Recorded music sales continue to struggle and the leadership at the top of Sony Music is shifting, but Rick Rubin continues to exhibit the Zen master attitude that's helped to make him a legendary force in music both as a producer and recently as co-chairman of Columbia Records. The music industry “could be a bigger business than it’s ever been,” states an optimistic Rubin.
"People...are willing to pay for music."
"People love music more than they ever have and ... are willing to pay for music." The trick, Rubin recently told Billboard, is that the execs need to figure out how to get them to pay: “I think with certain artists you want to hear their album ... and then there are other artists who I like where maybe it's more about the single. I don't think there is going to be one way that everything works. I think people will have many more options and choices of how to digest music, and hopefully the labels will get to the point where they are in the business of serving the audience instead of trying to hold on to an old model.”
The goal of the label should be to diversify the way that it caters to the audience, and to do that, the old standard of the album package must be altered. "I always felt like if we do what is best interest of the artist, in the long term it will always benefit us - always," Rubin said.
This guest post if by Mark Rutkowski.
