The announcement of Merlin is interesting if not a little confusing (couldn’t find their website).

I’m all for any business that attempts to improve market conditions for independent artists. Merlin’s deals with MySpace and SNOCAP are being touted as a significant power shift in the music distribution business. Apparently this shift will benefit smaller labels. Theoretically it will benefit independent artists. That would be a good thing.

A couple questions: should we be skeptical of a web oriented new media licensing business that doesn’t appear to have basic website? Not necessarily.

Is this new Merlin non-profit attempting to become the first large scale fair trade body in the music industry? I doubt it. These aren’t bedroom operators. They’re much smaller than the majors and they seem to have a different set of values. They’re also successful organizations with a history of gold and platinum records.

Regardless, there are macro forces at work that strongly affect the music industry’s mid-sized players. Music supply chains have been going through a phase of disintermediation. This has been a good thing for independent artists and producers. Undoubtedly new forms of mediation will emerge and Merlin can be viewed as an alliance of SMB’s proposing their own form. It will be interesting to see if their form of mediation will offer many advantages to media savvy independents.

UPDATE: Grant McCracken has an interesting perspective on pricing strategies for the music industry. He and I have different patterns of music consumption. His proposed system wouldn’t work for someone like me. His ideas are worth a thoughtful read. I’ve been reading him a lot lately. Smart stuff.
[tags]Merlin, independent music, disintermediation[/tags]