MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-10-20 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout-NYLXS] Music Wars and IP
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http://www.factmag.com/2015/09/16/streaming-rick-ross-datpiff/
Why looking at music from a tech and business perspective makes no sense
Written by Andrew Friedman on Wednesday, September 16 2015
Rick Ross Mastermind Press photo 2014
Last week, Forbes ran a smart piece by Gary Suarez on Rick Ross’s Black
Dollar, focusing heavily on Rozay’s decision to give the project away
for free rather than make it a commercial release.
Forbes readers may have been surprised by the lack of big names in the
Black Dollar story; Ross premiered songs from the album on SoundCloud
and released the project through the long-standing streaming site
DatPiff. That is, arguably one of the 10 most famous rappers on the
planet put out a star-studded album without the services of any blue
chip company. As I write this, Black Dollar is not on Spotify. It is,
however, on LiveMixtapes, DatPiff’s main competitor. And it’s also
available on both sites’ very good mobile apps.
The Black Dollar release must be incredibly confusing to the business
and tech communities following the so-called Streaming Wars, waiting to
see which service will emerge as the one that becomes a verb synonymous
with streaming music (like how Bing is for internet searches). The only
competitors are supposed to be hypercapitalized behemoths like Apple and
Spotify; how does a company like DatPiff land what could otherwise be a
major label album? What does it say that an artist as prominent as Rick
Ross is content to opt out of ostensibly mainstream distribution? After
all, his decision wasn’t revolutionary, it was routine: Juicy J, 2
Chainz and Boosie Badazz all put out free projects in the recent weeks.
This is the problem with watching the music industry through the lens of
Wall Street or Silicon Valley: there is no dominant business model.
Music’s value is entirely fluid, dependent on artist, genre, scene,
level of fame and method of playback. Sometimes the music is a
commodity, other times it’s part of a larger strategy to cash in on fame
and celebrity. Rap economics is an inexact science with multiple revenue
streams; it’s fine to forfeit album sales if it means more shows, guest
verses, paid club walk-throughs and Instagram product placement. At its
core, making a living as a musician is a balance between promotion and
monetization. The business is a series of decisions about when to work
for free and when to tax. There’s rarely an objectively “right” answer
to any of these questions.
From a tech and business perspective, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and
friends seem like a sure bet because they corral the most streaming
plays into the same uniform monetization scheme. But, again, their
viability assumes every artist cares about making money off of every
possible play. While Rick Ross definitely didn’t give DatPiff Black
Dollar out of the goodness of his heart, DatPiff is an important tool
for rappers at all levels. Anyone can upload their music and very few
expect to make any money from the site.
And DatPiff and LiveMixtapes are only the latest in a long string of
internet outlets crucial to modern hip-hop that don’t always pay (if
ever). MySpace’s music streaming ability launched untold rap careers in
its years as the dominant social network. And while highly curated blogs
like 2 Dope Boyz and Nah Right broke plenty of rappers, less
discriminating clearinghouses like Digital Dripped, easily accessed DJ
Pools like Digiwaxx, and straight up generic download sites like
YouSendIt, zShare and Hulkshare all formed (and still form) an informal
but effective democratic distribution network. The recently shuttered
Sharebeast may have been a hub for illegal downloads, but it was also
the site several DJ pools relied on for no-nonsense, evergreen links for
their clients. Nobody gave much thought to officially monetizing any of
this.
Obviously the big streaming services have their place in the market, but
the disproportionate attention from the tech and business communities
has crafted a narrative around the Streaming Wars that fits their
worldview. A focus on the companies with the most market share or
capitalization ignores the fact that we are in a golden age not only for
the creation of independent music, but also for its promotion and
marketing. The future of the music business will look less like the
discrete, hard-wired apps competing for streaming dominance, and more
like the flexible mosaic of smaller, ever-changing companies that
defines the last 15 years of hip-hop. Black Dollar is proof of concept.
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