Hmmm.... what next to save the music industry?
iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, file-sharing, cherry picking tracks from an artist’s canon; everything changes so quickly. A CD is no longer an entity, a whole. It’s a selection box. Leave the Milky Way, choose the Snickers.
So the music megacorps are left searching for the Next Big Thing. The equivalent of Blu-ray, High Definition or 3D.
So, as they sit, wearing their button down collars, and staring archly out onto Soho Square, I bring good tidings. I have the answer.
We need to find another way to sell the same music to everyone all over again. Now it’s true, we will have to wait a year or so, until they’ve played the Beatles Remasters to death, but I promise you, they won’t be able to help themselves. They’ll buy it all again! Yes, I know. They already have the vinyl, cassette, CD, re-issued CD with ‘additional tracks’ and the remastered CD, but (trust me on this) we can squeeze another few dollars out of our highly respected consumers, yet one more time.
Market an album, enable the option of receiving the full eight track recordings of (for example) Abbey Road from the original mix, sell simple ‘home studio’ software and give the consumer the ability to remix individual songs. These home studios are already easily available from musical instrument or computer stores, and equally easy to use.
Let the customer choose to drop the gospel choir, or bring the bass to the front of the mix. Let them double up the harmonies, but lose that irritating snare.
The big market for our new innovation is, happily, back catalogues. The ‘re-buyer’ may not have much zeal for re-working Susan Boyle’s album, but finally we can offer the opportunity to fix Richard Carpenter’s over-elaborate Las Vegas productions that so often distract from Karen’s exquisite vocals. Hooray, we can sell them the Bee Gees and they can drop Barry’s falsetto!
Let’s all gather together and see if we can do a better job than Phil Spector on Let It Be. What would Bridge Over Troubled Water sound like if pared back to basics?
The more enthusiastic and experienced can mash, mix, chop, and indeed, change. Neneh Cherry mashed into Cliff Richard; Cheryl Cole with Marvin Gaye. Everything is possible.
Music will become a new adventure of endless listening possibilities. Get over-familiar with a favourite track – re-mix it with a few clicks of your mouse.
So, let’s give it a year or so, and we can sell them the same old stuff yet one more time.
There. I’ve just saved the music industry. See you at the launch?
