David Byrne: Who needs record labels?

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne gave a presentation entitled "Record Companies: Who Needs Them?" at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas on Thursday.

His presentation offered a slide show that predicated digital album sales would outstrip physical CD sales by 2012. Byrne basically wants record labels to focus more on actual marketing than on manufacturing and physical distribution in the face of increasing digital download sales.

Byrne also said that he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the DRM on files sold on iTunes. Byrne predicated that once DRM is removed, iTunes will no longer "have a monopoly," and labels will be better prepared to deal with online sales.

An audience member suggested that such an idea was depressing, largely due to the lower sound quality of a digital download. "As long as it doesn't get to be too horrible [the sound quality] they'll go for convenience and accessibility," says Byrne. "It doesn't have to sound good to move people," he added.

[via NYTimes]