What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Can't get enough Dragon Age: Origins? Play the flash game. view!
DragonAgeJourneys.com - Play the free companion flash game to Dragon Age: Origins.
131 Comments
- WinnemuccaMac, on 01/04/2009, -2/+63Albums have been the backbone of the music industry for years, in most cases bundling the one or two desired tracks with ten filler songs. Truly remarkable albums, with more than half of their content being truly worthy, are rare. This is a natural evolution in the industry, as consumers have the option of only buying what they really want. This isn't so much a drop in album sales as an equalizing of music as a whole.
- shawns, on 01/04/2009, -5/+49Most full albums suck. surprise
- AmusedToDeath, on 01/05/2009, -4/+35Well, if you listen to the crap that plays on fm radio or MTV, then yes, you're likely to find a given album is 2 catchy tunes married to 8 tracks of *****. If however, you listen to real artists that really care about the music they are making then you will frequently find entire albums that are worth listening to.
Moral of the story - listen to better music. - KiSA, on 01/05/2009, -0/+19Probably a dumb idea, but I think it would be interesting if artists would, instead of taking years to release albums (I am dying for a new Breaking Benjamin which has been over 2 years) to simply release songs digitally as they become ready. Since that's pretty much the way that most people are purchasing the music anyway, why not?
- terenceyap7, on 01/04/2009, -1/+18Does this mean that all those famous people in the music industry have to tone down their lifestyles now?
- mongo22, on 01/04/2009, -5/+20Music in general has been pretty bad the last few years. When bands like Motley Crew can come back and have a top hit, you know the other music probably sucks.
- inactive, on 01/04/2009, -2/+17Maybe music won't suck anymore. Some artists are going to have to buckle up and realise that people aren't just going to buy crap after crap.
- Powder, on 01/05/2009, -0/+13Don't most artist make the majority of their money on concerts / live shows then on album sales? Is this just a myth I have heard or true?
- elmuerte17, on 01/05/2009, -0/+12I have the exact opposite problem... I go looking for a CD and unless it's a top-40 artist, good luck finding it...
- Ysabetwordsmith, on 01/05/2009, -0/+10I'm not surprised. Albums benefit the record industry, and most people don't *like* the record industry anymore. It keeps going out of its way to deny people what they want. So they're looking for other, more appealing sources of entertainment.
- solid12345, on 01/05/2009, -0/+10Problem is people nowadays don't have the attention spans for albums. Used to people would get together and throw on one LP at a party and listen to it the whole way through, yet nowadays I can't even pop in a CD without some douche coming over and changing it out after 1-2 songs because he has to hear his lame Journey ballad or else his night is ruined.
- AmusedToDeath, on 01/05/2009, -0/+9It depends on who they are. If your a small-time to mid-level band recording your first album, then yes you make little or nothing on album sales. If you're Madonna or AC/DC however, you've likely significantly renegotiated your contract so that you get a much larger piece of the pie.
- crazzy88ss, on 01/04/2009, -1/+10I went christmas shopping w/ my friend a week before christmas. We went to a music store and Best Buy looking for 2 CDs of fairly popular artists (I forgot which ones exactly), and neither store had them!
And the RIAA's confused as to why album sales have been dropping? Music stores are small and out dated, that's why. - LoveWidescreen, on 01/04/2009, -1/+10This is no surprise. Most full albums have sucked for decades now. But it's interesting that as there's a surge of digital purchased, Best Buy has actually re-introduced fully remastered *vinyl* records back into their stores. Obviously, there isn't going to be some kind of massive resurgence to reverse the digital trends, but it's still interesting to see certain segments bucking the digital trend.
- Bloake, on 01/05/2009, -2/+11I haven't bought a CD in a long while.
- inactive, on 01/05/2009, -2/+9***** that, there are still people who listen to real music and not just the latest ***** pop single.
- roebeet, on 01/05/2009, -1/+8Dugg. It drives me crazy every time one of these posts show up, and everyone jumps on the "modern music is crap" bandwagon. People forget that:
1- Top 40 has always been littered with crappy music that the record companies have tried to peddle. "The Captain and Tennille", anyone?
2- The "classic" albums of yesteryear weren't necessarily popular when they first came out.
There's plenty of great music out there - stop listening to Top 40 and expand a little. I could drone on and on about all the great albums of 2008 that you've probably never heard of, but there are plenty of other posts like that. - SilverBlade2k, on 01/05/2009, -0/+6One can't carry ALL of their albums, in lossless format, on an iPod Nano (the most popular one).
