Techdirt’s Masnick Offers “Totally Positive” View Of Music Industry @ #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Techdirt publisher Mike Masnick took the stage in Cannes today offering an optimistic view of the music industry. “The industry is amazing right now… we have more content than ever  before, more access than ever before, and more opportnity than ever  before. "And this is a good thing,” he said. The challenge is very much a marketing challenge," Masnick told the Midem audience. “It can be  met by being more open, more human and most of all, more awesome.”

His talk was based on a research report being released today: The Sky  Is Rising – a survey of the global entertainment industry today.  “Actually we should be celebrating what is happening, because things are  actually amazing.” Music, games, books, film and video.

“We found that for the entire past decade, the industry has been  growing. The story of doom and gloom is not actually true. Things have  been getting better and better and better.” 66% growth across the  entertainment industry since 2006, he said. “People are spending money.  The sky is not falling, the sky was never falling.”

Masnick talked about the difference between the ‘record industry’ and  the ‘music industry’ – lots of revenues from things other than record  sales. And he noted that there has been an explosion in the amount of  music being made.

“For consumers it is a time of abundance – more content, more choices  – more ways to experience music than ever before… For musicians, easier  to create, record, distribute and promote. But the challenge is there  is much more competition… The challenge is a marketing challenge… to  capture those consumers in a much more highly competitive market.”

In the report, Masnick says he has looked at a number of artists  making this work. He talked about comedian Louis CK, who recently  released a live performance, through his own website. It was DRM-free,  and cost just $5. “He was incredibly open and transparent and human in  the way he handled it,” said Masnick.

That included writing a letter to people who might be tempted to  pirate the video, explaining his perspective – that he’d like to make  more of these videos, if he could afford to do it.

“He trusted that if he acted human, they would act human in return,”  said Masnick. “Within 12 days he had made over $1m.” He then explained  what he was doing with the money – some distributed to charities, more  going back to his staff, and some for himself.

“None of this works if what you are doing is not awesome,” warned  Masnick. If Louis CK wasn’t a funny comedian, if a musician isn’t making  great music, none of this works.

The report is being made available at www.techdirt.com/skyisrising