MTV: 2007 Borked the Music Industry

Sockatume writes "MTV thinks 2007 was the year the music industry broke, and provides a hefty pile of examples to justify it. Unsurprisingly, most of them revolve around the collapse of CD sales and the rise of digital distribution (authorised and otherwise). Be advised that many of the examples are the continuations or repercussions of old favourites (RIAA suits, the Sony rootkit fiasco)."

Comments

MTV itself is helping with the decline

[maryjanecapri]

remember when MTV actually played music videos? don't they think that MIGHT have helped with the sale of music? and maybe the fact they now only play inane reality tv shows might have SOMETHING to do with the fact that music sales have dropped?

Re:MTV itself is helping with the decline

[encoderer]

If you're MTV, why would you care about "helping" the sale of music?

The fact is, all those "inane" reality shows you deride are there because that's what the audience actually wants.

MTV has a high churn rate, and that's be design. Quite some time ago, they had the decision to keep things "old & friendly" and thereby stick with their founding audience from the time they wore spandex and Jordache jeans in 1985 until they're old and blue-haired. Or, they could evolve every few years, and remain relevant to the teenagers of the day.

And, to be fair, the decision has worked out pretty well for them.

The Kids Aren't Taking It

[dsginter]

The other day, someone commissioned me to do some data recovery on a hard drive with more than $700 in iTunes on it (no backup, of course).

Generally, I do my best to avert my eyes during transfer of customer data but this was a little more involved and I had to verify the integrity of many of the files. With the customer's permission, I played a lot of the music and suddenly began to feel very old: I hadn't previously heard of most of the artists/songs that were recovered.

I'm glad to see that the kids aren't taking the radio monopoly. In my day, we didn't have these mechanisms to stick it to The Man (not that there isn't a problem with having all these files locked up in DRM...)

Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It

[hal9000(jr)]

I hadn't previously heard of most of the artists/songs that were recovered.

What would help music sales, cd or otherwise, is a decent way to find the music people wants to hear. I like classical and spanish guitar. Just the guitar with minimal back round instruments. Try to find that! I was in a borders and a woman asked the sales girl for classical guitar. She pointed the hapless woman over to the classical section. I knew she would find what she was looking for (I was just there and there is not "classical guitar section"). I suggested she tell the customer to pick up some John Williams or Segovia, and the sales girl looked at me confused, and said they were over in classical. NO shit! I know that but the customer doesn't.

Look, it's the digital age. If perhaps record companies spent some money employing people to music knowledge to classify music in a variety of ways, the less musically educated like myself, might actually find what I am looking for and, *gasp*, purchase it.

no longer offer anything of value

[petes_PoV]

In the "old days" it was necessary to provide recording studios, press plastic records, bribe DJs, buy good reviews and coerce musicians into making records to order.
Nowadays, most of those functions can be bought-in by the artist themselves. Record companies are now recognised as a barrier rather than the "necessary evil" they once were.

If their demise means more poeple start producing music, themselves, then good luck. As always, some will suceed and some will fail. However the failures will only fail because of their own shortcomings, rather than industry politics, greed, marketing and (lack of) promotion.

If there's anything us normal people can do to help bury the record companies, just let us know

Re:no longer offer anything of value

[Jason Levine]

In the "old days" it was necessary to provide recording studios, press plastic records, bribe DJs, buy good reviews and coerce musicians into making records to order.
Nowadays, most of those functions can be bought-in by the artist themselves. Record companies are now recognised as a barrier rather than the "necessary evil" they once were.

I almost completely agree. I think that the big record companies as they are now are unnecessary. However, I don't think we'll see record companies go away completely. Instead, they'll change into part-record company/part-ad agency. An artist will sign with Record Company X to promote their new music. The record company will be able to recommend places to record, etc, but the artist won't be contractually bound to use those services. (At most, the record company might get a kickback under the table for promoting those services.) The record company also won't take ownership of the copyright on the music. What the record company will do mainly is promotion. They will arrange for the radio airplay. They will get articles in magazines about the band. They will arrange for the band to play on the hip new TV sitcom. Whatever it takes to get the band's name and music out there, the record company will do. And if the band doesn't like how the record company is handling promotions, they can dump them and sign up with a new record company. (Similar to how any company can dump their ad agency and go with another one.)

Good riddance...

[skarekrough43]

Either you learn to evolve and thrive or you die naked cold and alone.

They've resisted the changes because the money's so good. Even when it's still as bad as they claim it to be, there's still a lot of execs and Producers and underlings driving BMW's.

It's no longer the 70's and they can't sit in the back room snorting blow and not expect everything outside of their little party to have changed.

They should have backed iTunes more vigirously instead of having to be hauled into the 21st century like a 2-year old that doesn't want to go to bed. They should have backed a DRMless format. They should have coupled with a tech source to make the benefits of an offering where the DRM would be acceptable to the listener. The should have comprehended that the entertainment dollar is now split between them and video games and the internet and everything else.

It's funny

[uxbn_kuribo]

Some of the stuff in the article had nothing to do with piracy, even though that's the implication: * Kelly Clarkson's album was BAD. Terrible. * Jordin Sparks is NOT talented. * Radiohead ignores the fact that one would imagine that even if their album sucks, alot of people would still get it for free. People have a higher tolerance of crap when it's free. * Island Def Jam's layoffs are likely a result of the slower economy. The record execs are one of the last groups that still piss money away on excess. * How did the Madonna deal have anything to do with music? Does she even sing anymore? * Yeah, gg music dude. "The music industry has no technologists." It's only been 8 years now, you might wanna consider that. That's like saying you company doesn't believe in telephones, or thinks that taking pictures of the artists will steal their souls. In fact, the entire music industry needs to get with the times. * Nine Inch Nails is still around? Huh. Music has stagnated, the fanbase has risen against that crap that they shove down our throats. It's funny, because country music is bigger than it's been in years--- the genre has evolved where teeny-bopper pop and "rock" music have failed to do so.

And we care because?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares what MTV thinks, thanks to themselves they have long ceased to be relevant. These are the people who deluded themselves into thinking they can define the trends and along with the music industry inflated their egos on short sighted thinking. Now they are struggling to be relevant. The net has changed the game, MTV and other music channels can no longer create talentless and manufactured hits. I guess thats good for music.

Re:You feel old...

[stewbacca]

Guitar Hero III man. My kid can't get enough Scorpions, SRV, Foghat and Mountain. Has he even replayed the AFI song once? I don't think so. A little perspective is all most intelligent young people need to see their crop of music is pretty lame compared to the old stuff.

I get the chance to instruct young people (18-24) for 16-week long classes a couple times a year, and I always bring up music debates for fun during our down times. With every class, good music that will stand the test of time falls on deaf ears. I often ask them, which song will still be listened to in 20 years, "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Insert Crappy One Hit Wonder Song Here"? Most of them actually think Fall Out Boy will have more playability in 20 years.

Re:You feel old...

[jedidiah]

This is of course what big content really fears.

They are deathly afraid of "perfect digital copies" of works in
the public domain. Without the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension
(and others like it), companies that make up the MPAA and RIAA
would have to compete against their old classics that could
legally and freely be transfered by everyone across bittorrent.

The net would become one huge version of WGN or TBS and it would
all be perfectly legal...