A three part series:

http://www.rollingstone.c..._decline/1


http://www.rollingstone.c..._decline/2

http://www.rollingstone.c..._decline/3

My thoughts :


Well...music (that they play on the radio) just sucks nowadays...I mean its okay, but its not nearly as good as it was when Zeppelin was out, as well as other bands, etc...it just sucks. Its not that there isnt talented people out there(trust me, there ARE talented people, there will always be talented people), it just isnt as good as it used to be, plus I think that popular music in general reached its climax a looooong time ago, probably back in the 70's, not including disco of course, lol (I was born in 1983 so it was at a decline to me, even by then, even if it still was good to a certain extent, even the 90's were okay)...plus people ARE NOT buying music thanks to CD burners, the CD man, etc...now as for my classic CD's I do buy them mostly over the internet (amazon.com, half.com, ebay) and the other ones from my local discount bookstores---there is music that is out nowadays that IS GOOD but it's underground...its not mainsteam @ all. But trust me when I say this, MUSIC WILL NEVER DIE!! No matter how bad it sucks, its here to stay!

It's pretty typical that Rolling Stone just now happened to notice the decline of the record industry Too busy talking about everything BUT music in that mag.

Another factor that I think can be added to this decline is the constant shoveling of crappy singles and artists that these major labels are promoting. Songs written by amateurs, slapped together with ProTools and pumped to radio stations, cellphone providers, and hundreds of music video channels for cash in exchange. Is it any wonder why the industry is in the state that it's in? I'm not surprised a bit.

To add to that, I think people are getting burned out on songs since they hear them 20 times a day in every direction. The same song getting played in TV, radio, cell phone and internet advertisements are everywhere - there's no escaping it. In the 90s, there was only TV and radio to help promote most singles and albums, so it's becoming a bit of overkill in this day and age.

I hate when people say it has to do with the quality of Music. WRONG. Young kids love music right now.

Year 2000 was the all time peak of CD sales. I don't think it had to do with the quality of music.

It has to do with all these downloading freeware, P2P and stuff like. This is where everything started, with the digital technology. Now It has become impossible for the Music industry to control pirating, piracy, copying and bootleging.

Nowdays a new Album is already leaked on line even before being in stores.


But the real responsibles of this situation are the Music industry. Seems like they didn't see that coming, they din't take that new tecnhology very seriously seriously.

And the first artists who have been serioulsy damaged are black artists...
[Edited 6/21/07 5:54am]

the industry is trying to fight evolution or compete with it rather than adapt to it.

I dont think its that kids love music, they love it because they can get it for free. NO kid wants to pay 10 bucks for the new TPain or Rihanna when they can download it for ZERO or at least buy the bootleg on the corner for a few bucks. Music today has to compete with so many different medias and its taking the backseat, in the 70's 80's and even 90's Music was the forefront of media, kids didnt have to worry about things like cell phone bills or whatever else they waste money on now, music was the leader of the pack. And pricing as an excuse is BULLSHIT im tired of hearing about that already as an excuse, should cd prices be lower, sure, but thats where labels come in, they wont bend on that issue, they never have been willing to do that since 1985 they arent going to start now, in fact there charges have gone up, thats why you see retailers dropping like flies and the ones that DO still carry music or Eliminating tons of their inventory and floor space devoted to music. Mark my words, u will see the remianing retailers who sell cds for 9.99 (which loses them 3-4 dollars per cd) start to raise those prices slowly, or eliminate music in their stores. Trust me the days of Music Retailers is over, one day soon you will be able to walk into a store, buy Milk, a new shirt and the new Prince Cd, if you can find the cd.

Anxiety said:

Hmmm. That's a thought. Is it any wonder that all the artist that get played in constant rotation on format radio all sound the same? It's funny how if we want to hear music of substance, the music buying public has to look to indie artist, underground artist or artist who have paid does in the biz a good substantial amount of years to give a good show that won't disappoint.

Good God.