To most people, the immense size of a lossless song isn't worth the quality, when compared to an mp3 recorded at 320 that takes up a fraction of the space.
IF lossless was either smaller in size, or a VERY noticeable difference to the average ear, then people would want lossless more, but, considering that most ears can't hear the difference, the amount of space one would have to sacrifice for a single song..just isn't worth it. - inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+6I don't think it's the fact that the full albums suck, I think it's more that the music sucks in general and a lot of people these days (no i'm not old, just talking generally) suck at music and they just want the latest hot singles that all their friends listen to.
- Springdiggity, on 01/05/2009, -0/+6Maybe bands should take a class taught by members of Pink Floyd and The Eagles, for example, so they can learn how to produce "good" albums, and not just "one hit wonders". Just my opinion, of course. :)
- Dougman82, on 01/05/2009, -0/+5If this is the case, then they'd better offer these digital releases in lossless formats. I guess I am one of the few that still buys CDs and only CDs. I like owning a physical object. I like not worrying about cracking the DRM protected content. And I like CD-quality sound.
- maxpower2911, on 01/05/2009, -0/+5Who knew that listening to your customers sometimes works?
- UnrealsKY, on 01/04/2009, -1/+6The music industry has been slowly making this change over the past few years. They'd be better off just dropping production of physical form music a great deal, if not completely, and begin relying on digital releases. This will of course make music stores obselete, but as said before, thats already beginning anyway.
I haven't bought a CD in years, and know very few people that have. Most of them older people, without much knowledge of these magic internet boxes.
It's simply inevitable. - redace25, on 01/05/2009, -0/+5Oh i don``t think so. In fact the majority of people do and will continue to buy utter crap music. Case in point, the best selling song of the year was Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, which albeit a catchy song, was a shallow and heavily marketed one.
- PHJames88, on 01/05/2009, -0/+5If you "get it for free" and listen to it more than once, you obviously don't think the music "sucks" and thus would have been a purchase. Otherwise it would have been deleted.
So I'm assuming you've never kept a track you've downloaded? - adventflux, on 01/05/2009, -1/+6Is anyone else going to miss actually having the CD, case, and booklet if they do away with it in a few years?
- deadbaby, on 01/05/2009, -1/+5Maybe you're listening to the wrong music. There's tons of great stuff out there unless you're boxing yourself into some specific has-been genre and aren't open minded to like more than one type of music.
- cadmiumpaint, on 01/05/2009, -2/+6the state of music is pretty bad right now. i got an iTunes card for Christmas and its a serious chore to find an album that i'd like to buy with it.
There aren't many bands/musicians that are doing anything new and groundbreaking right now thats getting people excited. We keep playing all these new bands on Pandora at work, and its just sheer boredom...Incredibly forgettable music. It must suck if you're growing up right now...your generation has no soundtrack. - Thorpe, on 01/05/2009, -0/+4I buy individual tracks because a lot of the time I only find myself liking a few tracks from an album. If I do /really/ like an album, I go and order the physical copy.
- stockjones, on 01/05/2009, -1/+5Its because a lot of you who grew up with digital have no idea how much sonic quality is lost with with MP3 and even some of the CD or CD remasters. Many remasters are overcompressed. Its terrible. It could be so much better but people have just adopted mediocrity. Personally I use all lossless if I can but even lossless isnt good if the CD was converted from the original album in a bad way.
- stockjones, on 01/05/2009, -0/+4One hit wonders for the win. Timeless classic's a thing of the past =(
No More Dark side of the moon's or White album's just more singing lyrics over loops and samples of other songs. - IAmTheGuy, on 01/05/2009, -1/+5Turn to progressive rock for albums without filler.
- ZakColeman, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3This is Vinylsoarus, it is now extinct.
Very sad... I love supporting my local shops. Whenever I hear of an artist I enjoy (which is admittedly quite a few) dropping a new album I go pick it up. And browsing is always a must. I like having the artwork and such that it comes with. Its nice to get a tangible item when you shell out a few bucks : / but maybe I am just oldskool! - duniyadnd, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3I must have missed this, but MTV plays music??
- inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3There's good music out there (you definitely have to search for it), it just sounds like you want everything free. I view downloading like I view purchasing a car, you have to test drive it first. If I like a certain percentage of songs off an album, I'll buy it.
