Someone's Gonna Pay for This

The Post-Napster Digital Music World Seeks Sustainable Business Models.

Erik Sherman, Contributing Editor, CommVerge

What follows below is an excerpt only - [read entire article]

We are the music makers. All the talk of record labels, distributors, and other companies leaves out the people who create the music in the first place. Musicians are trying find their fit in the new order. Traditionally, many have had less than satisfactory relationships with their record labels. "I can tell you from contact with other musicians that it is difficult to work with the major record companies unless you' re a superstar," says Aaron Rosand, a classical violinist who has been recording for decades.

Rosand has a "tremendously effective" Web site. "It' s like a one-stop shop, because everything is included," he says. There is a discography, a biography, and links to buy his CDs. "I think that the free samples have stimulated a lot of sales in different parts of the world," Rosand says. "[My] recordings in many parts of the world are not well distributed. Performing in Italy or other parts of Europe, people will say, 'We can't find your CDs in the shops.' Now with the Internet, they can order it and receive it in days. So from my point of view, it has been a tremendous boon to my record sales."

-- Erik Sherman, Contributing Editor, 6/1/2001 [read entire article]