Rolling Stone are a part of this!!! It's like somebody farting and then asking "What's that smell?"...

Just how many non-music covers have they had in the nineties and noughties?















They're as bad as MTV - worse in fact because they ride on a carpet of intellectual post-ironic pop culture pretension.

Sales of cds would be down even without piracy! simply because most casual listners dont want to buy albums! i remember in the mid 90s i was thinkin wont it be great to just get the hits i want and not buy the whole albums!
Most listners r far from interested in listening to non hit songs at all! Thats just the truth!

Since its so easy to buy the few hits why would ppl bother buyin albums!

albums which do sell r the ones which have a few hits on it !
In the mid 90s i was buyin alot of albums which i wont bother buyin now!
I dont download any albums from sharin websites!

But most kids r goin to download free albums! But at the same time i think they wont buy those albums anyway if we didnt have file sharing! So at least the artist r gettin free promtion thru file sharing at the same time and developing a following!

Just look at the numbers piracy has been prevelant since 2000 and itunes and ipod only came on after 2003!
And apple has sold 100mil ipods most of them in the last 2yrs! Its just singles r killin albums
[Edited 6/21/07 15:53pm]

Too many people are still making money off the current system.

Just as long as the people can mostly turn on the radio for free and mostly purchase shit, that's what the mainstream will mostly be fed.

They care only about hard green cash, and there is very little money in that which can't be measured ahead of time.

Or we could all just wait until they marginalize themselves right out of business.

But if nobody is left around that knows what music sounds like, how hard will it be to push something else?

asg said:

Kinda agree with this. I mean, the albums that are selling alot these days either are packed with hits or even just have that one hit that causes a buzz(Amy Winehouse, anyone). Take JT for example. Despite the low sales overall in the industry, he's managed to sell almost 4 million copies of Future Sex/Love Sounds. Why? Cause it has 3 no.1 singles, a recent top 10 hit, another possible hit with Love Stoned, and plenty of buzz. With all that, of course someone like him will have high sales. Same with Beyonce, though I think people are slowly getting sick of her.

But anyway, take someone like Rihanna. Yea, she has some big hit singles, but it's doubtful her albums sell past a million or 2(if even). Maybe they would sale alot if she went beyond releasing 2 singles before pulling the plug, but she's not, so o well..

From that point of view I have to agree. I mean, why the hell do u think Thriller became the seller it became eventually? Because 7 out of the 9 songs on the album were all big hits!!

Brendan said:

Free Radio=Format Radio

Anxiety said:

This is a fact.

The smart people (artists/corporations) are already making money online, the rest of the artists had better be able to tour and make some money there.

But that's gonna be a problem for most of the artists mentioned here, talent with a live audience and selling out tours requires more than just looking good on a video.

Somehow my son seems to acquire all the music he wants without spending a dime.

To be honest most of the contemporary "radio music" out there, not only wouldn't I pay for it, I wouldn't want it for free.

Normally I would say that live performance would be the current deal breaker.
The problem is that so many "artists" are performing with behind the scenes assistance, that's not even a true test anymore.


All across the nation, I hear plantation radio.

~The Family Stand



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

asg said:

The highest peak of CD sales was the year 2000. Kids were buying CDs like crazy.

Concerning the singles, it has always been an issue SINCE DAY 1 that casual listeners would prefer to buy few songs from an album. So this is the reason why CD sales have dropped.


People never stoped buying CDs until the downloading era with Napster, p2p stuff.
Napser was created in 1999.

Ipod was released in 2001 (not 2003).

Since then it has become WAY too easy to get anything you want for free.

When you said that kids wont buy those albums anyway if we didnt have file sharing, you are so WRONG.

If the file sharing was ONLY use for promotional purposes that would be different. But this is not the case AND that's the problem.

File sharing has been the downfall of the Music industry.

If there wasn't this new tecnhoogy, young kids would still buy albums, just like the kids of the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s etc...

And I HATE WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO TURN THIS IS ISSUE TO A TALENT ISSUE


Record Industry's decline has nothing to do with the lack of talent.

