As we remain firmly in the
grip of an Internet revolution, established rules regarding sales and the
accurate tracking of said sales are being broken, then re-written, and then
broken again. The ability to illegally
copy new and existing music and film and then place them on an ever-increasing
abundance of websites for consumers to download at no coast appears now to be
the norm as opposed to a temporary nuisance to the artists. This has prompted none other than the
legendary Hip Hop artist Jay Z himself to refer to this new period in the
entertainment business as the “Wild Wild West”, likening it to a time period in
which there was lawlessness in the land, as the laws were made either on the fly,
depending on who was in charge at that particular moment, or at best, they were
in a state of constant flux.
This leaves the industry in a quandary as they
can either do one of two things. They
can step up their efforts to crack down on the perpetrators of the copyright
infringement, or they can find new, innovative methods to receive payment for
their material. From what history has
taught us with the fruitless efforts of America’s so called “Drug War”, option
number one appears to be no real option at all.
Technology has ushered us all past the line of demarcation where the
Internet Pirates are so far ahead of the enforcement agencies that there
appears that there is no catching up.
This leaves the industry with only one other viable option, and that is
to simply come up with new and innovative ways to receive compensation for
their work.
Jay Z was one of the first
major artists to recognize this trend and begin the process of reaching and
exploring other payment options for his work.
Along that vein, he was able to negotiate a brilliant deal with Samsung
to pay him directly a fee of five million dollars up front for the right to
allow Samsung cellular phone users the ability to download an “app” which would
then permit them to download Jay Z’s new album for free. This resulted in one million downloads of Jay
z’s new music. Jay z was paid upfront,
and Samsung, although paying five million dollars for a product that they
essentially gave away, received the rights (through the terms and conditions of
their download agreement) to track massive amounts of information by that
cellular user. This permitted Samsung to
gain private cellular information on each user and their individual habits and
trends, which will allow them to specifically target them in upcoming
advertising. In a word, it was
“brilliant”. This is what is referred to
in business as the rare “win-win” in which each party mutually benefits
equally. However, as always, there is
one small catch, at least for Jay Z.
Soundscan, the official tally
organization for the music industry cried “foul” on this deal and has as of
today (July 28th 2013) refused to give Jay Z credit for the one
million downloads. According to
Soundscan, those one million free downloads technically are not “sales” and
therefore cannot be counted as such, nor can they give Jay Z credit as in Gold
or Platinum album status if he does not achieve that status without the one
million downloads via Samsung. While
this has caused a minor irritation between Jay Z and the media, I am certain
that he is not losing too much sleep over what Soundscan does or doesn’t do. Much like the 1980’s when the music video
explosion hit to the cries of “foul” by many artists and their respective labels,
as they feared that style would now rule over substance. There were many artists then who rallied
against the music video wave and stomped their feet, and gnashed their teeth,
but ultimately the change was inevitable.
That is where we are now. The
progressive artists, who can see the change on the horizon and adjust, will
reap the greatest rewards. Those who
cannot make the adjustment will fade into the background. Much like many of the characters from the old
Wild West.
Chad Morton
