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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)."

13 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. it's swedish. by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    MTV: 2007 Borked the Music Industry

    Ah, so that explains the hit song, "drup it like it's hut".

    "Vhen my peemps in zee crib, mun: drup it like it's hut! Sveedeesh Cheff be peempin on 4-fo's!"

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  2. Video Killed the Radio Star by eharvill · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just like in 1979, eh?

    --
    At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
  3. MTV itself is helping with the decline by maryjanecapri · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    --
    nature loves variety::society hates it get your variety at http://www.monkeypantz.net
  4. no longer offer anything of value by petes_PoV · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  5. Good riddance... by skarekrough43 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. Re:It's not the year. It's just a gradual developm by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly.
    My company has an informal motto, Adapt or Die. Every 5 years or so we change directions slightly to keep competitive. Mainframe Service -> Sun Service -> Unix Development -> Application Programming no matter what the OS is -> Who know what will be next IT Project Management, Infrastructure Support... But the point is when technology changes so do we, When we feel that the area we are specialized in is dieing or we cant be competitive in then we move to a new area based on what we are good at to a new one that we have skill set to compete in and have potential to be really good at.
    The Radio Industry needs to do the same. What happened in the past 10 years or so is technology improved to a point where Music can be shared in perfect condition. In the when Copy Analog to Analog there is a drop in the quality, and every other copy will in turn be worse copy. So from Beginning to Early CD (When most people harddrives were not large enough to cary the information, and they havn't found a way to personally burn your own CD Cheaply) and Music Pirates were limited to rather big operations (At lest the size of a small company) so They could Fight them off and the Fines for Copyright infringement was just. But now technology makes it too easy to copy music, and people want to share music. The industry is holding onto the old ways of doing things... And the need for them in their fashion all may be outdated in a few years, where higher quality Audio recording technology improving and the current High Quality Stuff is dropping, and getting easier to use... So people can make their own high quality music themselves with the Radio Companies Now Musicians will actually need to make their money the old fashion ways Traveling to different locations and sing, and royalties on public/commercial performances of the song. Yes they may not be huge millionaires unless they are cream of the crop, but it is back to the people to decide what they like and dislike.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  7. Burying the record companies by jdickey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not simple, but it's straightforward.
    1. SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC. Go to concerts/pubs/etc., buy self-produced CDs.
    2. Buy from non-label-affiliated, artist-friendly Web sites, not fronted by megacorps. Google is your friend here, even if you're not buying from them.
    3. When permitted by the artist or by "fair use" in your jurisdiction, share samples with friends or play a few tracks you're partial to for them. Word of mouth has been the greatest aid to supporting musicians since music was invented.
    4. Write to your local radio station (in the US, undoubtedly ClearChannel, alas), as well as to their advertisers. Tell them that you support independent music, and won't be buying overpriced Big Label CDs any more. ClearChannel might not notice, but chances are much better that your local grocery chain or even some non-music-industry large advertisers *will* make adjustments if they've got a couple of thousand unique letters and emails coming in every week.
    5. Listen to and support independent Internet radio stations. Their costs are going up way beyond orbital, thanks to the megacorps and the Bush-league "Copyright Royalty Board". While you're at it,

    Yes, it means we, the fans (customers), have to put in some effort. We're going to have to break old buying habits, and actually pay attention. That's the price of living in a world where you're a customer, not just a consumer. Remember the famous quote by Jerry Michalski: a consumer is "a gullet whose only purpose in life is to gulp products and crap cash." We can do better than that. If we're going to move beyond being told what to listen to, what to think, by the megacorps, we HAVE to do better than that. visit http://www.savenetradio.org/ and stay informed. Fellow Americans, write (not email) your Senators and Congressperson to remind them that you care about this - and when they vote for bills like the Internet Radio Equality Act, write them thank-you notes. Congressional staff *notice* when a few hundred (or thousand) non-fill-in-the-blank letters come in on an issue... that's votes talking.

    Remember, the megacorps are counting on the likelihood that you won't do anything, that you'll just continue to "crap cash" on schedule - THEIR schedule. They're counting on the "I'm too busy" or "I'm only one person" naysayers to tamp down enthusiasm, and let them carry the day.

    You are personally, individually, solely responsible for the world around you. If you don't like the way things are being done, get involved. This is one relatively easy, open, effective way to start.

  8. Re:Why should they care? by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I, too, remember the time when the M in MTV was for MUSIC

    It's not M for music, it's one of those text message/license plate thingies; MT is an abbreviation for "empty" like sk* is an abbreviation for skate. It's "empty-v" as in "no vision". I remember the time when empty-V came on the scene and started confusing rap with rock and tried to fuck up rock and roll forever.

    Fortunately it was unsucessful as the empty-V decade (1980s) saw some great rock and roll, little of which got air play on empty-V.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  9. Re:It's not the year. It's just a gradual developm by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...with the occasional landslide. A bit like the glaciers melting.

    Global warming is killing the RIAA? Yay global warming!

    if there was a "deadhorse" mod option I'd be modded into oblivion

    Naw, this is slashdot. +5, dead horse

    But what about those people who don't have the net?

    The only one I know not on the internet is my 76 year old dad, and he hasn't been a music fan since they stopped playing Willie Nelson on the radio. You might as well ask "what about those people who don't have radios".

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  10. Re:It's American by WED+Fan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn kids, get off my lawn!

    Generation whine, with their "jargon files" and all and their epods and blobs and whotubes and "oh we have to save the planet" and damn it, the word is "porn" not "pr0n". Why in my day we have perfectly crumulent words like "groovy" and "far out" and "stick it to the man" wasn't an invitation for gay sex.

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
  11. Funny article from the company who ignores music by FauxReal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it strange coming from the company that originally built itself on new and interesting music. Who later killed off Yo! MTV Raps & Headbangers Ball, Barely reports any music news, turned it's main station into Reality TV Central, shuffled all it's music to MTV2 and then started cutting videos from there as well, ignores most independent artists and panders to crass commercialism & manufactured pop-music giants. Seriously... maybe they had a small role in killing music buy changing it from an artform to a cheap plastic commodity.

  12. Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It by BlueParrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    What would help music sales, cd or otherwise, is a decent way to find the music people wants to hear.


    Yea, I hate to SEARCH for music. It would be nice if I didn't have to SEARCH so much, like if there was a webpage which could help me SEARCH for music. Heck, you could even imagine a company making money by offering a SEARCH service of some sort. Like when people SEARCH for airline tickets travel agencies do the SEARCH for them. If there was only some sort of SEARCH company which could help me SEARCH for music in a similar way. Maybe if there was a way to combine SEARCH with ADVERTISING. Do you think anybody could make money that way?

    I'm still waiting for gTunes.

  13. Re:It's American by WED+Fan · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean when dinosaurs roamed the earth?

    You mean petroleum-on-the-hoof?

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.