arstechnica.com— Distinguished guests, fellow readers: As we gather tonight, CD sales are down, major label revenues are sliding, and the music industry looks to be in recession. But music isn't dying; it's changing.
Jan 23, 2008View in Crawl 4
And don't forget the price. Remember that all 4 major labels were busted for price collusion (<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing)</a> in the late 90's. They were purposely getting together and increasing the prices of CDs even though every form of media in the history of media has dropped after it's initial offering. They did this to themselves. I remember walking into a Virgin mega store in Phoenix circa 1998 to find a CD for a friend and being absolutely appalled at the $24 price tag. $24 f-ing dollars for a CD?And after the MPAA's admission today that college kids only make up about 15% of pirated movies rather than the 44% they reported earlier, it's obvious that the MPAA is in for a similar shock to their system. Not only have they collectively been increasing the price of ticket sales across the U.S., they've also added more and more pre-movie advertising as well as in-movie advertising. Watching Casino Royale was like watching a 2-hour Sony Electronics commercial. To hell with it all. It's time for a shakeup.
The music I listen to is mainly off D.I.Y. type labels, prices are more than fair, I purchase online, or at a live show never more than $10 for a cd. Usually at least once a year they have $5 for any cd in our catalog sales. Are huge hits, and they end up selling T-shirts and the like because of the the increased traffic for sales and people wanting to combine purchases to save on shipping... Maybe the labels need to look at how they are running their businesses. They aren't being greedy and everyone is winning. I suppose that all changes when you have popular artists who want to be on the next episode of cribs......
True. If you are a musician yourself, you would notice that many newer songs do simple typical chord patterns and melodies while old songs give us unique touches and are more experimental. I'm not quite a musician but I tend to hear many songs and hear the similarities within them. Maybe there is uniqueness in modern music but I don't tend to hear them often because most are indie. I hope that indeed the little guys to do great music get more exposure this year and the big guys who do lame music continue their downward spirals.
all the mainstream artists are swimming in their dollars anyway.it's time for them to realize that they can't make money the "easy" way with CD sales like they used to.digital is where it's at.
I guess I'm old school. I liked (still like) vinyl, but I also like CDs and the convenience of being able to carry gobs of music with me anywhere in the world on an iPod. I'm still an avid consumer of music, buying music on line as well as on CD. For me the issue is simply one of price. As has been stated, it's the cost that drives consumers and would-be consumers away from the vanishing record stores (I still call them that even if it's a bit of a misnomer at this point). I buy mainly used CDs and new releases that are sale-priced as loss leaders. If the normal price of a new CD was under $10, I would buy more. Very simply put, for me, the line in the sand should be at the most $10 - anything more is ridiculous. If the normal price for a CD was in the $5 - $8 range, sales would surge.
By recycling exectuives at the majors they are taking bad habits and implementing into an already broken system. Take a guy like Jay-Z at Def Jam let him rack up a bunch of top selling albums and then not listen to him and embrace change and you know what, you scared off a guy who could have made a difference.
Well the article brings the facts to the table . The music industry is not dead it's just in a revamping phase.. gearing towards the digital arena. These executives for the major labels they are not stupid they are taking notes(DRM free music amazon the front runner) trying to stay in TUNE to the changing music climate. While indie labels are staying a float because it's easier and cheaper to release an album and self promote it using social websites such as myspace.com, youtube.com, facebook.com and so on Getting their own music on itune then selling it. 1.2.3. Before they were making demos after demos for these major labels hoping and praying to get sign...The game has change.... Why sign to a major label? The trend is signing a distribution deal with a major label and still work as an indie. The artist keep their copyright and take home a bigger royalty check. So on that point Majors are concern about CD sales dropping and some P2P users but more importantly they are concern about their life line.. THE ARTIST.. as they jump ship Dubplanet Records the making of a virtual label
friday04Jan 23, 2008
And don't forget the price. Remember that all 4 major labels were busted for price collusion (<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing)</a> in the late 90's. They were purposely getting together and increasing the prices of CDs even though every form of media in the history of media has dropped after it's initial offering. They did this to themselves. I remember walking into a Virgin mega store in Phoenix circa 1998 to find a CD for a friend and being absolutely appalled at the $24 price tag. $24 f-ing dollars for a CD?And after the MPAA's admission today that college kids only make up about 15% of pirated movies rather than the 44% they reported earlier, it's obvious that the MPAA is in for a similar shock to their system. Not only have they collectively been increasing the price of ticket sales across the U.S., they've also added more and more pre-movie advertising as well as in-movie advertising. Watching Casino Royale was like watching a 2-hour Sony Electronics commercial. To hell with it all. It's time for a shakeup.
ieataquacrayonsJan 24, 2008
The music I listen to is mainly off D.I.Y. type labels, prices are more than fair, I purchase online, or at a live show never more than $10 for a cd. Usually at least once a year they have $5 for any cd in our catalog sales. Are huge hits, and they end up selling T-shirts and the like because of the the increased traffic for sales and people wanting to combine purchases to save on shipping... Maybe the labels need to look at how they are running their businesses. They aren't being greedy and everyone is winning. I suppose that all changes when you have popular artists who want to be on the next episode of cribs......
Closed AccountJan 25, 2008
True. If you are a musician yourself, you would notice that many newer songs do simple typical chord patterns and melodies while old songs give us unique touches and are more experimental. I'm not quite a musician but I tend to hear many songs and hear the similarities within them. Maybe there is uniqueness in modern music but I don't tend to hear them often because most are indie. I hope that indeed the little guys to do great music get more exposure this year and the big guys who do lame music continue their downward spirals.
jamminjulezJan 25, 2008
all the mainstream artists are swimming in their dollars anyway.it's time for them to realize that they can't make money the "easy" way with CD sales like they used to.digital is where it's at.
buduardoJan 25, 2008
I guess I'm old school. I liked (still like) vinyl, but I also like CDs and the convenience of being able to carry gobs of music with me anywhere in the world on an iPod. I'm still an avid consumer of music, buying music on line as well as on CD. For me the issue is simply one of price. As has been stated, it's the cost that drives consumers and would-be consumers away from the vanishing record stores (I still call them that even if it's a bit of a misnomer at this point). I buy mainly used CDs and new releases that are sale-priced as loss leaders. If the normal price of a new CD was under $10, I would buy more. Very simply put, for me, the line in the sand should be at the most $10 - anything more is ridiculous. If the normal price for a CD was in the $5 - $8 range, sales would surge.
grollettJan 30, 2008
By recycling exectuives at the majors they are taking bad habits and implementing into an already broken system. Take a guy like Jay-Z at Def Jam let him rack up a bunch of top selling albums and then not listen to him and embrace change and you know what, you scared off a guy who could have made a difference.
dubplanetFeb 2, 2008
Well the article brings the facts to the table . The music industry is not dead it's just in a revamping phase.. gearing towards the digital arena. These executives for the major labels they are not stupid they are taking notes(DRM free music amazon the front runner) trying to stay in TUNE to the changing music climate. While indie labels are staying a float because it's easier and cheaper to release an album and self promote it using social websites such as myspace.com, youtube.com, facebook.com and so on Getting their own music on itune then selling it. 1.2.3. Before they were making demos after demos for these major labels hoping and praying to get sign...The game has change.... Why sign to a major label? The trend is signing a distribution deal with a major label and still work as an indie. The artist keep their copyright and take home a bigger royalty check. So on that point Majors are concern about CD sales dropping and some P2P users but more importantly they are concern about their life line.. THE ARTIST.. as they jump ship Dubplanet Records the making of a virtual label