MickyDolenz said:

kitbradley said:

This is great news considering all of the horrifying new music that's being released. I still continue to be astounded whenever I happen to tune in to shows like 106 & Park and hear a lot of the contemporary "music"! It's like any old dog or cat off the streets can make a record, get some air time and he's a big music star. I think more and more people are growing weary of it and starting to reach back to the past to find music with substance.

Since a year and a half is not that much time, modern acts are still in the catalog sales. It's not like they're only talking about acts from 50 years ago.

Still, Guns 'n' Roses and Whitney Houston is of a whole different generation.

NDRU said:

MickyDolenz said:

Since a year and a half is not that much time, modern acts are still in the catalog sales. It's not like they're only talking about acts from 50 years ago.

Still, Guns 'n' Roses and Whitney Houston is of a whole different generation.

Hell, he's gonna piece and dissect and point out every little extreme exception he can find like a lawyer trying to get a murderer off.

I may be spouting an unpopular opinion here, but as a young adult (I'm 20), most of my friends talk about buying older music because it's better. That's it.

Most people think we don't care about the quality of music, but we generally put music into two categories: "will buy (quality)" and "isn't worth buying but I'll download it for free somewhere (crap)". And this is one of the reasons why record sales are in the toilet for "singles artists" (like Rihanna). People like that are physically incapable of any kind of musical depth and creativity enough to create a full album of amazing music, so why should I buy it?

Another reason sales for new music are bad is because they've been advertising to 13 year olds which was a mistake because with the demise of brick and morter music stores, there is no place for kids to buy music anymore. In the generations before me there were physical stores where a kid could spend their allowance on an album, but if you use iTunes, you have to own a credit/debit card and the average 13 year old kid isn't going to own that. So when you market to an audience that can't even buy your product...obviously you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Honestly I get upset when I hear media reports and even older people talking about young people not having quality taste/this is why crap is on the radio/ya'll don't even buy music anymore/blah blah blah. We don't control the industry. Business entities control it. They payola the heck out of radio and charts and stuff and try to force us to like yet another dance remix of "I'm Sexy And I Know It" or whatever crap they've been paid to put out (#BerryGordyShade ). And it's funny because it doesn't work. All the advertising these people get and their albums aren't even able to sell more than Janet Jackson's Dream Street.

If anyone has noticed, a lot of the latest #1 songs have been retro/indie-sounding songs like "We Are Young" by FUN and "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye and pretty much every song on Adele's 21. Even that inane song "Call Me Maybe" has a vaguely Vanessa Carlton "A Thousand Miles" vibe to it musically (lyrically...no) just without the highlighted piano. So there is a shift in the industry to better quality music since they're getting their heads out of the clouds and realizing that if they don't give the people what they want, they won't exist anymore.

I mean even Chris Brown and Justin Beiber are whining that their companies aren't giving them enough exposure despite the fact that their albums are that carefully balanced mix of hip-pop and dance crap that has been flooding the market for the past 5 years.

Things are definitely getting better out there.

[Edited 7/20/12 12:41pm]

RoseDuchess12 said:

I may be spouting an unpopular opinion here, but as a young adult (I'm 20), most of my friends talk about buying older music because it's better. That's it.

Most people think we don't care about the quality of music, but we generally put music into two categories: "will buy (quality)" and "isn't worth buying but I'll download it for free somewhere (crap)". And this is one of the reasons why record sales are in the toilet for "singles artists" (like Rihanna). People like that are physically incapable of any kind of musical depth and creativity enough to create a full album of amazing music, so why should I buy it?

Another reason sales for new music are bad is because they've been advertising to 13 year olds which was a mistake because with the demise of brick and morter music stores, there is no place for kids to buy music anymore. In the generations before me there were physical stores where a kid could spend their allowance on an album, but if you use iTunes, you have to own a credit/debit card and the average 13 year old kid isn't going to own that. So when you market to an audience that can't even buy your product...obviously you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Honestly I get upset when I hear media reports and even older people talking about young people not having quality taste/this is why crap is on the radio/ya'll don't even buy music anymore/blah blah blah. We don't control the industry. Business entities control it. They payola the heck out of radio and charts and stuff and try to force us to like yet another dance remix of "I'm Sexy And I Know It" or whatever crap they've been paid to put out (#BerryGordyShade ). And it's funny because it doesn't work. All the advertising these people get and their albums aren't even able to sell more than Janet Jackson's Dream Street.

If anyone has noticed, a lot of the latest #1 songs have been retro/indie-sounding songs like "We Are Young" by FUN and "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye and pretty much every song on Adele's 21. Even that inane song "Call Me Maybe" has a vaguely Vanessa Carlton "A Thousand Miles" vibe to it musically (lyrically...no) just without the highlighted piano. So there is a shift in the industry to better quality music since they're getting their heads out of the clouds and realizing that if they don't give the people what they want, they won't exist anymore.

I mean even Chris Brown and Justin Beiber are whining that their companies aren't giving them enough exposure despite the fact that their albums are that carefully balanced mix of hip-pop and dance crap that has been flooding the market for the past 5 years.

Things are definitely getting better out there.

[Edited 7/20/12 12:41pm]

A bunch of great points, there. Particularly the one about young people not having credit cards. That never occurred to me before! It might be easier for them to steal music than to actually buy it.

Two reasons:

1. Older music is way better than new music, everybody agrees on that; and

2. A lot of kids today steal their music instead of buying it, and their thievery doesn't show up in the sales figures.

Timmy84 said:

G3000 said:

I know!

It takes a sudden death or a controversial move/publicity stunt or an arrest/domestic altercation or a showing of body parts to sell records these days. It's not about the music, it's about remembering what happened in that moment.

