The Music Biz Is the New Book Industry

jonerik writes "The new issue of New York Magazine includes this intriguing article by Michael Wolff which makes the case that the music biz will soon be going the way of the book industry. Arguing that larger-than-life characters such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Dorothy Parker were the rock stars of their time, Wolff points out that 'where before you'd be happy only at gold and platinum levels, soon you'll be grateful if you have a release that sells 30,000 or 40,000 units -- that will be your bread and butter. You'll sweat every sale and dollar. Other aspects of the business will also contract -- most of the perks and largesse and extravagance will dry up completely. The glamour, the influence, the youth, the hipness, the hookers, the drugs -- gone. Instead, it will be a low-margin, consolidated, quaintly anachronistic business, catering to an aging clientele, without much impact on an otherwise thriving culture awash in music that only incidentally will come from the music industry.' Wolff also relates a recent lunch he had at Sony Music in which a sort of paralyzed acceptance had set in; 'The recent past was very bad; the future was likely to be worse. All money earned from here on in would be harder to earn. This felt like acceptance to me: We simply don't know what to do.'"

Comments

Well, it'll either go that way..

[Idimmu Xul]

or all the large corporations will end up ruling the world and we will all be slaves serving under their tyranny listening to Nsync 24/7 with little advertising devices implanted into our eyes and ears.

Personally, I can't wait for my own personal add implant! I love Nsync, and where's my coke?

More predictions...

[Anonymous Coward]

Also in the future, shamed sensationalistic writers such as Jon Katz will have to use cheesy pseudonyms such as "Michael Wolff" in order to publish zeitgeist articles without being ridiculed.

the hookers and the drugs wont be gone....

[CySurflex]

The glamour, the influence, the youth, the hipness, the hookers, the drugs -- gone

Except the retired rock stars that will have to work as hookers and drug dealers

Re:Three orders of magniture of hype, cost and pay

[starling]

>the same two plots stretched out to 13 shows

Ok, I give up. What was the other plot?

the man's got a point

[cyril3]

celine dion is the new stephen king. can't argue with that.

she scares the shit outa me.

Re:Bad value for the money? Call in the feds

[vegetablespork]

Get congress to pass a law to pay musicians NOT to produce music.

This works for me. Can we start with *NSync and the Backstreet Boys? It may mean higher taxes and less dollars for homeland security, but it'd be worth it.