Coldplay and Adele Showing Music Industry How To Emulate Film Distribution

That's right. I said it. Just when we figured the Film and TV business were the dinosaurs in the room - lagging way behind in their understanding the digital business - the music industry is beginning to look more and more like the film industry.  "How's that?" you may ask.

As you may have read in other places, Coldplay, like Adele, will not be bringing their new release Mylo Xyloto to streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and the like. The official "artistic" reason from Coldplay's side was that the new album is a work that should be experienced from start to finish. Pretty lame excuse since single track downloads would be counter to that principle and the likelihood of a full album listening experience is much higher on streaming. (Unless, of course, they are making it a Full CD download only from iTunes)

While a four-track sampler of Adele's 21 is available on Spotify, that seems to be more timed with the release plan to drive CD and digital sales from iTunes and other  stores. With 21 being the top selling album of the year so far, and Coldplay well positioned to enter in at No.1, there's no need to speculate on the obvious. There is more money to be made by these artists from digital sales than from streaming. Here's the deal. Artists get a fraction of a cent every time a song is streamed vs. around 20 cents per download from iTunes (according to calculations presented in a recent article in Rolling Stone). That's all well and good, and works for the likes of Adele, Coldplay, and a handful of other world-class artists,
but certainly not for the other 99% occupying Music Street. These others have a distinct advantage releasing via as many channels as possible, ticking away as many fractions of a penny as they can get paid for. In the big picture, however, I am seeing a trend among the artist elite, artist management, and the industry, that could well become the model of the future. As we all struggle over the benefits, advantages, differences, and pricing of subscription vs. download, and try to find business models for the new millennium, can the music industry actually learn something from the film distributors? Is "windowing" the answer?

Just as the film industry has managed their post-theatrical windows from home video (DVD) to digital (VOD and  subscription) to pay-TV and then free-to-air TV - is the music industry moving in that direction? Will the A-list artists release on CD and digital download as a first window, and 2 months later be available on premium subscription streams, followed by the free (ad-based) services at 6 months? Will the up-and-coming indie bands become akin to a "direct-to-DVD" movie - only "direct to Spotify" instead? It could be an interesting solution and maybe workable if one feeds the "gods of streaming" with the key singles as they release for radio (to keep the pirates at bay).

It's there. It's just under the surface or lurking around the corner. I wonder how long it will take until they massage it into play. On a side note - I'd also like to see more TV distribution going direct to play services and skipping the broadcast window in international  markets. It would help boost the play services over time and give them a life of their own.

Give it time. Give it time. It's coming.