I’ve been thinking a fair bit recently about monetising music on the internet, and I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that it is going to be nigh on impossible for artists to make money independently online. There’s a long, tedious post in the offing in the works (admit it – you can’t wait!) but in the meantime, it’s already obvious that online music retailers are struggling.
I just got an email from 7Digital Indiestore:
“Regrettably, the 7digital indiestore service will be shut down on 20 September 2010. Any outstanding revenue owed to you will be paid by the end of October.”
7Digital were a typical online music set up – create your own page… upload your music… “promote” blah blah. The sheer amount of equivalence in the functionality of these things mean that there are dozens of equivalent services fighting for market share with very little that’s unique.
I don’t even recall why our tracks are on there – and I’ve certainly not seen any money from it, so I’m not shedding many tears. Another generic service bites the dust, basically.
Spotify are cleaning up market share (if not revenue) with their model, and Facebook and MySpace have far bigger audiences for bands to reach more more people, leaving specialist music sites struggling to get people’s attention.
Personally, I’m hoping that LastFM go to the wall next, because they po-facedly deleted my history of the band because (to use their words) “this is a serious music resource – not a place for juvenile behaviour.” It’s a long way from teddy boys taking stanley knives to the seats of the local Odeon, isn’t it?
Anyway, moddishly enough, you can now listen to Superset on Spotify. I won’t get any money from that either, but at least it’s a kind of low-rent bragging point for the easily impressed