[By Robert Andrews]: The music industry must drop the compact disc format and modernize to survive, says hip-hop artist, producer and record label owner Will.i.am. The producer and Black Eyed Peas musician said he fears the business may “fall apart” if it does not respond better to the rise of digital content. “It’s a whole different type of business, and they haven’t figured out how to monetize it yet,” he said. “I hate to say it, they just have to abandon the plastic disc; it doesn’t mean anything anymore, it’s all just straight to computers.
They need to open the format, and really make money off mp3s and not see it as a threat. They’re trying to hold on for dear life. We have to redefine what it is we’re selling [listeners]. Yesterday’s model just isn’t working anymore.”

Will runs his own eponymous record imprint inside A&M/Interscope and last year took up an executive head of marketing post with Musicane, a site allowing artists to market and sell their tunes directly on websites then receive revenue via PayPal. He is currently working in the studio with Michael Jackson on the veteran singer’s forthcoming album, raising the prospect of an exclusive online release.

“I dream how he could be the first major artist to release a record through this platform without a record company,” Will told paidContent.org. “Groups that I work with in the future that don’t want to go the traditional route with the record company but want to use this independent route and make money, I would do that with them.” He said Jackson was in “great shape” and the two are working on “strong melodies that affect people emotionally and rhythms that make people dance. I think he’s probably the only person that doesn’t need a label and, through social networking, be able to release his album and be successfully independently ... straight from the studio onto the web for people to purchase. I hope he uses the Musicane thing—that would be fresh.”

Direct releases from independent musicians was a common thread to the closing stages of MidemNet.
-- Chris McBride of artist management firm Nettwerk, which has pioneered music marketing through online relationships with “uber-fans”, said the direct-to-fan channel results in several hundred thousand sales on the first day of his artists’ releases.
-- Steven Page of Nettwerk’s Barenaked Ladies, told a panel that marketing through such a “personal connection” meant fans “walk away from that thing, but floating.”
-- EMI staged a press conference to tout the grassroots rise of U.S. band Shiny Toy Guns before signing to the label. Vocalist Jeremy Dawson said maintaining individual online relationships with the fans allows the band to send gig updates to audiences via mobile SMS, targeting them to a local level based on location. “Pretty soon, it turns into residual sales,” Dawson said.