From ticketing and touring to production and distribution the “powers that be” in the recorded music industry are teetering on implosion.

Music sales continue to drastically decline, and ~40% of internet traffic is P2P. The most profitable artists market to small niches, have low overhead, and cater to the direct needs of their followers. This is the antithesis of the methodology of major music industry players. They do it their way, get a huge marketing engine behind them, and hope to ram it down your throat with shelf space, promotions, and advertising. Are they really thinking exclusives or better placement in “big box” retail spaces is going to solve the problem?

…The graph says you haven’t moved the dial…. Not this year, and certainly not in the last 5…

Of course, the Titanic can’t turn on a dime and getting the major labels on the same page is about as easy as turning back the hands of time.

As “propped up dinosaurs” and mega country bundles continue to rule the shed’s at $100 a ticket, the industry must prepare for the future… The current average age for concert-goers is approaching 50. I mean, how many times can we keep rolling these folks out and charging exorbitant prices. What’s the saturation point? What happens when they retire? Who are we cultivating as new major touring artists of the future? Who is the BREAKOUT artist of 2008?

Could it be that major labels and concert promoters are one big catastrophe away from a financial tailspin from which they can’t pull out? Multimillion dollar rights deals aren’t yet bonafide, and a few more years of hits to the bottom line of these mammoth companies can’t please investors… these companies aren’t Google of the early 00′s, shareholders need to see returns and a BLACK number at the bottom of financial statements.

I’ll end my rant, perhaps it’s my penchant to fight against authority, or my disdain for the huge organizations, red tape, and aristocracy, but I can’t help but see an opportunity for smaller organizations.

Find the cracks in the mold and exploit them, maximize your piece of the pie by looking where others aren’t.

Perhaps I woke up on the wrong side of the couch this morning. Maybe my coffee is too strong. Or maybe SonyBMG is so stupid about their online marketing efforts that they deserve to be ridiculed first thing the morning… every morning, until they stop damaging their own artist brands.

Case in point:

I’m a new superfan of a band called Low vs. Diamond. They played ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ last week and just plain knocked me out. (This is why God invented TIVO, by the way.) They have a decidedly English vibe about them a la The Verve and/or The Kooks, but hail from the good ole US of A.

But to my point- I became a fan, wanted to learn and hear more, and made the mistake of visiting their official website to do so.

The first thing on the page is a banner promoting, not my new favorite band, but Epic Records. Clearly, they want me to click on the dropdown lists of artists I DIDN’T just come here to learn more about. Next is a link to “Videos.” “Low vs. Diamond videos?” you may ask. No. It’s a link to the “Videos” page on MyPlay.com, where Bow Wow, Daughtry and Alicia Keys are currently making an appearance, but not even a mention of the band I’m here to see.

Wait! There’s more!

Next up is a link to “Shop.” And you guessed it… It’s a link to the MyPlay store, where Michelle Williams is front and center. John Mayer, Neil Diamond and Billy Joel all make the list… and again, the band that sent me here is no where to be found.

Get the point? There are also links to contests, newsletters and an invitation to surf the web courtesy of Google. They make money on those searches, by the way. Sending visitors to ‘not this site’ is a very profitable business for young artists, I’m sure.

All of this and I haven’t even made it 5 centimeters down the page.

I won’t speak to the design aesthetic of the site as those things tend to be more about personal taste than “right vs. wrong.” I will note, however, that the links in the middle of the page that display news, tour dates, bio, etc, are not the same links, with the same headings, as those that appear at the bottom of the page. Those links take you back over to “MyPlay,” where the band’s bio reads, “… iTunes offers fans an opportunity to purchase the band’s upcoming self-titled album months before its release this summer.”

10 brownie points to the person that can spot what’s wrong with that statement. (Hint: the band has already released their album, summer isn’t months from now, and biographies shouldn’t contain date-relative statements if they aren’t going to be updated frequently. Obviously it’s been at least “months” since this version was posted.)

And as if all of this weren’t enough to convince labels to get their heads out of their arses, the band’s site contains banner advertising, which I guarantee doesn’t earn them enough money to justify the dilution of their brand. Kenny Chesney literally takes more screen space on their Dates page than the promo of their own album up top. (Screen shot below.) I can’t make this stuff up, folks. It’s such an insult to the artist’s own brand it should go without saying, but it doesn’t help Epic, either. How much do you think they spent on the market research that led them to believe that Low vs. Diamond fans had any interest whatsoever in Bow Wow, Alicia Keys or Kenny Chesney? I’m guessing they spent zero dollars on that research, but did pay a high six figure salary to the marketing executive that thought this label-wide strategy was a good idea.

I’m probably not doing myself any favors by railing on a company affiliated with my past and potentially future clients, but this stupidity MUST be stopped for the sake of these artists and their fans. Why bother having an “official” site at all if you’re just going to spam it up, neglect it and insult the people visiting?

And to think… they truly believe that “copyright infringement” is the reason artists have a harder time making a living in today’s world than they did just a decade ago… but that’s another can of worms.

Visit Pinky’s latest venture: http://musicmarketing.ning.com