Seems like this time of year, everyone chimes in on how to fix what done been broke.

Hypebot’s manifesto:

Stop blaming a lack of hit product and start nurturing new talent.

Sorry kids, but this has never been an adequate solution. First, the major labels are not set up for this kind of marketing and haven’t been for at least a decade and probably two. The indies do this a lot and guess what… the majors rarely swoop in and raid Matador or Merge or Barsuk. Has it happened? Sure it has! (Hello, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE) But the majors generally do not view the indies as a farm system. The majors are much more apt to set up a vanity label or, god forbid, some version of a vanity label known these days as an “incubator.” The record business, by and large, is a homerun business. It is built on homeruns and relies on homeruns, the big mega sellers that pay for all the shit that gets thrown up against the wall. And what your favorite indie hipster won’t tell you is that the indies basically operate on the same sort of financial restrictions, albeit on a much lower scale. Barsuk needs relative hits as much as Sony does, because it pays for the many acts that will stiff. Yes, there is a Monday-morning-box-office habit at the major labels, but in the end “nurturing” is typically viewed as a one way street where the artist has immunity. Nurturing new talent isn’t going to solve any problems—DUDE, there are at least 30,000 new titles released each year, and that includes THOUSANDS by the majors. It’s easier to argue that TOO MANY ARTISTS are being nurtured.

Stop suing individual file sharers and drop all copy protection to regain consumer confidence.

While we’re at it, we should demand that the beer industry cut their prices by 75%. That way, we’d be a lot closer to getting FREE BEER.

Stop blaming P2P and start embracing new technologies: legal P2P, podcasting , subscription services and technologies that haven’t even been invented yet.

Now we’re getting warmer. The industry as a whole should start taking much bigger risks when it comes to tech.

Stop flirting with value-added schemes like CD Plus and CD/DVD hybrids and embrace them.

What Hypebot means here is that the current value proposition offered by the major labels and the brick-and-mortar distributors is outdated. More value = more unique market proposition = unique positioning = better branding = competitive advantage = more sales.

Stop charging consumers more for a CD than they pay for a DVD and start aggressively experimenting with variable pricing both in stores and with downloads.

Changing technology is not a war over pricing and anyone who argues it is either naive or ignorant. Price matters, but if you live by price you must be willing to die by it. Variable pricing is a tactic, NOT a strategy. You win battles with tactics and you win wars with strategy.

Stop worrying about commercial radio and start supporting non-commercial, satellite and Internet broadcasting as well as mp3 blogs, online music sites and communities, and print and net delivered magazines and fan zines.

All labels are already doing this. That they do not prioritize this element of the market is arguably smart. After all, the barriers to entry on the tech side are still very low, either technologically or in more esoteric terms of how things get marketed. The blogosphere does not hold a significant competitive advantage at all.

Stop thinking that every act has to go platinum and start creating a profitable business around artists who consistently sell 50,000 – 250,000 CDs.

Guess what, most major labels support hundreds of acts in just this manner. Again, this is anecdotal crack cocaine for the musical anarchist crowd but it’s not a realistic strategy. Kids, if you are waiting for the major labels to abandon their strengths—which of course is developing and servicing platinum artists—then you are going to be waiting a long time. To wit, how many more times do you have to watch a SLEATER-KINNEY or Death Cab for Cutie ditch their original indie for a bigger pimp squad because the oh-so-riddled-with-cred indie can’t handle the success? This, as you old-schoolers will note, is why people like HUSKER DU moved to a major.

Stop trying to hide your head in the sand and embrace the change.

There is some evidence that the majors (and the industry as a whole) is trying to change, but as I’ve noted, as a mature industry, it’s almost impossible for current structures to embrace significant amounts of risk. Hypebot is basically telling the industry that they need to abandon everything they know and try to do something that they don’t. Would you do that yourself?