CD Sales continue to plunge in 07'

[Trentreant]

Looks like the record industry continues to suffer from the modern woes of "stealing", "I want everything for free", and "I want it now"... all tenets of medern society.

"Sales of physical and digital albums tumbled to 500.5 million units, as the music industry was pillaged by piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080104/music_nm/year_thursday_dc;_ylt=AsFZXCg.ehe0a9z9D1JQml6VEhkF

[seraphim]

I think the record industry needs to rethink how they sell their product really. Perhaps people are just moving further and further away from feeling the need to own something physical and are happy enough owning an mp3. I mean, the majority of people just buy the album and immediately encode it for their iPod anyway, right? I don't know, I still only buy music in a group of genres the standard record industry doesn't care about. Heh. All I know is they (the record companies) better do something because they're quickly en route to being dinosaurs, what with major bands like Radiohead and Depeche Mode jumping ship for favor of releasing their own stuff themselves; how many will follow their lead?

[MiscGenius]

it makes sense
this seems to be the trend and it does not look like anything will change on its own
alot has to do with convinience too
when you own a huge cd collection it takes up so much space and is heavy to move
you can own the same music collection on a thumb drive these days and maybe keep just your absolute favorites as the real in hand product

[AMuse]

And so they are...
There is writing on the wall.

[Dusty Chalk]

They should reconsider trying to push crappy music on the muggle music consumer -- even they are beginning to pick up on crappy music's short lifespan.

[MiscGenius]

damn muggles and mudbloods
but it seems that crappy music is doing just fine
its just how people are getting it that is changed

[Dusty Chalk]

I disagree -- think about it -- and I'm talking about the average person here; I suspect anyone who cares enough about music to frequent any music board is "above average" -- they used to buy whole albums based on the strength of one or two "hit" songs -- now they just have to download the one song that they like. That right there will reduce crappy music buying by ~90%.

[seraphim]

I disagree -- think about it -- and I'm talking about the average person here; I suspect anyone who cares enough about music to frequent any music board is "above average" -- they used to buy whole albums based on the strength of one or two "hit" songs -- now they just have to download the one song that they like. That right there will reduce crappy music buying by ~90%.

Yes, while the people who take the time to frequent any music board or forum is unarguably an "above average" music fan, I'd argue that they are still the minority concerning the purchasing of "popular music "; which after all is the only genre of concern for the big fish labels out there (for the most part); you don't see articles or hear about such-and-such labels going after someone for downloading a Neuroactive song. Not that you should only download artists on the smaller labels.

Really I think there is no real need for labels at all. In this day and age you can do it all yourself. Most people do and I think we'll see more and more of it. I'm really interested to see what happens in the next five to ten years.

And in closing, I'm all for reducing the amount of crappy music out there, or at the very least not having those crappy bands release physical albums. Let them keep their stuff online. Heh.

[MiscGenius]

i am sticking to my guns
crappy music is reigning at the moment
hell i even started to like the chris daughtery songs after being forced to hear it over and over for months

[CaseInPoint]

Crappy music? You must be joking...

Have you watched the MTV music awards? That is great music cough.. cough... And downloading the one song that they like is exactly why the CD sales are off. Technology will end up killing the music business completely one day. Mind you, I said the music business, not the music. That will go on forever. :)

[Red and Shiny]

What is that song that says "Todays music aint got the same soul"
Looks like every generation is tooting some "old time rock and roll" or whatever. Seriously though there is much garbage music out today and I am talking about the label backed stuff and not all the bands on myspace.

[duhb]

heheh
plunging is right
but the cd is still a good format for music overall until you are dealing with several hundred of them
its all going to be replaced for the mainstream consumer in the next 5 years is my guess

[Electroswank]

An opinion also shared by by colleagues is that theres no value placed on music anymore. Not since the advent of illegal downloads and faster internet connection speeds.

When you have to fight to get that entertainment dollar between movies, computers and games, theres less people who feel passionate about music to spend on it making its' value nearly worthless. People have no problems spending 10 dollars to watch a two hour movie at a theater but won't spend that same money on a digital download for an album that they will own for their lifetime. Their thought pattern must be; well if i can download it for free why would i pay for music? No one wants to support artists anymore - then everyone wonders why these artists get dropped cos the labels who have been funding their careers run out of money due to shitty sales.

I will agree a lot of what the majors release is crap. But apparently it's what selling and what people are requesting to hear or else there would be no market for it. If everyone hated it so much then there would be a campaign or lobby for better music! But no one is that passionate anymore about music...

