Posted on 05/28/2007 5:23:23 AM PDT by WL-law
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the Beatles album often cited as the greatest pop recording in music history, received a thoroughly modern 40th-anniversary salute last week...
But off stage, in a sign of the recording industry’s declining fortunes, shareholders of EMI, the music conglomerate that markets “Sgt. Pepper” and a vast trove of other recordings, were weighing a plan to sell the company as its financial performance was weakening.
... Despite costly efforts to build buzz around new talent and thwart piracy, CD sales have plunged more than 20 percent this year, far outweighing any gains made by digital sales at iTunes and similar services. Aram Sinnreich, a media industry consultant at Radar Research in Los Angeles, said the CD format, introduced in the United States 24 years ago, is in its death throes. “Everyone in the industry thinks of this Christmas as the last big holiday season for CD sales,” Mr. Sinnreich said, “and then everything goes kaput.”
... Even as the industry tries to branch out, though, there is no promise of an answer to a potentially more profound predicament: a creative drought and a corresponding lack of artists who ignite consumers’ interest in buying music.
.... that is compounded by the industry’s core structural problem: Its main product is widely available free. More than half of all music acquired by fans last year came from unpaid sources including Internet file sharing and CD burning, according to the market research company NPD Group. The “social” ripping and burning of CDs among friends — which takes place offline and almost entirely out of reach of industry policing efforts — accounted for 37 percent of all music consumption, more than file-sharing, NPD said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have to also admit this story makes me happy as well. I used to work for Universal Music Group at the zenith of the music industry’s power and might(late 90’s)I quit the business over just what has happened - the industry’s stupidity and greed has killed them. When the MP3 format first emerged, I pulled aside the #2 man at distribution at the time (Jim Urie) and told him that we needed to get on using this new technology. I was reffered to UMG legal and a few months later the lawsuits started to fly. I went on from distribution and told everyone from Zach Horowitz on down the line that this format needed to be embraced, not fought against and well I could go on but I’ll just end with this: I have all the internal memo’s that I sent to these guys and I want to post them on the internet but they are on these old 100MB zip drive disks and I don’t have any way to access them. Even the technology of me telling them that technology is outrunning them has outrun them. For the whole story check out my book at www.aboyfromcapecod.com
Live performance or nothing, that’s where it is.
I agree that in today's commercial music you just can't find a decent album. But CD's have a place. I buy those timelife deals etc. It's a great value. And there are artists who's cd's are good, but not in your local store or on your local radio. You just buy the CD from them via their web site.
Buying from Itunes make a lot of sense for people. I don't have a problem with that either. But just downloading for free... well it's just stealing now matter how a person justifies it. That's my opinion.
A guy in our church bought one of our CDs and I heard that his kid ripped it and gave mp3s to several people etc. I know the kid. He boasts about his number of illegally downloaded files etc. So I wasn't surprised, and actually I was kinda pleased that they thought it was of enough value to rip and swap. But I'm not selling the thing for a living and paying the bills with the income :)
What is hilarious is that they have an on-air promo that says that they are where they are at today after burning through a few IPods.
So much for radio helping kill the golden goose.
LMAO!
Finally the entertainment cartel is starting to reap what they have sown. We rarely contribute to them anymore be it music or their movies.
I can’t remember the last CD I bought for myself - probably 5 or more years ago. If there is something I want, I pay the 99 cents to get it off of Itunes. The only CD’s I have purchased are for my daughter who is a classical music fan. Itunes has a pitiful classical library, especially for what she wants.
Yep. I wonder what they consider a 'CD'? Does it have to be the physical CD? If I download an album from iTunes, have a purchased a CD or not?
I buy a fair amount of music, usually several songs at a time, but sometimes I'll buy a whole album, mostly stuff that I have on cassette and want to have digitally for my mp3 player. Just because I don't buy music the way they want me to, because I don't buy crap-laden new music CDs, doesn't mean I don't buy music.
And the 'pick cp chicks' part is what's really important in the end.
The $20.00 price tag on music CD's has nothing to do with it.
True!
And in the rush to stay on top, even the "trusted labels" if there is such thing, start signing garbage with the 'just in case' mentality.
With few exceptions, young musicians today don't have the patience to become skilled at their instruments. Solo artists use older, session musicians in the studio and perform live with a recorded track (don't want all that gear getting in the way of the dancers). And so many "rock bands" bands are playing "pop-punk" that requires no skill.
Where are the Tom Pettys, Bruce Springsteens, CSNYs, Zeppelins, Floyds, etc. of today?
I miss Imus.
If you pay $16 for something that costs $2 to make, then you are being ripped off. People are tired of being ripped off.
You make a pretty good argument, but from looking back at the albums I’ve purchased and listened to, I notice that a lot of my favorite cuts are not the ones I purchased the album for in the first place. I think if I just ‘cherry picked’ I’d be missing out on a lot of good music.
Though I have to face facts, the paradigm is changing. I just purchased a car that came with an in-dash CD, a 6 CD changer, a 10GB HDD (in dash CD can rip directly), a Compact Flash port, XM, and an auxillary input in the arm rest. I think I’m going to buy my wife an IPod so she can more easily manage the music.. No tape, imagine that.
“It started with the Monkee’s, back in the 60’s”
I can’t remember the guys who wrote and sang their music. Some of the songs were pretty good. However, I think it really started when Audrey Hepburn played Eliza Doolittle instead of Julie Andrews. Hepburn, otherwise perfect for the role, could not sing a lick. It was Marnie Nixon.
Over the last few years I’ve gone the other way. LPs sound surprisingly good on the right equipment, there’s lots of ‘em — cheap! — at yard sales and there’s more classical music available second-hand than new.
You should maybe check out the new Megadeth or last Stuck Mojo record.
You have to buy that Stuck Mojo CD directly from the band.
There's a new Dream Theater CD out soon. I'll probably buy that. The last Nevermore CD was pretty good.
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