(Dis) Content with the Status Quo - and other Bands too

Last night I chatted to a Bloke down the Pub about digital content, as you do (OK, it was a smart wine bar and the occasion was the World Forum Research bash - letting their hair down after a hard year's slaving over those most excellent mobile reports).

Anyway, what he said was very interesting.......rights is apparently not where a lot of the artists make a lot of their money anymore. T shirts, sponsorships, books and so on can make them a lot more profit, mainly because it all goes into their pockets - not the record label's. He wasn't clear on numbers, but it can be the majority of their revenues over time.

And the Internet is a great way to flog this stuff, you don't need to go on tour at all!

So by and large the whole DRM issue has been driven by the Rights Holders to hang on to their (declining) share of the total pie the Fans spend on getting into the Groove.

Only trouble is that DRM has gone down like a lead balloon with the victims - I mean customers - see John Hauxwell's very thoughtful post about iTunes and DRM.

Now it appears that the labels now want in on this loot as a condition of signing a band on too...I do in fact feel some sympathy, after all they made the stars who they were - they would have been nothing otherwise! (Tell that to the Arctic Monkeys, though)

But if the real money is not being made in actually flogging the music, w(h)ither DRM? Its expensive, instantly crackable, annoys the legal customers (and possibly drives them to piracy?).

Seems to me there is a new business model struggling to get out here, that may not actually treat the customers as criminals.

In the meantime, anyone wanna buy a T shirt down the pub - band of your choice, guv......never mind all the Chinese World of Warcraft goldminers, who is going after this gold rush