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UK Music Industry Sees Record Sales
ardmhacha writes "Despite the claims of gloom and doom from the BPI (the UK equivalent of the RIAA) the BBC is reporting that 'UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade body said albums by the likes of Keane and The Streets had helped drive a 3% rise compared with last year. It also said sales of single tracks were up thanks to the availability of legal download services.' It looks like music sales will continue to climb if the customers get something they like. The article also discusses adding music downloads to the charts."
... in Edinburgh, local cinema managers are blaming declining attendances on pirate DVD's being sold at local flea markets.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I think that it's fair to say that record refers to recording, not only to vinyl or any other specific medium.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
To some people, "record" doesn't just mean vinyl with grooves in. I'm not familiar with British copyright terminology, but at least under U.S. copyright law, a "phonorecord" is a medium in which a sound recording is fixed, roughly corresponding to a "copy" of any other work. Examples of various types of phonorecords, or "records" for short, include Columbia 33.3 RPM LP, RCA 45 RPM single, Lear 8-track cartridge, Compact Cassette, Compact Disc Digital Audio, MiniDisc, MP3 CD-R, and any hard drive containing music files.
too.
To me, "records" will always be vinyl 33 1/3 rpm LPs.
"Album" predates LP's and originally referred to a collection of 8-10 separate 78rpm disks. They were packaged in a binder, shaped like a photo album. ("Like a what?")
I hate it when people steal words. But then, I also hate the word police, so I'm stuck.
sigs, as if you care.
I'm not the grandparent, but I was in exactly the same situation, I had seen Blade Runner, but not heard any Vangelis on "it's own", so to speak, until I used p2p.
Having used that, I now own 3 of their albums, one on vinyl, which I certainly wouldn't have without having downloaded a few songs off a p2p network.
So in my case, the use of a p2p network has profited the music industry, or at least Vangelis and their record label.
(I will add, just for the sake of completeness, that it was seeing Blade Runner which caused me to download the songs in the first place)
I read it as "UK Music Industry Sees Record(=ALBUM) Sales".
I was like... so... the music industry sold some records? AMAZING!
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The economy is picking up so people are spending money on things like music again
Your American bias is showing. Here in the UK, our economy doesn't have to pick up. We don't have record deficits and our currency is not in free-fall. In fact, we have the opposite problem - some Americans are worried about the sliding dollar, but over here the worry is that the pound might be too strong, which is hurting our exports. Funny old world.
The real reason is your (B): our music industry has started concentrating on the things we do best ourselves, instead of trying to beat the best American artists at their own game. And whaddya know, as soon as we stopped copying you slavishly and started to make the most of our own talent, we started wanting our own music again! Amazing.
Note to the entertainment industry: we computer scientists have jumped into the 21st century by getting through the Y2K bug, I suggest you push your business model to the 21st century as well and reap the benefits be earning my money instead of coercing me. iTunes started it, now embrace it.
Believe it or not, there was a representative from the music industry on the radio this evening on the way back from work talking about just that. He was trying to explain why the record profits don't mean piracy isn't a threat, and his argument was that the piracy thing had forced them to lay off a lot of the middlemen and just concentrate on the artists and music.
Which sounds likely to be quite true.
I don't quite see why he thought "concentrating on the artists" was a bad thing for the music industry, though...
It's not a "they" it's a "him." Vangelis O Papathanassiou - I think you can see why he just uses "Vangelis."
Anyone who wants to collect his 'entire' back catalog has their work cut out.
Personally, I love Blade Runner but I think his music sounds too much of the same. If Yanni hadn't happened years later it probably woldn't bother me, but now every time I hear it all I think of is hackneyed cliches like the beach running scene in "Chariots of Fire" or Yanni on stage "jamming" with that soulless "na-na-na-na-na" song.
If you like Vangelis you need to hit Magnatune. They have a lot of electronic artists, many of whom I find much more interesting than Vangelis. Also check out Tangerine Dream (who I also find more interesting than Vangelis).
And of course you must get his collaboration with Yes-man Jon Anderson - not to mention Wakeman's solo stuff - which then leads us to Yes's catalog, Jethro Tull...
I don't know if Canada has had record sales, but they are up over last year according to stats published by the Canadian record industry association. Sales up 7% year to date, profits up 1%.
I think Frontline did a fairly good job of explaining why the US music industry is not making money.
h ows/musi c/view/
(60 min: Real Player & Windows Media)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/s
P2P may be a problem, but is not the primary reason for decreased earnings.
Personally, I think this has a lot to do with new music. The introduction and promotion of new genres usually gives the industry a boost. Unfortunately, corporate ownership and quarterly profits have forced many labels to avoid risky long term investments for unproven music. They opt for safe manufactured pop and wonder why sales are diminishing.
But, anyway, watch the Frontline piece, it's good stuff.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Office of National Staistics says that population has grown 0.4% per year since mid-2001. So the record industry is above the curve.
My subjective response to the music industry is that the output in the previous year has improved greatly, such that I'm far more likely to buy a few CD's.
Well actually phonograph is simply a sound recording. Phono = sound, graph = record.
See also:
Photograph - a recording of light
Pornograph - a recording of the body
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.