Krywosa, IMC

Indeed: my feed reader is, in fact, blowin’ up. The past 24 hours have been intense. The one thing I personally didnt see coming was the proliferation of music: buying, gifting, searching. Its all over the place.

Today, MySpace unveiled enhancements meant to appeal to consumers and content providers alike. Funny since we’ve all been reading articles that announce the continued sickly state of the MySpace platform.

Also announced yesterday, Facebook has launched a music gifting service which allows users to purchase and gift music to other users.

On top of all this, Google is rumored to have a music service of their own, allowing searches to yield downloadable purchased tracks. Tuesday, Apple began Tweeting about iTunes.

Although the music industry has been deemed dead for a very long time, it appears that by adding social and searchable attributes, music is now becoming integrated into everyday digital interactions a bit more easily. But, what does this mean for the industry itself? Will this help struggling companies or will it open up a whole new mess of problems between artists, rights owners and labels?

For a second there I thought, ‘Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the Music Industry is ok.’. Well, thank you Advertising Age for continuing to prove I’m not insane.

But, what really worries me is the Branding issue. Branding oneself alongside another brand. In my mind, music is meant to free a soul or shed some light. Not to get more people buying the BlackBerry Curve because John Mayer approves of it.

And, please, whats up with the free Dr. Pepper for All Guns N Rosesscam? Are you serious? If this were to happen when I was in sixth grade, and obsessed with Dr P and GNR, I’d still be like ‘What?!’.

I’m really starting to wonder about people’s motives and consumer’s brains.

Recently I wrote a post about Radiohead and NIN among others generating buzz and I guess I should mention – sales – via interesting internet ploys. This latest release from Mashable only adds to my argument that the internet should be seen as a major help in the music industry, not the hindrance some chalk it up to be.

Fut her, I was entrenched in a heated debate recently with someone who said that the music industry is doing fine and quite well despite all of the hoopla surrounding piracy and other internet issues and the overall demise of it all. My stance is that who cares about the majors? The music industry needs to understand, and change, their business model. With all of the capabilities the internet, not to mention home computers, provide, its easy to see the rise of multiple soulja boys and the like through your own doing.

I cant fathom the life I would have lived had I continued into the music industry the way that I was thinking I would. Thats not what I’m about. I’m about the freedom to create and brand your own sound and passion and to share that with the world as freely – and in the manner – that you intend. It is not to swoop in and take away what you created and package it into ‘the next big thing’. Thats not what music is or should be and I’m glad to not have fallen into that world. So my question is – one that I’m still struggling with – do we need the music industry, or does the music industry need us?

That being said, how wonderful of a project would it be to sign artists who create their own empire digitally. To help them further their career, minus the costs of pressing albums and offer only digital. Knowing that most artists make more money touring than selling albums, and many dont think about the legalities of their contract, this seems like the better deal for the artists – and the start up.

Thats something, I can still dream of being a part of.

I dont know how I really feel about Diddy (Sean Combs) parlaying his business saavy into a CMO campaign. I understand that he is a brilliant marketer when it comes to his clothing line, fragrances, and of course, music. But, now that Diddy’s taken on marketing for Ciroc vodka, one of the ways he’ll intend to bring fame to this brand is mentions in hip hop songs. What up wit dat?

If youre an artist, have some credibility. Dont be the first to step up to push liquor commercials in your art – or the art of others you manage. Its one thing for mentions to appear in music because they are a common part of the culture, but for you to specifically lace your hip hop with promotional drops of names is by far the biggest marketing travesty I’ve heard of in a long time.

But then again, I guess you have to get while the gettin’s good.