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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.'"
this timeline also explains the thanksgiving slump. funny how tfa does not mention that.
But, there were rumours that like radio airplay, the promoters had figured out a way to rig the charts as well. Something like spend a large sums of money on buying back your albums and then sell them back. That way the albums climb the chart even though no-one is buying the CDs.
I'm not 100% sure of this. But, I think it somewhat explains why the charts are so weird. I'm an avid music listener but I out of the top 100, I would only consider listening to at most 5 of them (even though it's the same 5 for the whole year).
I know what you mean i use http://magnatune.com/ they have a wonderful service and good music at good prices.. and you can download in just about any worth while format including flac... I wonder if the "Industry" even considers that there is "other" stuff out there that we might be listening too and not just the pre-programed crap that they have been putting out..
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Indeed. I haven't purchased any music over the last decade from a group that started durring the last decade. I also haven't downloaded any of that crap, either.
I want strong, classically trained musicians, not talented singers pulled off the street who think the act of writing music is simple experimenting with what "sounds good." You gotta learn the rules before you can break them, otherwise you're the backstreet boys.
Back in the late 1980's an import record shop in my area had the idea of putting together compilations on the fly for customers and burning them onto CD. The technology was available if expensive at the time, and the intention was to pay royalties to the copyright holders for the tracks which required just a really simple database. I suspect local agents for the record companies involved quite liked the idea, because it got as far as a press release - but then apparently threats of legal action followed. Only now, more than fifteen years later, a PC manufacturer is making a lot of money doing effectively the same thing with iTunes. In the meantime people have been burning their own music compilations for many years - one thing which long record company inspired delays in the release of consumer CD burners did not stop.
They are not going to move with the times - it may just look like they will because they may be bought out by groups that do. The studios are as bad/worse/often the same people - the long delay of consumer DVD burners is evidence of that and hopefully they won't hold up newer formats for as long.
--frank[at]unternet.org
In europe in some countries they already levy a "tax" on mp3 player. In Germany I think this is levied on all storage devices, including hard drives. In Finland they currently only levy a tax on CD's and tapes.
Now is it me, or does this mean that the state has given up its monopoly right to taxation? I remember something about a war taking place due to taxation without representation...
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
I have noticed a phenomena not mentioned. Once I ripped my collection, then weeded the collection of the songs I really didn't like, then I had a condensed collection of all my favorite music. Put it on random play and it is like my own private radio station.
On random I have enough music that I never get sick of my own collection.
The implication for me: I don't listen to music radio anymore, ever! Think about it, I don't actually hear new music anymore. I have all the music I need. This is what they really need to fear. I notice my friends doing the same as well.
I do think other factors are crap music, while others discount boycott, I have been on a 3+ year boycott of RIAA now and it will never end. I don't need any more music, so their near monopoly is now dead to me. If I encounter a new band in a small venue that I like, I could by their album straight from them, but the RIAA will never get another penny of my money.
RIAA has more to fear from the IPOD than from downloads. Big random play collections replace the need for new music once it reaches a critical mass.
1865 - Locomotive Act (amended 1878) - restricted the speed of horse-less vehicles to 4mph in open country and 2 mph in towns. Act required three drivers for each vehicle - 2 to travel in the vehicle and one to walk ahead carrying a red flag... - the Red Flag Act.
1896 - Repeal of 1865 'Red Flag Act' after nearly two decades of strong support from horse interests. Horse-less vehicles now free to travel faster than walking pace! Royal Automobile Club founded. First RAC London to Brighton run held to celebrate the new era of speed. Race was won by Americans who didn't stop for lunch like the rest of the contestants...figures...
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
All too true. But I think there's another paradigm at work here.
If you go back a couple of decades, the radio dial could bring you unprofessional, unpolished stuff along with the produced stuff. You could flip around and hear people performing--horror of horrors--live. It made people actually care about the performers a bit more, to be able to hear their little foibles, agonize with their mistakes, and cheer them on silently from this side of the air waves.
Now the airwaves are full of stuff that's been produced to completely eliminate any evidence of the production process. Synthesizers, vocoders and digital editing suites have become more responsible than the actual artists for the results. The few cases where this isn't true, any and all evidence of the singers themselves being human (breathing, hitting a note just slightly wrong) have been eliminated to bring up production values.
Add in the fact that, no matter where you hear it, be it at the grocery store, the dentist's waiting room, the bowling alley or in your car from your personal copy, it'll always be exactly the same song. You never hear the singer do something different. You never hear an extra interlude somewhere in the middle.
For all you know, the actual song ISN'T reproducible; it was a one-shot thing that the artists are struggling to this day to reproduce even a shadow of.. There's a song on The Killers' album, for instance, that they used their basement-produced tracks of because they couldn't do it as good anymore.
This is what we're fighting for, really. We need artists who ARE artists, who can step up to a mic, and/or sit down with their instrument, and step up to the challenge of actually honing their craft, improving themselves, striving to give us something new and better with every performance. What you record should just be a sample of what you've got; not the sum total of your repetoire.
If you look at the classic rock legends, you'll see this holds true. Likewise country music stars like Garth Brooks. Tons of material, they were always working to improve themselves. We remember them, not the one-hit-wonders like Men Without Hats or Right Said Fred. (Yeah, I grew up in the 80s) The key is that the music industry has been rewarding one-hit-wonders for too long, trying to get as much mileage out of them as possible without banking on people who would rather go the distance.
To make a comparison, it's like today's music industry is trying to make several furbies, tickle-me-elmos and cabbage patch dolls every year, and then scratching their heads wondering why people aren't lapping it up. We need those building blocks, legos and playing cards of the music world. Otherwise everything just looks the same.
Today's pop music is the new grey.
So, they consider it amazing that given the opportunity to buy the three songs on an album that are worth listening to more than twice, consumers are actually taking advantage of such a system? It would be interesting to do the math based on 3 or at best, 5, songs per album, since that's all most people want anyway. We've finally been given a method to bypass album filler content, without, apparently having to subsidise it, and the industry is complaining because the consumer gets what they want.
Amazing.
Well, no, not really.
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
I think overall, top 10 format radio is down from prior years. as people decide to listen to the music on their iPods, or satellite radio, which offers a lot more variety than can be found in the Top 10. Also witness the populatiry of stations like "Jack FM" which play a varied playlist instead of the same 20-30 songs over and over again. People are listening to more music, and for the most part, better music than what can be found on the charts.
I've also noticed that the back catalog has become cheaper, you can get some decent albums from the last 10 years for the price of $9.99 (Canadian) or thorough 2 for $20 deals at most CD shops, which works out to about 8 and a half bucks U.S, cheaper even than used CD's sometimes. This has cannibalized from marginal releases - I'd rather wait until it goes in the bargain bin in a few months, and get the chance to become more familiar with other songs on the CD before buying.