Slashdot Mirror
The Downward Spiral of Music Retailing
chundo writes "Business Week has an article about the financial problems plagueing specialty music retailers. Tower Records, Musicland, and Sam Goody are all "hemorrhaging money", despite efforts to move sales online. Some chains are trying to adapt - Virgin Megastore is testing an in-store service to download songs to portable players, and their Radio Free Virgin unit hopes to break into digital music retailing. Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?"
It's fairly obvious to me that the falling sales are both proof that the business model is failing (due to a change in the market environment) and that it will also provide ammunition for the RIAA's anti-P2P argument.
The RIAA is, I believe, misunderstanding the situation in that they would lose sales regardless, but the reality of any situation rarely intrudes on the legalities.
When the price of a new CD went to $20 I simply stopped buying. I have no downloaded MP3s and no copied CDs. I've simply curtailed my music purchasing due to what I see as exorbitant pricing. Period. And until prices come down I will not purchase another CD. I am who the music industry is loasing as a customer, and they just don't get it.
Just for a sample:
Amazon.com Radiohead: Hail to the thief. US$13.49
Amazon.ca Same cd: CDN$ 13.99
Plus buy a book or something els which you *need*. Bring the total to $39 cdn. free shipping. Also amazon does have a used cd section.
Democratic USA - Government of the corporations, by the Corporations, for the corporations.
Why do half the posts on this story talk about the RIAA? The story isn't about the RIAA. It's not even about CD sales as a whole (though they do mention the declining CD sales); it's about SPECIALTY MUSIC STORES losing market share. Even if you don't want to read the article, at least the story submission. Or at least the first sentence of it.
Yes, except the opposition Jefferson was talking about here wasn't really evil, they just held different views from Jefferson and his political party. He's talking about the Federalist party, which had a bunch of really smart guys in it, like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington (though those two stayed out of partisan politics,) John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. All the best though.
I bought my copy at Borders for $12.44.
Tower Records: $9.99
c-hack.com |
Sam Goodie, on the other hand, is simply awful. The prices are higher than any other chain, and every time I walk into one I feel like I'm in a generic mall shop instead of a store that is part of the music culture. No thank you.
If you're implying that Tower or Virgin are, even a little bit in the 'music culture', you're definitely wrong. I can't say anything about Hear Music, because I've never seen one, but Tower and Virgin just peddle you the same crap over and over again. Their 'indie' or 'non-mainstream' stuff is a wasteland... It's full of hip-sounding music with no substance, albumns from artists that used to be actually good but now have started to suck and are trying to 'hit it big' to compensate, or absolutely random, though sometimes good picks that come out of nowhere, with no culture or context.
True music culture happens in small record stores, stores owned by labels and/or producers/musicians, stores frequented by music profesionals or DJs, or the Internet (which can offer really good music that does not come from your area).
Napster may be dead as a bent dog, but while it was still kicking it achieved something significant: It convinced my mom, my grandma, and my friend's mom and grandma that they could find and download all the Perry Como songs they could (force me to) tolerate.
They haven't forgotten. If they can't P2P, it just makes them pissed off - they aren't buying $20 CDs ever again.
-Graham