Plunge in CD Sales Shakes Up Big Labels

NYTimes via Drudge ^ | May 28, 2007 | JEFF LEEDS

[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.

...

[kjam22]

And for under $100 (or less) you can own the equipment that copies from album to CD or mp3. And when you play an analog record and convert it to mp3.... it sounds like the warm analog tone that is missing in almost all of today’s music.

[js1138]

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.

I have hundreds of CDs purchased at garage sales, many of them classical and jazz.

I have to disagree with you somewhat about vinyl. I still buy an occasional LP, and I have some good equipment -- top of the line Dual manual turntable, Shure V15-III cartridge -- but when I have the choice between a CD and vinyl, I prefer the CD. Some early CDs were bad because they were made from masters that had been optimized for vinyl. Listening to a properly mastered CD shows the difference, and the sound favors the CD.

[tiki]

I see this on myspace, local bands getting a following, making their own CDs and marketing themselves through the internet, depriving the executives of big bucks. I think the new artists themselves are probably happy about this news. I think the industry was spending so much on marketing for a while that artists became indentured servants until they were able to pay off their marketing costs.

[Freedom4US]

Part of that is the physical nature of the medium. Back in the record days, they had to have roughly 40 minutes of recordable material to make an LP. There are some excellent songs on LPs with roughly half or even more of filler/throwaway songs. I have an older MP3/WMA player that I am ripping my CD collection of two or three hundred of of the songs I like, about the size of a Zippo - and I doubt I’ll even fill it up.

Part of the blame lies in modern technology. Theoretically, only one person needs to buy a song for 99c, the rest of the world can download it for free. Tough crowd!!!

[tiki]

Not only do they cost an arm and a leg, they are not durable. The first thing anyone should do when/if they buy a CD is come home and make a copy of it because it is a cinch that they will get a small scratch and be ruined.

[Freedom4US]

I noticed that too. I started ripping CDs with MP3 and they have a high pitched whistle. Tried WMA and it’s better, I guess. Hard to complain though given the storage capacity. There isn’t a spinning hard-drive in this gizmo is there? Amazing.

[Sonora]

And, what are the chances that those listening to Rap and Hip-Hop are going to actually buy a CD, versus downloading or burning a copy? I just wish that someone would stop the noise from the cars that play this stuff.

[Drew68]

that artists became indentured servants until they were able to pay off their marketing costs.

Most people don't realize that. Just because you see a band on MTV, this doesn't mean that those guys have any money in their bank accounts. Now the record companies are even taking cuts from touring! Most of these young bands are so desperate to be signed that they wind up committing themselves to horrible contracts.

It is even worse in the rap/hip-hop world where the "artists" have to employ an entourage, bodyguards, handlers and legal representation. Not to mention the mafia-style tactics of the rap moguls. Believe it or not, a lot of the "bling" they wear is leased! They're given a per-diem to buy nice clothes and go to clubs but at the end of the day, nothing is saved.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP for a later read.

[GB]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_vorbis

Try this, I promise you will never go back to MP3. More and more digital players will handle this format now (particularly Samsung, my player of choice), including iTunes on a computer if you add an extension.

[Freee-dame]

The “artists” can go back to making a living the traditional way

When did the terminology for singer become artist? I guess it's not so important to actually sing well in order to make a lot of money any more.

[A.Hun]

I guess it's not so important to actually sing well in order to make a lot of money any more.

Economics of scale...all you have to do is fool 1/2 of 1% into buying your CD, and you are an instant millionaire. It has skewed a lot of modern life in addition to music sales.

[Mr. Blonde]

You are going to have a hard time convincing me that this would ever be sneered at. Or this. Or this. There is a lot of good rock music out there it just doesn't get the airplay or respect it deserves.

[djf]

Last CD I got was Neil Young and Crazy Horse Live at the Fillmore East, recorded in ‘70 I think.

Outstanding! The version they do of “Cowgirl in the Sand” is a MUST HAVE for anybody into music of that era.

I was about 70 miles from Woodstock when it happened, still kinda p’d at my mom for not letting me go...

[Mariner]

The problem with CD sales is that there's little good music to buy.

Release another Sgt Peppers or Beggars Banquet...or release 5-8 like them in one year...and you'll see sales go back to, at least, they once were.

Most people don't mind rewarding the artist for their art. Our problem is a dearth of art.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Let all beware any schadenfreude here, the protection of Intellectual Property rights closely parallels the protection of Real Property rights and is critically important.

[Condor 63]

In the ‘olden days’, an Elvis or a Loretta Lynn would take a copy of their song to a local radio station.

Literally.

[ChildOfThe60s]

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

And that is the fault of the record companies. They simply don't look for and promote real musical talent. For too many years they have pushed whiney bimbos flashing skin on the CD cover. Plus the move to computer generated percussion has made nearly everything sound mechanical. Ginger Baker where are you when we need you?

[ChildOfThe60s]

Country music is still strong, mainly because its the only format where people still sing and play instruments

True. But even in country music, there is very little good percussion. Really good drummers/drumming was killed by the record producers by the late 70s.

[Milhous]

Mr. McCartney, in announcing his deal with Starbucks, described his rationale simply: “It’s a new world.”

Plus the move to computer generated percussion has made nearly everything sound mechanical.

Milhous' easy 3 step program to get pumped for the treadmill:

1. Put ATB 9pm (Till I Come) on audio:





2. Put American Flyers on video (mute the soundtrack):





3. Enjoy 15 - 20 minutes of self hypnotic endorphinal ecstasy with the treadmill on fast high before your Sunday stroll starts to hurt a little bit. ROTFL.