Record Labels Need Strategic Alliances

By Steve Meyer, Inside Music Media™ Contributor
"If you do not seek out allies and helpers, then you will be isolated and weak." - Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
If ever there was a time for the music industry to seek symbiotic relationships, it's now. The formation of these partnerships is becoming a key component in all corporate thinking and has been talked about recently in leading business publications. This from BUSINESS WEEK: "...companies should expand beyond their existing resources through licensing arrangements, strategic alliances, and supplier relationships." From FORTUNE: "Alliances have become an integral part of contemporary strategic thinking." Music companies have relied on mega-selling multi-platinum albums during their fiscal year to continually drive revenues and profits. With a healthy, diverse, and deep roster, that formula worked well for labels for quite sometime. Enter the Internet, technology to burn CDs, and the era of instant gratification and with it, disposable music, movies, and fashion. The public consumed "junk culture" like junk food and moved on to the "next thing" at an ever-increasing speed. The Osbornes today and Nick & Jessica yesterday, Hannah Montana and the High School Musical today, who knows who tomorrow. Strategic partnerships are fueling the growth of the world's most successful companies as the demand to deliver new products at lower prices increases. There's no reason why labels can't start mapping out a brighter future now to bring music to an even bigger audience than ever before. (Steve Meyer is one of the music industry's top professionals and publisher of the new media newsletter DISC & DAT)