Risk by Stanley McChrystal & Anna Butrico

Risk by Stanley McChrystal & Anna Butrico

Author:Stanley McChrystal & Anna Butrico [McChrystal, Stanley & Butrico, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00


If the conundrum resembled a three-legged race, where hardware and the new demands of entertainment latched two legs together and stumbled into the future, Apple entered the contest with a niche market that would rise above these contradictions—providing the hardware (iPod) as well as the platform (iTunes) where users could purchase and store their music. To prevent the piracy that Sony had so vehemently avoided, iTunes made deals with record labels. This move headlocked Sony into allowing Apple to take over the digital music market.

Albhy Galuten from Universal Music Group explains that record labels had two choices: “Either you don’t do a deal with Steve [Jobs], in which case people continue to just email the MP3s to their friends, or you do a business with [Jobs] and he has a store, and then you can sell things.” Most major record labels chose the latter—and Apple stormed forward, claiming the digital market that Sony and other more traditional record labels had failed to obtain.

Ever since, the music industry has continued to adapt, eventually moving away from downloading models toward streaming services, such as Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, and Tidal. These companies follow a model similar to Napster’s: they allow users to cherry-pick the individual songs they want to listen to rather than require them to commit to purchasing an entire album. Additionally, these services, with the exception of Tidal, scratch the free-music itch by offering basic plans at no cost. Users can upgrade for a reasonable price.

Artists have also had to adapt to this new reality of music production and distribution that reduced the amount of royalties they once received with more traditional record, cassette, and CD sales. Taylor Swift famously criticized Apple Music for not paying royalties during its three-month free trial period, and others have aired similar grievances—continually requiring the streaming services to adapt and consider their royalty payout models.

At the same time, musicians, especially those who are up-and-coming and who do not have the platform and reach of celebrities like Taylor Swift, must continually seek out new ways to reach potential listeners and generate income streams from their music. As a result, they (at least pre-COVID-19) spend more time on the road touring and making their money from concert sales. When the pandemic made those options infeasible, artists released new surprise albums and employed new mediums to make music (and money) outside the existing infrastructure.

Adaptation is ongoing and iterative within an industry, as well as across enterprises—as organizations have to jump new bars, with new shoes, and at new heights, to achieve the shifting definition of success. Fear of change is only natural—adaptability requires the ability, willingness, and, I’d argue, courage to dare to become something different.



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