Posted on 01/12/2008 8:58:36 AM PST by george76
Last year was terrible for the recorded-music majors. The next few years are likely to be even worse.
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits.
At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. That was the moment we realised the game was completely up, says a person who was there.
In public, of course, music executives continued to talk a good game: recovery was just around the corner, they argued, and digital downloads would rescue the music business.
But the results from 2007 confirm what EMI's focus group showed: that the record industry's main product, the CD, which in 2006 accounted for over 80% of total global sales, is rapidly fading away. In America, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the volume of physical albums sold dropped by 19% in 2007 from the year beforefaster than anyone had expected.
More worryingly for the industry, the growth of digital downloads appears to be slowing.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
By idiots.
Sounds like a kid we know.
Ping. Is the recording industry a “dinosaur medium”?
Eight tracks are the best format for listening to you favorite tracks in....hisssss....ca-chunk.....hisssss....your Buick Electra. And when you hop into the huge back seat with your girlfriend while grooving to the....hissss....ca-chunk....hissss....Moody Blues while lighting up a doober, you will settle into the mood and you know you are about ready to get a....hissss....ca-chunk....hisss....never mind. What are we doing here?
your Buick Electra
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Oh, man, a deuce and a quarter with breeze! Only the coolest need apply.
They aren’t producing product that people want to buy.
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Young people don’t seem to get excited about music like they used to, is it because there is no good new music anymore or is it just that young people don’t get excited about anything like they used to? They certainly don’t have the curiousity and desire that they used to have, at least the ones in my area don’t.
Ironically, Oakenfold is the one artist who I go out of my way constantly to find new stuff from...my latest thing has been catching rips of the Sirius broadcasts of Perfecto On Tour. Only “new” stuff I’ve had any interest in for years are his new sets as they’re released...most are magnificent! Not so crazy about his studio work, tho.
Current favs...Perfecto On Tour 52, and Club Spin...longtime favs, Homelands 2003, Goa Mix Gold, and a live bootleg from Sydney. You?
Far too much to list, actually. Electronica, 80s/90s (pre-Alanis) Alternative... lots more. :)
I rip my music CDs to MP3 (at least 320 Kb/s), then burn them to CD-R. This allows me to get at least 7 music CDs on a CD-R. But I'm starting to think that the next time I'm in need of a new car stereo (mine works fine with my MP3 CDs), I've seen that some of the newer ones actually have USB ports on them, I've been thinking that it might be nice to have one of those, especially given the fact that 4GB thumb drives are so cheap now, less than $25.
Mark
New vinyl is outselling both of the competing new CD audio formats.
True. The manufactured ones are much better than the CD-R’s. I still play the first CD I bought with out problems, Tom Petty’s first album.
The iPod connects to the car player, and on some cars the steering wheel controls auto-sync to it.
A friend of mine has a Linn Sondek setup - and a pair of Class A amps with giant heat sinks. It's not about how loud you can make things, it's about quality.
MP3s, using as they do a lossy compression format, are, um... disdained by audiophile standards.
For "noise" as from drums and electric guitar, you would not likely notice the difference and in that case I would agree with you: don't throw away your money.
The music industry is dying. And this is bad because......?
Yes, quite a few do allow you to connect your iPod via USB connection, however there are also some that allow a direct connection of a USB flash drive as well.
I've currently got an Alpine car stereo that I'm perfectly happy with, but if something happens to it, or I break down because I really, REALLY decide that I want HD Radio, I might get one.
Mark
I think that's accurate. What has happened to the music industry is now happening to the movie industry. Technology and capital always flows to where the money is. In the case of the music industry business model, all the money was gobbled up by a marketing and distribution monopoly. That doesn't work any more.
judging by the way the GOP is heading, you probably aren’t too far off.
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