• Terra Firma's Guy Hands told the EMI staff in an email the company must move beyond the CD if it is to survive. "The recorded music industry... has for too long been dependent on how many CDs can be sold," he wrote. "Rather than embracing digitalisation and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, the industry has stuck its head in the sand." Yes, everybody knows this. The problem is that people have been sorely short on good, specific ideas.

To his credit, Hands throws out an idea: Trade large, up-front advances for a revenue-sharing model with more modest up-front financial help for the recording of an album or launch of a tour. That's a start. One aspect he'll need to consider is the ownership of the recordings. Radiohead's model may show artists that it's wiser to keep ownership and license the recordings to a label. Most artists understand a label can do more with the recordings than they can do by themselves, but there will be instances in which the artist has enough momentum to go it alone.

As technology improves and artists have more options, the value of owning your own catalog will increase. EMI -- and the other labels -- needs to prove the value it can offer an artist will exceed the value in self-releasing. (The Telegraph)

• Good post-Radiohead article at The Telegraph, but it's sending mixed messages. "Radiohead generation believes music is free," proclaims the headline. The writer talked to an 18-year-old Radiohead fan who says his generation has grown up believing music is free -- although he admits to spending £30 (around $61) a month on music in addition to using Limewire. This is the great untold story of the P2P era. Yes, kids download a lot of music, but some of them do pay for music, too.

Don't listen when somebody uses ridiculous, absolute statements like, "Kids don't pay for music any more." That's an ignorant view of what's really happening that underestimates the market for recorded music (dropping but still in the many billions). If you believe that, you probably believe P2P is the only way to distribute music. I disagree. People will purchase music and music-related services for the foreseeable future. Free will work in some instances but should not be used as the foundation of the future music industry.

The moral of the story: People take for free music they care little about, but they will pay for a band they love. If it is a direct band-to-fan relationship (as in the case of Radiohead) the likelihood and amount of payment could increase. (The Telegraph)

[music jobs] Brand and Online Marketing Manager at The Ascot Club/Am Only; Brooklyn, NY.