Downloaders Push Music Stores to Brink
The headline is probably a bit wrong. While music download from the Internet plays a role in the fact that music retailers go out of business, it is also a sign that the whole business model doesn't work anymore the way it used to.
There are plenty of stories around that show that musicians and groups can thrive if they embark on the online journey. Only that the music industry doesn't see it and prefers to aliniate their customers by suing them - as it happens in the US and recently started in the UK - their motto is that they don't trust their customers.
When you go through the streets in Malaysia or in China or in Indonesia (not necessarily in this sequence) or anywhere else, probably even in the US, you are able to find cheap knock-offs of music and movies. So clearly, the sign is that something else is on the way here, and that this disruptive movement is going to put you out of business when you don't change.
It happens everywhere in every industry. In the US, a debate has started around the fact that people start to shop offline - decide what they want to have - and than go online to purchase the product - 69% of U.S. online shoppers admit to browsing in traditional stores before buying over the Internet, according to USA Today .
The same is happening in the music industry in Korea. The article quotes a retailer as saying that "Before then (before the event of online music - ABC comment inserted), if our customers liked the songs from our sound system, they used to buy the CDs here. Since about two years ago, most of them just ask the title of the song and walk out, then download it later on the Internet."
Get used to a world that is changing. Change is hard, but if companies don't see change coming they are out of the business. Park Joon-hum, music columnist and director general of Kasum Music Industry Policy Research Center in South Korea is saying that "the fundamental problem is that the music industry has totally failed to come up with a new marketing strategy to meet the changing demands of music consumers." True!!
There are plenty of stories around that show that musicians and groups can thrive if they embark on the online journey. Only that the music industry doesn't see it and prefers to aliniate their customers by suing them - as it happens in the US and recently started in the UK - their motto is that they don't trust their customers.
When you go through the streets in Malaysia or in China or in Indonesia (not necessarily in this sequence) or anywhere else, probably even in the US, you are able to find cheap knock-offs of music and movies. So clearly, the sign is that something else is on the way here, and that this disruptive movement is going to put you out of business when you don't change.
It happens everywhere in every industry. In the US, a debate has started around the fact that people start to shop offline - decide what they want to have - and than go online to purchase the product - 69% of U.S. online shoppers admit to browsing in traditional stores before buying over the Internet, according to USA Today .
The same is happening in the music industry in Korea. The article quotes a retailer as saying that "Before then (before the event of online music - ABC comment inserted), if our customers liked the songs from our sound system, they used to buy the CDs here. Since about two years ago, most of them just ask the title of the song and walk out, then download it later on the Internet."
Get used to a world that is changing. Change is hard, but if companies don't see change coming they are out of the business. Park Joon-hum, music columnist and director general of Kasum Music Industry Policy Research Center in South Korea is saying that "the fundamental problem is that the music industry has totally failed to come up with a new marketing strategy to meet the changing demands of music consumers." True!!
posted by Andreas @ 9:10 am
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