Poke 20 went gold and esc.rec. vs. NVPI in radio interview
December 2, 2009 News
Poke 20 went solid gold this morning! Over 25.000 downloads!
RTV Oost had the scoop on this one, because I just so happened to have a live radio interview about esc.rec, Poke 20 and the new music industry scheduled in their studio this morning… (thanks Gerson Veenstra for having me on your show).
Wouter Rutten, head of communication of the Dutch entertainment industry association NVPI was in the same interview, which was an interesting choice. It was nice to hear that Wouter Rutten liked the Poke 20 project and I agreed with him that not all new distribution and business models are or can be succesfull for the whole range of artists and releases out there, which is a bit of a no-brainer really…
Because it’s all about re-inventing yourself over and over again. Being creative and flexible. Having a quick response time. Experimenting with new media, new publicity, new ways of distribution and new ways of interaction with your customers. The sluggish traditional music industry hasn’t been one step ahead of it’s own game for years now. That probably has something to do with their general lack of love for the music and artists they are trying to sell. And criminalizing your own customers doesn’t help much either. Being all about the money only gets you so far… then you unavoidably crash and burn and have to start over again. True passion is key here I think.
After hearing Wouter Rutten do his ‘the level of innovation in the entertainment industry is actually not so bad, it’s mostly them nasty downloaders that’s the problem’ promo speech (which he does very well by the way), I couldn’t shake the feeling that NVPI and the entertainment industry they represent are only following ‘trending topics’ of a few years back, instead of being the trendsetter they ought to be in order to be successful. Over the years, nothing much seems to have changed in the entertainment industry’s policy of trying to block or even criminalize new (technological) developments. That’s not innovation, that’s just plain stupidity.
And in the end it’s a strategy that cannot prevail. History should have taught that by now. If your business model can’t cope with the progress being made in the world around you, it’s probably time you realized your business model is obsolete and move on. Instead the entertainment industry thinks it’s a good plan to restrict the world around them by aggressively lobbying for new (privacy violating) legislation and alienating their own potential clients, while clinging desperately to their dead goose with the golden eggs.