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Music Execs Stressed Over Free Streaming

Posted by Roblimo on from the buying-less-but-listening-more dept.

itwbennett writes "At the Digital Music Forum East conference, held Thursday in New York, music industry watchers gathered to puzzle anew over the continuing decline in music sales. 'We have lost 20 million buyers in just five years,' said Russ Crupnick, a president at the analyst firm NPD Group who spoke at the conference. Moreover, only about 14 percent of buyers account for 56 percent of revenue for the recording industry. In years past, the blame was put on digital music piracy. At this year's conference, however, the focus was on free streaming Internet services, such as Pandora, MySpace, Spotify and even YouTube."

7 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. What about... by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...free streaming over the air, i.e. radio?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:What about... by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the music was worth buying, people would buy it.

      As long as most of what they are trying to sell is disneyfied overproduced crap or bieberfied overproduced crap, we don't want it.

  2. people are broke.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and most of the music sucks! What else is there to say?

    1. Re:people are broke.. by Draek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How about "I really love Jamendo"?

      Because I do. Just putting it out there in case anybody wants some nice, freely-available indie music to replace the RIAA trash and stop giving those bloodsuckers free advertisement and/or money.

      --
      No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
    2. Re:people are broke.. by David+Gerard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "I have a hard time hearing the music in it at all. Just shouting and a beat."

      It's poetry. The most successful form of poetry in history. Kids on street corners practice their poetry and aspire to be poets when they grow up!

      --
      http://rocknerd.co.uk
  3. None so Blind as Those Who Will Not See by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We have lost 20 million buyers in just five years," said Russ Crupnick, a president at the analyst firm NPD Group who spoke at the conference. Moreover, only about 14 percent of buyers account for 56 percent of revenue for the recording industry. In years past, the blame was put on digital music piracy. At this year's conference, however, the focus was on free streaming Internet services, such as Pandora, MySpace, Spotify and even YouTube.

    They will clutch at every straw and leave no stone unturned in their quest to increase sales... except for the myriad ways that they are their own worst enemy. It will never occur to them that suing your own customers is not good for business. They will never think that what is in my opinion the obvious "buy-a-law" political corruption (designed to institute perpetual copyright) in which they engage makes people with a conscience decide not to support them.

    They will never consider that threatening tens of thousands of people with lawyer letters demanding they either pay a settlement or face a lawsuit they could not possibly afford, with no regard for the fact that many of them were innocent, might earn them some ill will. Nor will they think that taking children to court and using interrogation procedures obviously designed to intimidate them is something that decent people don't care to reward financially.

    Nope, it's them evil pirates, those horrible music streaming services, etc. Of course it is. That adequately explains everything.

    It's at a base level and I openly acknowledge that, but I can't help but to smile when I see that they are showing signs of desperation. They deserve more failure than they are experiencing.

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  4. Re:Funny... by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But every generation thinks that modern music isn't as good as it used to be.

    Sure. But the thing is, this used to be something that happened once you hit 40 or 50, when you were old enough to have teenagers of your own.

    Now, almost as soon as you graduate from high school and get exposed to more diverse music in college, you look back at what you were buying and listening to, and wonder WTF you were thinking. Pop music has become so irredeemably shitty that the so-called generation gap is all but gone.