In lieu of a weekly music news round-up, I'd like to get your feedback on two music industry stories:
First up, I came across this article on The Unsigned Guide: UK Band Pay People To Listen To Their Single: Clever Marketing or New Low for Music? In a nutshell, if you check out the new Reclusive Barclay Brothers single, you can enter a drawing to get some cash from the band (27 GPB, to be exact). They have a video explaining the whole process on their website - the cleverly titled newlowformusic.com - essentially, they believe they are engaging in payola but paying the fans instead of a bunch of industry suits. What do you think of this idea? A genius marketing stroke or one more blow to the value of music? Is the fact that we're talking about it a sign of success, or is this kind of publicity difficult to translate into something of real value for the band's actual music career? Let me hear what you think.
Second - net neutrality. As you have no doubt heard by now, Google and Verizon have jointly issued a proposal on the subject, and while it is just a proposal at this point, it is a definite signal to how major players in the industry view the issue. I believe the music industry - and specifically the indie music industry - ignores net neutrality at its peril. Losing net neutrality means losing the so-called equal playing field on the internet. What happens to the independent industry is barriers to entry go digital? In any case, Future of Music Coalition does an excellent job of breaking down the Google-Verizon proposal, especially the possibility of tiered internet service in the mobile realm - check it out and share your thoughts on this plan and net neutrality generally. How important do you think a neutral internet is for music - if you do at all? Let me know what you think.