Leaving A Major Record Label… And Seeing How The Music Business Is Thriving

Music Industry

from the it's-all-good dept

A few years ago, after seeing Ethan Kaplan speak, I had suggested that Warner Music promote him. At the time, Ethan was VP of technology for Warner Bros. Music, one of Warner Music’s sub-labels. I’d followed Ethan’s writings for a while, but hearing him speak convinced me that he was definitely one of the folks inside a major record label who really understood where things were headed. There definitely are a few such folks mixed in here and there, but they’re not always easy to find, and they usually don’t get the attention they deserve within those labels. Warner Music didn’t promote him until sometime last year, when they moved him up to the parent company, Warner Music Group, but the company’s top management still never seemed to recognize quite what they had in Ethan in terms of his ability to recognize where the market was heading and how a major label could (and should) respond to those challenges. So it was disappointing, but of little surprise when he left Warner Music a month ago. I have little doubt he’s now in high demand from a variety of forward-looking companies doing technology stuff in the music space, and I imagine he’ll pop up somewhere interesting soon.

However, as we wait, he’s written a fascinating blog post about his view on the music industry, now that he’s out of a major record label and seeing what else is there. The whole thing is so worth reading, I’m having trouble picking a part to excerpt, so here’s a tidbit, but you really should read the whole thing:

A lot of the sentiment I’ve been living under for the past few years has been based on fear. Things slipping through fingers never to be returned. What I found leaving however is that while things slipped through fingers, they didn’t fall to the ground. A whole other ecosystem of hands was there to catch it.

The music business didn’t die. And it isn’t dying. I argue that the human race will have to die before an industry around music fully succumbs. It is changing. Shrinking, contracting and expanding. It is also diversifying and competing for attention and dollars with ecosystems and markets that weren’t even imaginable five years ago. Where one dollar might have gone toward a record before, it is now split between entertainment bills, ad-hoc entertainment, subscriptions and the increased cost of providing us the unencumbered connectivity and freedom brought by devices like iPhones.

As I said, there’s a lot more in the post, including why he’s optimistic and excited about the new ecosystem that’s evolving. While we sometimes (if you count the comments, quite frequently) have “music industry” insiders stop by to tell us that we’re crazy for saying the music industry is thriving and there’s more opportunity than ever before, it’s always nice to see someone who’s deeply involved on the inside making the same point. I have no idea what Ethan will be doing next, but I’m sure it will be worth paying attention to.

Filed Under: ethan kaplan, music, music industry