[kj] OT: Music industry - decline in CD sales

Janean Lancaster Janean.Lancaster at hopwood.ac.uk
Fri Jan 30 10:56:38 EST 2009


That pretty much sums up how I feel about it too. I download in order
to hear stuff, and my favourites are bought on CD. Only because I want
to be able to re-rip at higher bitrates as my hard drives/ipods increase
capacity. I've not paid for very many downloads.



I agree about missing the old days - sitting on a bus, poring over the
artwork of the goodies in your bag on the journey home from the shops.



I too spend much more on gigs.



If album downloads were lossless and included a nice PDF of
artwork/lyrics/credits/whathaveyou that you could print off to get stuck
into while listening to the music, I would be glad to see the back of
CDs. And I would have so much more shelf space at home.



________________________________

From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]
On Behalf Of Brendan Quinn
Sent: 30 January 2009 15:28
To: 'A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)'
Subject: [kj] OT: Music industry - decline in CD sales



Do we have many people who work in the music industry on the list? I
wanted to voice an opinion about the decline in CD sales.



I read these articles all the time, on tech sites and general news,
about the *terrible* decline in CD sales revenue and how it's affecting
Sony and Time Warner and Geffen and all the other music companies. And
then I get into the comments section, and the thing that strikes me
is...people seem to take the problem seriously. But I can't really see a
problem?



Haven't we all been bitching about record companies since the day dot?
Artists and consumers alike? Aren't they the toll-booth between
legitimate artists and people who would benefit from their art? Don't
they artificially ratchet up the prices to consumers and down the prices
to the artists, didn't they charge more for CDs than cassettes despite
cassettes costing more to make (50% premium is the price I remember
paying in the late 80s / early 90s in NZ, $30+ vs $20). Don't they
develop these shit Britney Spears and boy bands that have no artistic
merit whatsoever and pollute our youth with mediocrity and perpetuate
these negative stereotypes? Didn't we have to pay a small fortune to
change the media format of our collections from records or cassettes to
CDs, despite having - surely, already purchased the rights to the
content? Why are they complaining that we're getting a free ride in the
current conversion? Haven't the artists been complaining about being
ass-raped by these guys ever since Motown records, or before?



Okay, so piracy is illegal, a whole generation is getting stuff for free
and artists are losing out. But are they really? Are they artists that
tour? Because while my CD spend has all but dried up to a flaccid husk
of its previous self, my gig spend has at least compensated, probably
moreso, esp considering I have more disposable cash than when I was a
destitute student and buying CDs. And if it's a tough 5-10+ year
transition into the digital age...well if we do away with the record
company tax / toll-booth that sits in between artists and their audience
- who cares? What did these guys do anyway? Did they scout talent that
now won't come to light? Ever heard of the internet? If I can hear about
fucking ThumbMan (which admittedly brightened my life for a good 45
seconds), then I'm pretty sure I'll her about the next Radiohead without
Subpop telling me all about it.



To me the main loss is the kids who are getting all this music for free
and therefore fail to appreciate what it's like to work a shit job and
save up for a few weeks to get the latest Led Zep or to flesh out their
Sabbath collection, walk home with a record burning a hole in their bag,
and then listen to it the whole way through while looking at the artwork
and smoking some oregano their mates sold them as hash and having the
single best day of their lives until the lose their virginity, but I
digress....



People losing jobs isn't nice to see, but that's a whole different
debate.

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