The Record Industry's Decline

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/images/adaccess/R/R02/R0206/R0206-med.jpeg

Didn't Vvm Test Records finish off the music industry?

Aborigines, lowest in the scale of savagery on earth imo

Mike Batt, songwriter and owner of the Dramatico record label, which has signed Katie Melua and Marianne Faithfull, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he supported the industry stance.

"I run a small record label and I'm an artist, so I can speak for both," he said. "If a record company invests hundreds of thousands of pounds in selling my records, doesn't it earn a right to stand alongside me in the sharing of income?"

Bragg responded that Batt's argument "defending the right of record companies to enjoy a further 45 years of income made my blood boil".

Batt makes a helluva lot more money through his record label than his 70s hits.

I'm excited about this small label! Who's this Marianne Faithfull girl does she have a myspace?

If aborigines are lowest in the scale of savagery, doesn't that make them less savage than everyone else? No matter - just show me where I can get one of these sharkskin drums.

BOSTON (AP) -- A Boston University student has been ordered to pay $675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing music.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.

The case is only the nation's second music downloading case against an individual to go to trial.

Last month, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled a Minnesota woman must pay nearly $2 million for copyright infringement.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/31/business/AP-US-TEC-MusicDownload.html

should we start guessing what those 30 songs were

$675,000 for 30 songs is $22,500 per song. I just figured out how to eliminate the deficit. If the record industry successfully sues everyone for the amount of illegal downloading over the past decade, that will add up to roughly....419 trillion dollars. If they can just donate 1% of that to the federal government we should be sitting pretty.

"But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful."

How could they not be willful?

"Oh I just accidently download these 30 tracks. Sorry guys. Shit I owe you what!??!"

"I thought it was free porn!"

when it comes to major label shit i really should just buy used from now on

If each of the roughly 1 billion songs that are illegally downloaded each month carried the same $22,500 penalty, $270 trillion would be collected each year. Global GDP is around $69 trillion.

Did anyone throw that back of the envelope stat at the jury before they decided on a penalty?

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86724/uk-music-economist-says-music-industry-revenue-up-4-7/

Has the list of songs been made public or is that wishful thinking? Cos if I was one of the artists that recorded one of these 30 songs I would be expecting a good chunk of that 22k....

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/08/01/opinion/01blow.ready.html

no wonder they're the way they are

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/01/opinion/musicforweb2.gif

Not sure where to post this, but the following article mentions some important things IMO: https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-devaluation-of-music-it-s-worse-than-you-think-f4cf5f26a888

- "Digital music ecosystems, starting with Apple’s iTunes, reduced recordings down to a stamp-sized cover image and three data points...Plus, they’re devoid of context"
- "In the age of measured clicks the always-on focus grouping has institutionalized the echo chamber of pop music, stultifying and discouraging meaningful engagement with art music."
- "Art music relates to mathematics, architecture, symbolism and philosophy...Why so many are satisfied to engage with music at only the level of 'feeling' is a vast, impoverishing mystery."
- "How does a young person steeped in the faux-Shostakovich rumbling of a war game soundtrack hear real Shostakovich and think it’s any big deal?"

On the other hand, is this article best read in an old-man-shaking-stick-at-youngsters-from-porch-voice?

I think there is something to the first two of those quotes, but the third makes me shrug and the last one makes me groan.

Actually the second one is kind of dumb too. I do think there's something about the music landscape today that is worse for "serious" music but that doesn't quite get at what it is.

I think they're all dumb quotes.

And article is classic "things were better in my day when people had respect for things".

Why so many are satisfied to engage with music at only the level of 'feeling' is a vast, impoverishing mystery."

For starters, hasn't the proportion of this "so many" - in the U.S., anyway - remained about the same since, oh, the Eisenhower administration?

tbf, author does allude to that in regards to the advent of popular music radio.

Of the quotes I pulled (but you should read the article!), I'm most interested in 2 and 3, because I think there is something to the notion of music losing its market share in the cultural sphere, to be something of an all-things-to-(at least some)-people. It really does just seem like a small part of the equation for almost everyone I know. It's hard to find someone who thinks about music providing many philosophical or intellectual answers in the same way as religion does (or did) -- and I wonder if that, as much as the difficulty in selling it, adds to the feeling of devaluation.

and I'm certainly open to the idea that this affects more than just music, and would be surprised if it didn't.

there isn't a single good point anywhere in that article, sorry :(

that is def old man shaking fist at clouds

even if he has some good points, he doesn't really get into anything in any depth

the thing is, I am now an old man

I am a cloud

"It really does just seem like a small part of the equation for almost everyone I know."

Yes well you are an old man.

people def "age out" of interest in music, which is a bummer in its own for people like me, but it's weird to see youth subcultures based around music also apparently evaporate. Like it would be easier for me to accept my peers not giving a fuck about music if there was a generation coming up that did, but afaict there isn't, really.

Based on what evidence do young people not care about music?

the young people I know

Maybe you should hang out with cooler young people? :P

I feel like I am pretty constantly having conversations with young"er" people about music (admittedly I am also always having conversations with old"er" people about music, as still I wear a lot of band shirts and go to shows).

yeah admittedly my world of young people = relatives/coworkers and whatever young people are on here (which appears to be not a lot)

I have no idea how old anyone on here is, but I think this kind of message-board is not what "the youth of today" are using.

Well I guess I know how old you are haha, but I mean outside of the people I've met and folks who've posted pics/ages I don't really know.

I went for an interview once at WMG's offices in Burbank (it was for an internship in their HR department), and the
recruiter bemoaned the fact that MP3's had insidiously cut into the revenue that labels made from t-shirt sales(!)

in my experience young people who love music are most into shaking their fists at clouds

I have no idea how old anyone on here is, but I think this kind of message-board is not what "the youth of today" are using.

Some may. But then we are speaking of the increasing percentage of youth of today who aren't into the music of today. Pop music listening has become so fragmented these days that even the kids are increasingly fragmented in their listening habits.

While I agree with the author that iTunes is shit at providing context for recordings, the world wide web is pretty good.

Yeah that's the weirdest complaint ever. This is a golden time to learn anything you want about anything. AND BUY A T-SHIRT FOR IT TOO AND GET IT SHIPPED PAINLESS TO YOU WITH LOW CHANCE OF RIPOFF TAKE THAT WMG!

Geir is back!?

They summoned him using the Ask Geir thread.

Geir is the real story here.

I feel like there's a vague kernel of something interesting here, but suspect it may amount to little more than "omg neoliberalism fuXxored everything up and all anyone cares about is bottom line!" which may be true but seems reductive and not helpful.

There is always a vague kernel of truth in every shitty Medium thinkpiece.

"feeling" is itself really complex and has a lot (everything) to do with "mathematics, architecture, symbolism and philosophy"

but thanks for pulling those quotes out so i don't have to waste 30 minutes on another useless thinkpiece

but maybe itunes can give away free buildings with taylor swift albums and then *boom* problem solved