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After Brief Respite Music Industry Slump Deepens
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Sales picked up for the record labels late last year, but 2005 has been bleak. The Wall Street Journal ticks off evidence: 'During the crucial Thanksgiving week, for instance, the top 10 albums sold 40% fewer copies than the top 10 albums the same week in 2004. ... Sales of individual digital tracks on services like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store have increased -- but not nearly enough to offset the slide in CD sales. According to an estimate from SoundScan, overall sales of recorded music are down about 4.5%, if one considers 10 individual tracks the equivalent of an album.' The WSJ also lists familiar reasons for the decline -- 'online piracy, CD burning, high prices and competition for consumer dollars from videogames and DVDs' -- while adding, 'Lately, people in the music industry have said the same basic issues have been intensified by the growing popularity of pricey gadgets like Apple's iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, as well as the rising prices for games that go with the new platform.'"
Wow, there's other reasons than "online piracy" that leads to declined sales of music. Heh, it won't be long until RIAA either demands a halt in the sale of high priced gadgets such as the Ipod and the Xbox360, or demands a portion of the income from the sales. ;)
Personally, I'd use a trombone. Exerts far more authority than a violin, when staging an insurrection.
We got terribly excited by the idea of selecting only a few tracks to put on our iPod. When the excitement died down, we noticed that the music was still shit.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Perhaps they just lost a file with part of the sales listed in it..
I think it was named $sys$Sales.txt or something like that..
Recent studies have shown >. Consumers are selecting only the tracks they want in complete disregard of the impact this might have on the income of poor struggling creative musicians. To rectify this injustice, Congress needs to legislate that sales of music online will only be permitted under the same conditions as those of music albums: with unpopular tracks bundled along with their more popular cousins. Only in this way can musical creativity be maintained and further encouraged in this great country of ours.
This just in...
Music piracy is also down a whopping 69% for the same week in 2004.
Not only are they not able to peddle their overpriced crap on us but now their overpriced crap is so bad that it doesn't even inspire us to steal it from them.
Lately, people in the music industry have said the same basic issues have been intensified by the growing popularity of pricey gadgets like Apple's iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, as well as the rising prices for games that go with the new platform.
Well, I guess we know who they're going to sue next!
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
The second greatest trick the Devil ever played was to convice people that music was an industry.
Since those pirates come to our shores and started to download music instead of attacking ships at sea, our god given profit has since diminished. It has been leeched by these onerous high seas scoundrils! Since they will not stop downloading, and since we have been having a little difficulty in shutting down the internet or purchasing it from its misterious owners we must do the next best thing! Pass laws that enable us to put to sleep, or perhaps just put them to prison, for daring to encrouch upon our livelihood!
After all, it is unnatural for the profits to go down, despite better ways of transporting content (don't you just love that word). To maintain our profit margin we must further lower the average contractual wages of musicians from around 8% to around five-ish or so. Perhaps lower. After all, those people just keep making music no matter what, so it is a good thing that we take that money which otherwise would be spent on useless things, like morgages, dental insurance or something. Best to keep them on their toes, begging at our doors to sign the contracts that we make up as we go along (after all, there is no such thing as a standard contract in the music industry, but the musicians don't need to know that).
In closing, I would like to thank our esteemed supporters in the government circles who will be recieving their little purses of joy when their next election comes up.
Best regards,
Nates Reficule,
general manager, Angelic Records inc.
A bad analogy is like a leaky screwdriver.
Between 2004 and 2005, 40% more people realized that Top 40 music was shit and stopped buying it.
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
What? Consumers are just now getting sick of the manufactured music crapola?
How is it any different now that it was in the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, etc. ?
1990s: backstreet boys, britney spears, n'sync
1980s: menudo, new kids on the block, wham!
1970s: the village people, the bee gees, kc and the sunshine band
i could go on and on...
A lot of people are saying that too much crap was released this year, but look at the top selling albums of 2004:
Rank Title, Artist Units sold
1. Confessions, Usher 7,978,594
2. Feels Like Home, Norah Jones 3,842,920
3. Encore, Eminem 3,517,097
4. When the Sun Goes, Kenny Chesney 3,072,224
5. Here for the Party, Gretchen Wilson 2,931,097
6. Live Like You Were Dying, Tim McGraw 2,786,840
7. Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 2,708,415
8. Fallen, Evanescence 2,614,226
9. Autobiography, Ashlee Simpson 2,576,945
10. Now That's What I Call Music 16, Various Artists 2,560,316
Man, I just lost my breakfast. Can it really get much worse?
"the top 10 albums sold 40% fewer copies than the top 10 albums the same week in 2004."
This statistic taken alone is meaningless. Depending what's happening along the rest of the curve it can mean that sales have slowed, or it can mean that people are buying a more diverse set of music.
Most of the problems listeners cite IRT the music industry center around labels hyperpromoting a few bands at the expense of thousands of others who get no airplay or in-store marketing. When the top 10 account for a smaller proportion of sales it means that the power curve is flattening a little and people are thinking a bit more for themselves instead of buying what big media tells them to.
And this is bad how?
Kevin Fox
...and say: Is it entirely possible that the there is a slump in the top song purchases from last year because this year's music just sucks?! I mean seariously, I think that piracy is too convenient an excuse to blame for declining sales. But even if it were true, why would people pay for trash if they could just as easily get it for free? I suggest an experiment, lower the price of tracks by half, (ie an iTunes $0.99 track to $0.49) and see what happens (oh and none of the crap about 'allowing the market to decide the price of each song'--charge a uniform price for all of them). I know that I myself would buy tracks more often.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
to buy a root kit.
But they were sold out.......
Rick B.
It typically costs more for the soundtrack to a movie than the DVD of the movie itself. Particularly after both have been on shelves for six months or so. The music industry continues to overcharge for their product and then sue it's own customers when they bypass those costs.
and it was better 15 years ago?
:)
1 - Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme
2 - M.C. Hammer Please Hammer Don t Hurt Em
3 - Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
4 - Whitney Houston - I m Your Baby Tonight
5 - Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey
6 - Paul Simon - Rhythm Of The Saints
7 - Bette Midler - Some People s Lives
8 - Wilson Phillips - Wilson Phillips
9 - AC/DC - The Razors Edge
10 - George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
Ice Ice, baby!!!
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
RIAA plans to sue the several hundred people who were lucky enough to find an X-Box 360 to purchase.
A spokesman for the organization stated that the reason for the suit was that "the money spent on the X-Box could have gone towards the purchase of 20 to 25 CD."
My first post was marked Troll by a thoughtless mod. Instant Bad Karma.