Commodity

Over at Rolling Stone is an article about how the Music industry is under attack from iTunes and Wall-Mart. Odd how an industry would consider big customers like Apple and Wall-Mart hostile.

Anyway the quote that really raised my dander was this one...
"Wal-Mart has no long-term care for an individual artist or marketing plan, unlike the specialty stores, which were a real business partner. At Wal-Mart, we're a commodity and have to fight for shelf space like Colgate fights for shelf space."


To whit I respond. You reap what you sow.

The big music production companies have been in the habit of commoditizing everything about music. The sound, artists, production, packaging (back before digital), marketing, all of it, has been made as predictable as they knew how to make it. As a result, music is just one more commodity in this world. It belongs in the grocery store right next to the Pop-Tarts.

So why, after all the efforts of the music industry to make their product as common and easily accessible would they then bemoan the fact that their product is just as disposable to Wall-Mmart as razor blades or children's clothing?