïve) attempt at listing some possibilities for music businesses finds some support in the words of insight-master Jacques Attali. When I eventually read it, the first edition of Attali’s Bruits seemed uncannily prescient as to what came to be understood as the “Napster Revolution.” Haven’t read it yet, but IHT reports on Attali’s newest book forecasting “that all recorded music will be free in the next several decades.” According to this Voir interview with Attali (in French), the book provides a rare insight into some possible scenarios for new economic orders. Is Attali really not a member of the Global Business Network?<—b55390d8f8dbd4e5c5b4625e46f50d3f—>

In the context of a MidemNet panel, recording industry executive Larry Kenswil (a “music bigwig”) made comments which seem to indicate that some RIAA members were finally hit with a clue-by-four:

“We can’t think of it as counting unit sales anymore,” said Kenswil. “We have to license … and think like the publishers.”

What remains to be seen is whether this is a desperate strategy of a group of zombies or the announcement of a seachange in the global music industry.

Universal and Sony prohibit Zune sharing for certain artists – Engadget

Sony Music and Universal Music Group are marking certain artists of theirs as “prohibited” for sharing

it looks like it’s roughly 40-50 percent of artist that fall under this prohibited banner

Erm… What? You gotta be kidding, right?
How can this beneficial to any artist? Oh, I know! By blocking access to certain artists, you make sure that those who are not blocked get more exposure… Where the plan fails is that Zune is crippled enough from the start that music lovers are unlikely to use it very extensively to help their peers discover music.
Sorry, recording industry. Better luck next time—4e9d4a47862aa0b92f31ab31e8f195b1—>

In a NYT piece on Digital Rights Management restrictions (on Apple’s iTunes and elsewhere), some interesting comments about differences between the four major music labels (Universal, Warner Music Group, EMI and Sony BMG) and a large variety of independent music labels.
Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs – New York Times

David Pakman, the C.E.O. of eMusic, said the major labels have watched their revenues decline about $10 billion since a 2001 peak; meanwhile, revenue earned by the independents has held steady. He said his service offers music from 9,800 labels, each of which has embraced downloads in MP3 format. Only four labels still cling to copy protection, even though piracy has not declined, and those are the four major labels.

The same article points to a wireless music subscription service in South Korea which allows users to listen to music for $5 a month. It would be interesting to know more about that service and its effects on local music.
As mentioned before, the “Fair-Trade Music” site CalabashMusic.com applies no restriction to the audio files they sell. In a context in which major music labels are getting burnt by DRM, it is in fact possible that independent labels might eventually win big, which could mean a lot in terms of music diversity.