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Douglas MacMillan is one of the Ninja Hamsters at ADOTAS aka an intern. He previously spent several months working as a dutiful intern under the dictatorship of Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone, only to be set free by our own Kiran. He does not get Jaime skim lattes in the morning.

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Tower Records’ Adventures in Podcasting

Written on
Mar 7, 2006 
Author
Douglas MacMillan  |
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Tower Records’ Adventures in Podcasting

If you need proof that the music industry has taken a headfirst plunge into the digital space, visit your nearest record store. The aisles are empty. The pop, rock, and rap sections have collapsed into two aisles of mish-mash under the heading “Popular Music” to make room for a DVD and video game section. There’s no swarm of teenagers ogling over the New Releases board or standing in line for the Listening Stations. CDs have become the latest casualty in the music industry since vinyl, 8-tracks, and cassettes, and retail chains like Tower Records and Sam Goody are the desolate graveyards that house their remains.

Go online, on the other hand, and you will find a music community as vibrant, trendy and prosperous as it has ever been. iTunes, Rhapsody, and Napster lead a group of over 150 music subscription and download services which are sopping up huge revenue streams and skyrocketing membership rates. Portable devices like iPods, mobile phones, and satellite radio players are carrying this digital music sphere to the streets and beaches and mountaintops. Music fans have left their CD players and alphabetized collections behind in the dust, and the message they sing to advertisers who want to hear them is simple: roll with the innovations or be left in the dust with the rest.

This coming March 15, at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX, Tower Records will officially announce its plan to bridge the gap between retail store and online music outlet. Towerpod.com is a creative and ambitious attempt to harness the current music generation’s obsession with generating, sorting, and sharing its own content. Users will be given the tools to create their own audio or video podcast, and choose from a library of over 6,000 songs to program it. The service is completely free, and the most popular user-generated podcasts will be ad-supported. The revenue will be spread into many different hands, including the user who created the podcast, the musicians, the songwriters, the labels, and Tower itself.

For a variety of reasons, this plan has been met with skepticism. First of all, there’s Tower’s recent economic downturn. In 2004, the company which once generated more than $1 billion a year entered bankruptcy. According to unsubstantiated reports by Billboard, it may even be up for auction sometime soon. The Towerpod project shouldn’t cost a great deal up front, but considering the number of people that must be paid out by the little advertising it will host, it is highly doubtful that it will provide the great financial thrust they are seeking.

Then there’s the music itself. Instead of bringing in the vast majority of artists and songs represented by the major labels they carry in their retail stores—which would require sticky copyright issues—Tower has chosen to work mostly with independent artists and labels. The Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), which represents the digital sound recording rights of hundreds of independent musicians, is the vehicle by which Tower can offer so much music for free. Because IODA has already crafted an elaborate network of online rights protection for these artists, Tower can shoot song after song through the digital space without having to worry about the headaches of copyright infringement. The artists themselves, who can’t hope to make much money directly through the program, will benefit from a huge worldwide increase in exposure.

I recently spoke with Gavin Rhodes, the podcast representative from Hieroglyphics, a hip-hop collective based in Oakland, CA known for causing big stirs in the world of underground music, and one of the IODA artists named in the deal. For the past year, the group has taken the initiative to operate its own podcast to reach out to its dedicated fan base and find the support of thousands of new listeners. For groups like Hieroglyphics, whose talent is continually overlooked by mass media outlets like commercial radio and MTV, Towerpod.com could mean even bigger changes in the way their music is circulated. Gavin expressed to me that the group couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities. “I’m sure it will be popular as it’s another way fans can use our music to make a personal statement,” he says. “I think it will be a new grassroots way of spreading the word about our music.”

Creating a new medium for independent artists to receive the national recognition they deserve is certainly a noble undertaking, but I question whether Tower is the right brand for such a job. I have to think that the average Tower Records patron will be alienated. Their customers go to the store (or used to, at least) to find the latest big Madonna or Rolling Stones record, not some obscure independent hip-hop or punk rock. The artists represented by IODA happen to be among some of my personal favorite obscure treasures, and they deserve to receive greater exposure in the digital sphere. But Tower Records will not be able to build this innovative and risky podcasting model on their little-known talent alone.





Reader Comments.

how does it feel to use your thinly veiled articles in the great media conspiracy that will ultimately destroy that which is creative and uniqe. you claim this piece as a critique of tower music’s inability to support their new endeavor, and yet is this article not just a clever ruse meant to draw attention to this new “service”. it greatly distresses me that what should be a critical analysis is nothing more than shameless advertising. what ever happened to sticking to the man through one’s words. perhaps your time is better served contemplating the greater mysteries in life and not plugging that which is evil and insidious in american culture. damn the man for he is my enemy and we will not rest until the collective consciuosness of humanity is awakened to your heinous conspiracy.

Posted by the now angry bear | 11:02 pm on March 7, 2006.

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