Big labels don't really like sinking money into a project that won't make them a return. Speaking of Labels I'm kind of sick of everyone blaming the big labels for ruining things and being so evil... yea sure they take a cut of what artists make but they invest a lot in artists too. They put all the money up for marketing, touring and all the things behind the scenes you don't see like when the artist wants to stay at a five star hotel in NYC or LA that costs thousands of dollars a night.

What the general population thinks is that they will steal music and it will hurt the label (which it does) but then it ends up hurting more then that - it hurts not only the artist, but everyone in the business from the graphic designers to the manufacturing plant, to the receptionist. Feeling the need to get "back" at a label for (what you think is them) making prices at record stores and online vendors so expensive is ridiculous. If people didn't steal music then vendors and retailers wouldn't have to mark up their prices to be able to pay their employees and rent, etc. Why do you think most major stores sell more then just cds? Are they greedy like labels too?

The whole topic angers me - maybe because so many people / friends i know and worked with over the years have lost their jobs over this shit. People want to blame anyone but themselves for stealing music and ruining the industry. Then when labels try to fight for their rights and rights of their artist they're made out to be evil. It's bullshit.

[Centurion]

This is pretty much how it is, and you are correct. I do not see anyone really blaming the labels per se' here, but I have seen that sort of talk in the past and I am sure that it is not too hard to find :). People that do not understand the concepts of what a business is and how a business needs to be run, run like a business or perish, will always act like it is the business that is greedy and/or taking too much. And the fact that a label has several layers of staff is also correct, and people at all those levels suffer like in any business that starts to fail at it's bottom line.

No one should argue that the Internet has served mostly in a negative way in terms of the music industry. It created the ability, in more ways than one for people to circumvent products. Products that the music business relied on to stay alive and well. The other side of the Internet is marketing potential and exposure, that really, the music biz already had well under control prior to the Internet and with several well-established methods, radio payola, etc. so the marketing Internet benefit is a pale exchange for the grim side-effect realities of P2P sharing and organized downloading and trading.

And while the Internet basically engaged the downward slide for the music industry - it has conversely served as a boom to mass music overdose. And when I say music, in most cases the term may not even be appropriate. Nonetheless, anyone and everyone is now an "artist" and has their "music" online. Remember a time when getting your music heard by the masses when terrestrial radio was the only viable option and somehow meant your stuff was vetted if it did get on? This is also a component of the problem since it is this over-saturation that depletes the perceived "value" of music as you eluded to. For the consumer who is now mostly all over the Internet the value of music and the overall impression of the value of music is that it is everywhere and available for free "much of the time" so why bother to invest money in it. Die hard CD buyers and music lovers are not the majority which really drives the commercial aspects of the business.

Music as a medium probably suffers, commercially, from this Internet "thing" the most. It is probably the sole medium that can be fully acquired, prolifirated, and appreciated in a digital (Internet) format. Artwork for example can be viewed on the Internet, but as a real life print, or piece in hand, it can finally be fully appreciated. Video can be viewed on the Internet but for most folks that do not have the real high end gear, it is fully appreciable in a movie theater or the like (although Video is sort of on the edge, but I think you get my point).

[Electroswank]

Oh no doubt that this day and age you have more music exposed to a more wider audience via internet, movies, tv, commercials, etc... but so what - it's not translating into sales. If it were we wouldn't' be having this conversation. I'm not faulting the internet solely - just saying for as much good comes out it that much bad does as well. The problem is there shouldn't be any policing online; we should have free speech, etc.. .but in that same breath when theres no agency protecting musicians rights and labels; this is what happens.

Music isn't the only thing the internet has tainted in my opinon... :) Don't get me started on how the internet ruins marriages and social lives of teenagers enough to make them killers, makes people addicts and is contributing to the obesity problem in our country, makes it easier for stalkers to hunt you down, and making kids even lazier then they'd normally be.

I recently watched this dumb movie : Idotocracy : http://www.cinemademerde.com/Idiotocracy.shtml
its really not so far off then where we are now... its about this guy who time travels in to the future to find out everyones an idiot! Honestly I feel like this is exactly whats happening to us.

[Centurion]

Right on about the exposure not translating into sales, and that was exactly my point.

And what you are saying about the Internet in general actually sounds like me during one of my rants - so at this junction it is only appropriate to quote an SNL skit...

"Don't get me started, don't even get me started..."

:)

[MiscGenius]

What is that song that says "Todays music aint got the same soul"
Looks like every generation is tooting some "old time rock and roll" or whatever. Seriously though there is much garbage music out today and I am talking about the label backed stuff and not all the bands on myspace.


well most of it has no soul at all so i guess we need a new song to cover that fact.

[Red and Shiny]

Be that true or not I think that CD sales are quickly dying off to the point of drastic problems for the people that make and sell these things. Nothing but more bad news there I think.