CDR BOOTLEG NAPSTER INTERNET all these type of things R causing the music industry many worries and lagging sales ... some even think that when the internet Becomes faster for all people that there may not B a music industry any more at least not the way it is now ... My question is ... Do U think Prince was wise 2 venture in2 internet releases early B4 the FALL ?? One day all 7 will Fall ? huh?

Yes, it was a good move pointing in the right direction, but unfortunately done in a way that most fans chose not to like. He is free and can do what he wants to do. I thought music from the artist directly through the internet would be cheaper and easier for the love of the music and the fans but I was wrong. For me a simple ftp server with mp3's would do the trick. Very poor quality for prelistening and a fixed price for the high quality tracks. Deal ? Done ! My support also monetarily would be with him.

He is free which is fine, but chose a way I don't like, so I move on to other music I love. (With lurking here if something in his marketing strategy is changing so that I can support him fully again

Yours,
Jan

lastdecember7 said:

CD-R - No problem whatsoever, the same argument was used for blank tapes - they didn't cause a problem for the industry.

BOOTLEG - SO NEGLIGIBLE IT HARDLY MATTERS. Only die-hards buy bootlegs, and then bootlegs are only unreleased and live material that isn't officially available any way - thus no-one would purchase a bootleg thinking it was official, unless they were stupid (thankfully stupid people are in the minority where this is concerned)

P2P FILE SHARING ("NAPSTER INTERNET") - This is only a problem because of how the record industry decide to run their own affairs.

The decline in commercially released singles in the USA (and stricter and stricter formatting and increased pricing in the UK) has led to people downloading new songs because they don't wanna plump down £10 for a new album when they only know one song.

These days an album is released the week after the lead single (here at least) which means I could spend £4 on a single with 3 tracks, or I could wait a week and buy the album for £10.

Stricter single formats and tracklists mean record companies commission remixes for singles that don't get released, and the only mass system for fans to get these tracks is the internet (again, this doesn't cut into profits, since the mixes aren't commercially released).

Record companies investment in short-term money making projects (Pop Idol and Reality TV tie-ins, artists with little or no vocal/musical talent) means that artists are dropped if they fail to live up to huge expectations of their first couple of singles, and the huge (and quite crass) cash injection into new manufactured artists and their first single means very few of these acts actually make it past this stage.

The ones that do have a limited shelf-life due to over-exposure - MTV/Radio playlists being so small, they play the same 15 songs over and over and over.

The record company likes to blame the consumer for their failings, but they could well do with looking a little closer to home as to why they are not hitting their targets.