Decline in music sales

Here is today's story on CNN:

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- They're throwing a wake of sorts for the Rhino Records store Saturday and Sunday.

Founded in 1973, the venerable record shop officially closed its doors after the turn of the year, hard on the heels of the folding of crosstown competitor Aron's Records.
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Does this reflect a paradigm shift? Of course, but, if a new study from England's University of Leicester is to be believed, it also reflects a basic difference in the way consumers are looking at music. The school's psychologists noted last week that music had "lost its aura," and was now viewed as simply a commodity.

I disagree with the latter assessment. The demise of traditional music business is rooted in its own business model, where the CDs didn't become cheaper in the past 25 years despite staggering advances in production and distribution technologies (at some point the argument was that they are novel technology and therefore mus be expensive).

Many successful artists have remarked that today's record labels have zero interest in devloping an artist and are playing a numbers game instead, waiting for an instant hit that can be heavily promoted and sold in large quantities. This is fundamentally wrong as it produces a lot of crap that people won't listen to anyway.

I listen to mostly independent (and free) music on the Web, which I find often is as polished as anything I can buy at a large store, and often more spirited and intereresting.

I listen to mostly independent (and free) music on the Web,

I feel that this is the way of the future.

The music industry focuses so much on money (as it is a business) that the artistry that is music is dying and becoming nothing more than 3 minute musical adds for cars, clothes, cell phones and other products.
I feel with the way things are now music will regress and only people who truly love making music will still be around. I also think that music will be better this way.

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The reason that sales are down is that commercial music really sucks right now. You have a choice of pop-country, American Idol collaborations, Maraih Carey ,cookie cutter rock and Hip-hop. This market is so large it is incredible.

Alt labels and direct marketing is hte way to go for many performers, and that is cutting into retail sales. Trust me, burned CD's will never compare to the real thing whne downloaded. If you really want the music, you buy it and rip it for friends and split hte cost. This is nothing new, people did it with tapes for years.

If they want to target someone, target CD-R manufacturers, not hte consumer. Alt-rockers Pearl Jam has offered every show from their last 2 tours in stores and exclusively on line. They were huge sellers. Major labels are not needed anymore as a demo can be cut on a 3 y/o pc running Cubase in a garage, put it on the web and see if people hit your music.

Hmmm.
This is true for the non- internet music.
As for the on-line sales of music, it tripled during the 2005 year.
This is most likely due to the mp3 / ipod blow out that apple et. al are enjoying right now.
On-Line Music Sales Triple in 2005

As a person how grew up near music row I have seen the changes but the changes are due to the consumer not the record companies. I’m a DJ I brought records and cd religiously almost $100 every week to spin and the cost of cd’s being $15 a pop says a lot about the industry. I have also worked a Kinko’s that replicated cod with paint tops also and I know they really cost 45-50 cents a piece at small volume. So why the sustained high price? Mostly I believe to keep the limos rolling for the executives. The artist never really gets what they are worth unless they go on tour. They do get paid for gigs. I have had friends sign on big record labels and was dropped without being able to shop their music because the company wants their money back of investment in the group. I know that this is happening on a regular basis. It’s their own fault. I think of the records that they put out by dead artist and wonder who gets the money? Only to find out that they are raking in money that is basically free. When I found out that cds only cost a little I stopped buying them. If you want consumers you need to understand I want what I want at a reasonable rate. And we are not even going into the idea of trying to get rid of records. That was a very stupid move.

how can any music be copywritten, I mean to copywrite and have exclusive rights to a sequence of sounds is the same as copywriting the act of walking by placing one foot in front of the other or placing exclusive rights on other sensory perception.

I figured this was relevant to this thread.

The RIAA is going to say this is because people are downloading illegally, but the real reason is that most of the publicized music is utter crap.

Honestly, there are few modern bands I like. Mojave 3, Belle & Sebastian, Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek, Mark Knopfler, Roger Waters (those two are still writing new stuff, so they count), Over The Rhine, The Cardigans, Andrew Bird, Colin Hay, The Dresden Dolls, Kings Of Covenience, Winston and the Telescreen, Michael Miller...

Okay, so there are more than a few. But only a few of those are well known. And that's the problem. The talented groups don't get the publicity they deserve.