Il senso degli affari

Non lo visitavo da un qualche tempo, e quindi ho scoperto con colpevole ritardo della chiusura di Fabchannel, sito strepitoso, nato da un’idea semplice ma al tempo stesso molto intelligente: filmare, con grande attenzione alla qualità, i live ospitati in due sale da concerti di Amsterdam, caratterizzate da una programmazione eccellente, e mettere il tutto on line, in streaming. Nel messaggio d’addio che è ancora possibile leggere sull’home page del sito, tutta la sconsolante incapacità delle case discografiche di approcciarsi e aprirsi a nuovi modelli.

Promotion has turned into a dirty word. Mtv for example got big and wealthy by showing videoclips paid for by the labels. So now these labels think: We will not let that happen again. From now on everybody who wants to become a mediapartner online is going to have to pay upfront to even start! Take note of the word online after mediapartner. It is very curious to see that for radio and Tv stations, the rules are a bit different. Labels pay so called ‘pluggers’ to persuade Dj’s to play their new artists. And the radiostations do not pay for the recordings, just like Mtv. Some radiostations even insist of getting a percentage of the record sales before they decide to plug a new artist. You see the difference in perception? Internet = source of income, Radio/Television = partner in generating income.
(…) So we had to come up with a plan to cover all of our cost without the help of subsidies. First we looked at selling the concerts. A lot of our viewers mail us that they love our videos and want to have them as download or Dvd. We pitched that idea to the labels, but not one of them saw it as an interesting businessmodel. And we do not have the rights to sell them ourselves. We need their approval.