It also has to do with how easy it is to make music nowadays. Because of advance technology every halfwit with a computer and K'ed version of fruity loops can csll themselves a producer. The business aspect can no longer be controlled cause these so called producers can start up their own independent labels with their own clientel. And now with the internet promotion is just a click away. the actual fat cats are no longer needed.

for those who say that the quality of music sucks now. Well news flash the quality of pop music has always sucked...
in the 80's the music was the absolute worst, 70's was bad too. We just remember the absolute best of that era... but there was a lot of sucky music...

P2P did damage but it didn't do much...
it's overexaggerated...
the truth is that the digital realm forced the companies to pay the artist and producers alot more than they use too. Digital decreased the value of music.

what's gonna save the industry?
Distribution
all these record companies have to revert to just distributing...
and all the power would essentially go to artist and indie labels runned by producers...
thats the future of music now...
Prince predicted this would happen in the late 90's...
we all shouldn't be surprised at all.

krayzie said:

Well i have to agree and disagree on some things here. First Singles are NOT the cause of album sales dropping, take any HUGE selling album in the 80's like a Thriller. or Purple Rain or Hysteria or Slippery When Wet etc.. and they all had 4,5,6,7 singles (actual commercial singles) released and they didnt cost 99 cents they were more $$. But lets take KIDS for a minute, do we think they would be buying music like other decades if technology wouldnt have advanced in the current climate? i have to disagree, and its not so much on the talent side as it is that music is just not that important to kids like it used to be. Right now they we all talk of a DOWNFALL in the industry truth is that cd sales in people 29 years or older are up. The industry is mainly complaining about the $$$ its losing because of the money they put into promoting, say the new Rihanna disc. The total dollars spent by her label just in marketing are enormous, she would have to sell 5 million copies of that CD to break even! So the real problem is that labels are LAZY they promote and try to sell to kids, well they AINT buying, they may still GET music but they aint buying it. So labels be smart save your dollars, dont promote these acts, cause your only gonna lose money

Also the demise of all of this was caused by Soundscan. Did anyone really give a shit about sales until the 90's. NO! But once Sounscan came out, everyone wanted to be number one week 1 and they would do anything for it, to me the 90's were the biggest downfall, this is where the business really got corrupt. People high up got FAT off big sellers from Mariah,Celine and all the Britneys and Pop kids, and no one was checking themselves. Does anyone ever think to themselves that up until Elton John and Stevie Wonder NO ONE ever debuted at number one with a new release, and all of a sudden, EVERYONE does every week? Does that seem strange?

lastdecember said:

They were always concerned with sales and chart positions. It's just that in the 90's, they finally got an accurate system to get the real numbers.

MsLegs said:

It sounds great.

But what does it mean?

Brendan said:

If you're saying that if we make radio free (commercial free), it will only become more regimented, then I'd have to agree.

But I don't know if that's what you mean at all.

Radio has always been filled with one-hit wonders. The only difference is that these artists used to saddle right up to the legends.

Are there legends on the radio anymore, or have they all gone underground?

Maybe underground is where all self-respecting people should go?

Brendan said:

For all we know, the may have gone underground. Perhaps, you've touched on something.

MsLegs said:

the shins gave a song to mcdonalds.

paul mccartney and sonic youth have new cds selling at starbucks.

what does this say?

i think artists need industry as much as industry needs artists. i think artists need to re-evaluate what "selling out" means, the same way the industry needs to learn how to evolve.

MsLegs said:

Not in the U.K. The BBC's national radio stations are extremely eclectic.

krayzie said:

I never bought records until I was 14. Even after then, the only records I'd buy (for a good few years) were Prince records. Anything else, I'd just tape off the radio. I used to listen to the Chart Show every Sunday with my finger on the cassette's Pause button, to cut out the D.J. between songs.

The truth is, that if people are fans they will support an artist by buying their latest release.

Anxiety said:

Well, there's a difference between selling out and creative marketing.