Anyone who's been following the rise of the MP3 format, for example, knows that there are record executives that wish they'd never even heard of the Internet. The potential sales losses from distributing music digitally on the Internet is so frightening a prospect that they shun the medium. But those same misgivings don't seem to have affected the artists themselves. More and more of them are throwing caution to the wind and embracing the Internet's potential.
Public Enemy, Garbage, Beastie Boys and Dave Stewart are just some of the artists who've chosen to share their music with the world directly, via the Internet. But how do recording companies feel about their artists' philanthropic music distribution methods? Never the type to shy away from controversy (or publicity), Public Enemy caused a ruckus last December when they made remixed versions of their hit songs available for download on their Web site (www.public-enemy.com). Needless to say, the band's record company, Universal, was not amused. They forced the band to remove the offending MP3s, thus turning Public Enemy into online music activists overnight.
-Today Polygram/Universal or whatever the !%*@ they're now called forced us to remove the MP3 version of Bring The Noise 2000," read a statement on the band's Web site at the time, -the execs, lawyers and accountants who have lately made most of the money in the music biz, are now running scared from the technology that evens out the creative field and makes the artists harder to pimp." The statement was quickly followed by a new song, one criticising the record company's stance on Internet music distribution. This time, the new PE single by-passed UniversalÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢,Ã,¬"-Swinder's Lust" was released only for distribution over the Web.
Of course, you don't have to be controversial to support the online music sceneÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢,Ã,¬"even regular pop artists are slowly getting in on the act. And to push them along, new projects are being planned, appealing to artists' egos through music awards that recognise and reward online music pioneers. Next month, for example, New York plays host to Yahoo Internet Life's second annual Online Music Awards on the 19th of July.
As well as recognising Best Artist Sites and Best Record Label Sites, awards are given for the Best Internet-only Song and Best Internet-only Album (defined as songs or albums that were made available for a period only via digital download). A live webcast can be watched at www.broadcast.com. Closely following the US event, we'll see our very own versionÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢,Ã,¬"the inaugural Australian Online Music Awards (the ONYA!s). The ONYAs are a joint venture between OzEmail, Microsoft, music video network Channel [V], and music company Immedia. The ONYAs will take place on the 7th of August and be Webcast live on www.ozemail .com.au and webevents.microsoft.com. These events alone won't convince recording companies to consider the Internet as a distribution method, they will however encourage artists to bring music and the Internet closer together.
But the news coming from record companies isn't all bad. In fact a recent announcement from record industry giant EMI Music gives hope that things may be changing: the recording company has made an investment in streaming audio company Liquid Audio. The investment is part of a new plan by EMI to start encoding a large part of its music to make it available for sale over the Internet. Liquid Audio is EMI's format of choice and as such, the company has decided to invest in the technology. EMI controls popular labels such as Virgin and Capitol. Its decision to go digital will no doubt boost the quality and quantity of music available online. Hopefully we will even start seeing more Internet only singles online soonÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢,Ã,¬"and more choices in nominations for future Internet awards.
Anna Raciti is the Assistant editor of PC Magazine Australia, and can be contacted at anna@zdnet.com.au.
