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New Report Blames The BBC For Music Industry Losses
By Steven Kuhn: 2006-12-02 00:00:00
The worldwide music industry has seen steadily declining sales for the past five or six years. Many music companies have blamed the "internet": a shadowy figure that lurks in the distance, and creeps into your computers at night to steal your profits. Many of these companies, the BBC for example, have taken extreme measures to fight this demon at all costs. In doing so, they have actually been hurting the industry.The Times Online has just released an article on a recent report filed by the Economic Research Council. It explains how by not utilizing the power and potential of the internet, the BBC is damaging not only itself, but the entire music industry. How, you ask? Many British bands do not even have a website, let alone any kind of internet following. With no way for British music fans to find these new bands, they must rely on the radio for exposure: a poor medium compared to the web. According to the report, there is very little chance for these bands to get any airtime whatsoever because the BBC is running the airwaves as well, and has been selling itself short when it comes to new music. Report author Andrew Ian Dodge had this to say: "Radio 1 and other BBC stations still believe, despite all the years of co-existence with commercial radio, that they are the arbiters of what the great British public should and should not listen to each day. This patronising attitude has repercussions throughout the music business and severely damages the prospects for many signed British acts who because of this face the prospect of never being played on radio." Basically, the BBC is signing new music acts, and then not playing them on their radio stations. How exactly are they expected to sell albums when no one has ever heard their music? Rather than taking advantage of the rich UK music scene, the BBC has been manufacturing pop bands and bland elevator music (what Dodge refers to as the BBC's "own version of music reality shows") and sticking that on the airwaves instead. The other problem with BBC bands having no internet lead-ins is that they are being limited to the UK market. The internet is the best tool available for setting a band up for success "across the pond"; Americans spend billions every year on music, but for many British bands with no internet following, it's just another untapped market. Dodge says, "For every group that conquers the US like Coldplay, the Spice Girls and Iron Maiden, there are many acts like Robbie Williams, Oasis and Busted which have ...come back with their tails between their legs." I guess my article on Oasis wasn't that far off. In my opinion, it's time for the music industry to stop treating the internet like a threat, and start using it as a resource. You can never win when you fight against the internet, because there will always be a lot more fans than there are record executives. There will always be more downloaders than lawsuits. Yes, there are a lot of people who just steal all the music they own, but there are just as many people who download music for the exposure to new bands. Upon finding one they like, they may go out and buy an album to support them. Like many others, I would never have heard of most of my favorite groups if not for the internet. This report is a step in the right direction. Music fans are smart people who are always hungry for something new and great—and the internet can be a perfect means for the music industry to offer exactly that.
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