- bdbr, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3So Britney Spears' album would have been good if it was just mastered correctly?
- stockjones, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3This isnt about buying a CD. Its about buying an album. People dont even buy full digital albums because there are hardly any good albums these days.
- bdbr, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Turn off the radio and expand your horizons. There is a ton of great music today.
- roebeet, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Well.. I am old, and I can tell you that most popular music sucked when I was young, too. People tend to see the past with rose-colored glasses, for some reason.
Example: Some of the music from the eighties that have become cool to listen to (The Smiths and Joy Division come to mind) were never popular in the States. You only heard them on college or alternative radio stations. And good luck finding them in record stores, at the time. - freakstyle571, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3There is a lot of new very high quality music out there. I hate when people only listen to classics because they are "classic". broaden your horizons and listen to something new. Try to get into something that is different and original. Not everything has to be Dark Side of the Moon, or the White Album.
- MScrip, on 01/05/2009, -2/+5Record companies should just forget the idea of a full album altogether. Instead of producing one album every 2 years, and people only liking 1 or 2 songs (the songs everyone wants because they hear them on the radio...) they should just produce one song every couple months.
If it costs $100,000 to produce a full album, and only one song is a hit... those other 9 songs wasted time and money. Instead, just produce that one single, and save your money and focus on the next single. They'll make more money overall.
Embrace the single. People are more likely to buy the "new" track every couple months or so, instead of plopping down money for the whole album at once. - kinseyincanada, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3you know what the biggest reason is? its incredibly easy to download any album. Sure mainstream music has sucked but, hell i can barley remember when the top bands were actually really good.
- MScrip, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Now people get together at a party and crowd around the computer to watch funny Youtube videos.
Times change. - jbob2000, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3This just means that bands need to focus on making great albums, like the days of Master of Puppets and Pink Flloyd's Albums, instead of albums with 13 songs of complete *****.
- paulmer2003, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Well doh. As long as bands continue to make comercial music, albums will sell poorly. I mean, why buy an album if all the songs except one are *****?
- xaxxon, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2Apparently it WASN'T worth repeating.
- s3xt0y, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2sounds like a good idea to me, also waiting for a new BB album as well.
- reed311, on 01/05/2009, -1/+3Yeah, since everyone in the music industry is rich and famous; well, if you ignore about 98% of recording musicians.
- bdbr, on 01/05/2009, -1/+3I'd say go to Amazon MP3 store, even though you have an iTunes card. iTunes' front page is focused on vapid MTV music. Amazon MP3 store's front page has a lot of lesser-known artists that end up on the top of music critics' lists.
This generation has more ways to hear music than any before. They may not have a soundtrack because they have a thousand soundtracks. - bigbangbuddha, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2A little known fact. The concept of the Album was first created by record player companies not musicians. Interesting history though, anyone familiar knows that there were several speed settings for playback. This is because the various companies selling turn tables would forcibly create their own formats so others could not play their media (sound familiar Sony?). This would also be the same companies that signed on various artists to sell their players. Back in the day it wasn't about selling music, but about getting hardware out. The people with power were the same guys who made sewing machines, cripes, they had no interest in music. No more than Toshiba has in making TV shows. They created compilations of music and called it an album. The whole thing was a huge sham to get consumers and had no interest of the artists in mind.
Spin on to now, we have a handful of these companies left and they are desperate to hold on to the power. Sad, but I think eventually this will work out for the better for the artists. The album is on its death bed. Now we can pick and chose individual songs to be distributed digitally, that old model just doesn't work. A lot of artists are unfortunately stuck in the mindset and business of producing them though. What would be more effective is for them to release works more regularly throughout the cycle, one or two at a time, this would allow them to judge consumer feedback and adjust to their audiences. After all music is just a lot of air without the listener. Having to spend 6 months or more hammering out a dozen songs, of which only a few are good, just doesn't make any sense.
I'm an indie artist and believe very much in the digital revolution. If it wasn't there I would not have had a chance to produce what I have without serious pain/cash. Most other musicians I know think the same way, in fact most music I find now is from surfing, not from cd stores. The new music world allows so many more the opportunities that only a lucky few had in the day. Now we just need to free up distribution (beyond iTunes ). Theres a ton of great tools out there to get music, reverbnation.com, ilike.com, last.fm, even myspace, check them out ... free your music! -
Show 51 - 100 of 136 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is