Popkomm popguns to the ready!
This year’s Popkomm music fair in Berlin, Europe’s biggest, is promising to be an experimental laboratory in which the music industry will be trying to find a way out of the global crisis it now finds itself in. Ever since its move from Cologne to Berlin in 2004, Popkomm has had to find its way out of its own crisis, albeit more a crisis of confidence, so this venue is an appropriate one. Popkomm’s initially skeptical visitors and exhibiters now seem to have become real fans and their numbers look to be on the rise.
This can’t be said for the traditional music industry, whose customers are still running away from it in droves. This “evolution of change” (talk about a nice way to put it) has now reached the point where the industry is even willing to try and get touchy-feely and find a modus vivendi with their insurgent archrivals from the empire of entertainment evil: the music bootleggers themselves; with you, in other words.
Yes, some böse Zungen (evil tongues) even believe that they may be getting ready to throw in the towel.
It is a sad reality that illegal data theft has become so widespread and common, so banal, that it has even managed to change the common perception of what actually constitutes theft. Countless consumers who would, for example, never consider regularly stealing magazines from their neighborhood news kiosks don’t think twice about illegally downloading the latest recordings of their favorite artists. And don’t pretend like you (no, YOU) don’t steal any of this music buddy, because we both know that you do.
But alas, no amount of moralizing on the matter will change this simple fact and the industry is now considering conceding defeat and going on a new kind of offensive, or at least going out into the trenches to get a better look at the enemy within. That’s why they come to Popkomm. It appears as if the era of all-out war against piracy is waning (guess who won?) and one more open to new ways of thinking i.e. making money has arrived.
The Popkomm nights may still belong to those visiting the 400 concerts at Berlin concert halls and clubs during the fair, but the days at the fairgrounds under the Funkturm will be devoted, at least in part, to music managers (Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal) wrestling their way to the realization of what is looking more and more like the inevitable new music industry model: Internet downloads based on monthly fees which will allow the customer to enjoy his or her allotted purchase of music in any format, on any platform, and anywhere he or she wants (see Napster, Musicload etc.).
This transformation from traditional-business-model-turned-cop to a utility provider like any other (gas, phone, electric) won’t be an easy one, but it will at least be one in which everyone can still continue to make money. And it doesn’t look like the industry will have much choice in the matter, either. As David Bowie recently said when discussing these new Internet-based, music marketing models: “This is all terribly exciting, but in the end it doesn’t matter if you find it exciting or not. It’s what’s going to happen.”
So have a look at Popkomm and see what might be happening next. It will be taking place at the Berliner Messegelände for three days beginning September 20th.
Comments
Illegal data theft? My ass. Illegal is that they want us to pay for their DRM-contaminated music files. Filesharing can't be stopped, the sooner they learn, the better for them.
Bulette; September 17, 2006 11:03 PM
What is illegal data theft anyways? Is there legal data theft?
Bulette; September 17, 2006 11:50 PM