Go figure.

I know right? The fact is people are still buying records. It's like trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

And yeah I agree on the death/controversy. Also older records are all gonna have lower prices anyway, so it's like a "buy all you want" buffet. They have that at Wal-Mart. I love it.

[Edited 7/18/12 13:39pm]

As we've seen in databank's thread, a lot (most?) of new music is stolen rather than bought. Can't get cheaper than that!

NDRU said:

RoseDuchess12 said:

I may be spouting an unpopular opinion here, but as a young adult (I'm 20), most of my friends talk about buying older music because it's better. That's it.

Most people think we don't care about the quality of music, but we generally put music into two categories: "will buy (quality)" and "isn't worth buying but I'll download it for free somewhere (crap)". And this is one of the reasons why record sales are in the toilet for "singles artists" (like Rihanna). People like that are physically incapable of any kind of musical depth and creativity enough to create a full album of amazing music, so why should I buy it?

Another reason sales for new music are bad is because they've been advertising to 13 year olds which was a mistake because with the demise of brick and morter music stores, there is no place for kids to buy music anymore. In the generations before me there were physical stores where a kid could spend their allowance on an album, but if you use iTunes, you have to own a credit/debit card and the average 13 year old kid isn't going to own that. So when you market to an audience that can't even buy your product...obviously you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Honestly I get upset when I hear media reports and even older people talking about young people not having quality taste/this is why crap is on the radio/ya'll don't even buy music anymore/blah blah blah. We don't control the industry. Business entities control it. They payola the heck out of radio and charts and stuff and try to force us to like yet another dance remix of "I'm Sexy And I Know It" or whatever crap they've been paid to put out (#BerryGordyShade ). And it's funny because it doesn't work. All the advertising these people get and their albums aren't even able to sell more than Janet Jackson's Dream Street.

If anyone has noticed, a lot of the latest #1 songs have been retro/indie-sounding songs like "We Are Young" by FUN and "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye and pretty much every song on Adele's 21. Even that inane song "Call Me Maybe" has a vaguely Vanessa Carlton "A Thousand Miles" vibe to it musically (lyrically...no) just without the highlighted piano. So there is a shift in the industry to better quality music since they're getting their heads out of the clouds and realizing that if they don't give the people what they want, they won't exist anymore.

I mean even Chris Brown and Justin Beiber are whining that their companies aren't giving them enough exposure despite the fact that their albums are that carefully balanced mix of hip-pop and dance crap that has been flooding the market for the past 5 years.

Things are definitely getting better out there.

[Edited 7/20/12 12:41pm]

A bunch of great points, there. Particularly the one about young people not having credit cards. That never occurred to me before! It might be easier for them to steal music than to actually buy it.

I'm pretty sure record companies didn't factor that in either lol. They were just going on the past and how the music industry used to work (because the new business people were trained in reading statistics and responding to market changes instead of being proactive), meanwhile, not realizing that THEIR OWN hasty decision to make online distribution the new standard was going to cause them pretty much 98% of the problems they're whining about now. I mean I guess the whole Napster invention wasn't their fault, but after shutting it down/transforming it, they could have stemmed the tide by spending more money making good music instead of trying to change the technology of how music is listened to and bought.

Considering a lot of people my age and younger are discovering vinyl in mom & pop record stores, I'd say that we aren't really opposed to buying music physically the way the media says we are. If I were a label head, I'd invest in putting more new albums on vinyl alongside CDs and iTunes/Amazon (like Bruno Mars did) just to gain more money. It kills two birds with one stone because a 13 year old can physically buy it and their parents will feel a connection to it because it reminds them of their own youth, thus creating a wide age range of people who know about/like/have an emotional connection to/buy the music. Lady Gaga actually released her The Fame album on 8-track and people not only bought it, but were rumminging their basements to find players for it.

Sometimes it seems like record companies are actually trying to kill the industry lol.

RodeoSchro said:

1. Older music is way better than new music, everybody agrees on that;

The logic on here.

yeah, probably cuz the new stuff isn't real music!

G3000 said:

Really?

For the first time since Nielsen Soundscan began keeping track of album sales in 1991, old records have outsold new ones, with the first six months of 2012 seeing album sales of 76.6 million "catalog" records (albums released more than 18 months ago) compared to 73.9 million current albums.

Topping the catalog sales charts are Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits and four Whitney Houston records (as a result of her untimely passing).

So is nostalgia in higher demand than fresh material? The main reason, according to Nielsen analyst David Bakula, has been because record labels and retailers have continued to drop the price of older albums to as low as $5.99 or $7.99, which is attracting new consumers.

"I really, truly do believe that there probably is a consumer that is buying music here that wasn't buying music in the past," Bakula told the OC Weekly. He also goes on to mention that these high numbers of catalog records have resulted despite the fact that Adele's 21, which is still considered a new record, has sold one million more copies in 2012 than it did compared to 2011.

Digital sales is also an important variable to keep in mind, and while album sales in general have dropped 3.2% during the first six months of 2012 (when compared to of 2011), digital album sales have grown 13.8%. Attributing to the sales of old records, CDs and the majority of old digital albums continue to be sold for a relatively price (between $7.99 and $10.99), while newer CDs typically run consumers between a bit more (between $12.99 and $17.99).

It is also likely that many are repurchasing old records that they may have either lost or wanted to replace in digital format. And, as we saw with Whitney Houston and several others before her, the deaths of popular artists are certainly traceable to spikes in their record sales, which attributed highly to the sales of catalog records during the first six months of 2012.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/07/for-the-first-time-records-of-the-past-are-outselling-new-ones.html

chriss said:

yeah, probably cuz the new stuff isn't real music!

http://prince.org/msg/8/376214