I spent the afternoon at a coffee shop in East Nashville talking to Derek Webb about a million different things.  Mostly consisting of the future of the music industry, the need for an online presence, blogging, things that are free, and things that are stolen.  Not in that order.  Derek and I had met several times before, but never had the chance to sit and actually communicate about things that are obviously important to us.

Almost eight years ago now, Kristin and I were married and for our first dance as a married couple we danced to one of Derek’s songs called “Somewhere North”.  I have been a massive fan of his music for as long as I can remember paying attention to music so it was great to be able to hang out as peers and discuss things together.  And at least I don’t remember saying anything stupid.  I think I might have cussed a few times, but it was on accident.

I feel like a lot of the things that I believe about the music industry and what Derek believes are very similar.  It’s not like we are the only two people thinking this stuff but it’s fun to hash out ideas with someone and know that they aren’t going to take those ideas and stab you in the back with them later.  I like talking to people like that and there aren’t many.  I also like being a person that can hear ideas and know that I would never use those ideas to do any stabbing myself.  

Anyway.  It’s still up in the air whether Derek will hop on the blog-wagon, but if (and when) he does, you can bet to hear about it.  

Hope everyone had a great Sunday.

According to an article in Wired Magazine:

“Apple is under pressure from the four major labels to change its pricing model to a tiered pricing structure,” said Susan Kevorkian, an IDC audio analyst. “The way the labels are pressuring Apple is by withholding DRM-free downloads from the service … [while] cultivating other online music services, most notably Amazon’s MP3 downloads store.”

“If Apple tires of butting heads with the labels, it could eventually cut them out of at least part of the equation by forming its own record label to keep a portion of the estimated 65 cents it currently pays out to the labels for each song sold.”

And here’s the kicker of this whole shebang.

By 2012, digital music is projected to account for 40 percent of music sold, according to InStat. If Apple holds onto its current market share, it will account for more than one-quarter of all music sales by its ninth birthday. Not bad for freeware.

Are record labels in trouble if they mess with the beast that is Apple? Sounds to me like it’s time for artists to have a solid online presence more than ever. What do you think?

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