and no i wasn't being sarcastic at all! i mean if people are prepared to pay £10-15 for albums on CD why not a little bit more for a CD-R with every album by a band on one disc? i am lazy and searching for obscure material online can be a chore - why can't i just buy it easily from an organised source and in a format thats as convenient as possible for me, if i want to? obviously it would take the industry to wave a white flag and say 'we can't beat you so we'll join you' somewhat and put up with piracy like they're going to have to anyway, but i really dont see what the problem is with being able to buy mp3s on CD or video on CD legitimately. while its fair to say doing this kind of thing of yourself and selling them via eBay or wherever is dubious and disrespectful, i would have no qualms about paying money for, say, 100 quality mp3s on a CD or 10 decent quality music videos of my choice on a CD or DVD for the same price you'd pay for the equivalent in the shops.
― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 16 March 2003 12:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dave q, Sunday, 16 March 2003 12:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 16 March 2003 14:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 March 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
heartening: http://thequietus.com/articles/03352-a-decade-in-music-filesharing-post-napster-myths-of-the-digital-age
― NI, Thursday, 3 December 2009 20:58 (fourteen years ago) link
In the future, people will just type their preferences into a computer, and everything will be tied into a central network that programs stuff corresponding what mood the listener wants to be in that day. If they want new stuff, the computer will just automatically program something the person is guaranteed to like according to said preferences. There won't be any more middlemen like artists, promoters etc― dave q, Saturday, October 19, 2002 6:39 PM (7 years ago)
― dave q, Saturday, October 19, 2002 6:39 PM (7 years ago)
dave q otm
Bands will play a 30 and over, non-smoking show at 7:00. Then, if they wish, they can play an under 30, smoking & posturing show that starts at 11:00.― dave225 (Dave225), Saturday, March 15, 2003 4:25 AM (6 years ago)
― dave225 (Dave225), Saturday, March 15, 2003 4:25 AM (6 years ago)
dave225 sadly not yet otm
― Santa Boars (winshit@burgerfuel.co.nz) (sic), Friday, 4 December 2009 03:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Ha, like in the sixties, but the age groups are the wrong way round.
― Mark G, Friday, 4 December 2009 10:47 (fourteen years ago) link
the aime street digital music site was bought by amazon.com. they promise to integrate parts of it into amazon.com's overall service, but it sounds more to me like the service is dead.
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 8 September 2010 18:46 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.lala.com/
RIP
― markers, Wednesday, 8 September 2010 20:22 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023766.html?categoryid=16&cs=1&ref=vertmusic
― I brake for breaks (lpz), Wednesday, 8 September 2010 20:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Rhino -- whose name was once synonymous with high-end reissue packages and imaginative cross-licensed releases -- is plotting a course to move further into the digital realm.
great idea
― markers, Wednesday, 8 September 2010 20:24 (fourteen years ago) link
i just hope that if cd's go out vinyl remains. that's all i really care for. cd's can fucking burn for all i care. most unattractive display pieces in history.
― lieutenant jimmy john (kelpolaris), Thursday, 9 September 2010 02:24 (fourteen years ago) link
not to sound like a raging grandaddy or someone with a newfound hipster complex. i just like to display my album art around the house.
― lieutenant jimmy john (kelpolaris), Thursday, 9 September 2010 02:25 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah fuck a cd
― samosa gibreel, Thursday, 9 September 2010 02:26 (fourteen years ago) link
amie st was on a downhill slide for a while sadly
― consolation pies (electricsound), Thursday, 9 September 2010 02:27 (fourteen years ago) link
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4d5c3e1e4bd7c86216030000/chart-of-the-day-music-industry-1973-2009-feb-2011.jpg
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-music-industry-sales-2011-2
― goole, Friday, 18 February 2011 15:51 (thirteen years ago) link
It that adjusted for inflation? It's strange to think that in the gutting of the music industry, it may still be at mid-seventies size or larger.
― bendy, Friday, 18 February 2011 16:30 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^The market is global now - the vast bulk of the 70s figure would be N. America and Europe.
― sonofstan, Friday, 18 February 2011 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2
more sensible numbers and shits
inflation and population-adjusted money shot:
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4d5ea2acccd1d54e7c030000/music-industry.jpg
― instead of a brain in the subway mila kunis going down on you (silby), Monday, 21 February 2011 01:28 (thirteen years ago) link
legalize spotify ffs usa
i'm more adamant about this than this stupid marijuana shit we're in riots about
― The previous message has been brought to you by (kelpolaris), Monday, 21 February 2011 02:19 (thirteen years ago) link
We're in riots over that?
Spotify will never ever ever be legalized here.
― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 21 February 2011 04:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Please do not take me literally.
It's like 99% legalized here in Denver, but we have the occasional protest outside cap. hill wanting it outside the medical realm.
― The previous message has been brought to you by (kelpolaris), Monday, 21 February 2011 05:42 (thirteen years ago) link
"medical"
http://thequietus.com/articles/06318-how-the-music-industry-is-killing-music-and-blaming-the-fans
― sam500, Thursday, 26 May 2011 02:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, that was an interesting article. Not sure but it seems that many of the main points are refutable and worst-case-scenarios, though.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 26 May 2011 11:07 (thirteen years ago) link
richard butler reads tQ.
― mark e, Thursday, 26 May 2011 12:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Illegal downloading is a total bore unless it is rare or out of print stuff. IMO. I like mp3 sites but let's face it they are full of re-recordings and poorly packaged material, dampening the enthusiasm of shopping online. These sites need to be more sensitive the cultural and social appeal of music consumption.
As massive as Amazon is, they have good stuff, but I hate going there and reading the same old crabby reviews. When you're selling music you ought to be more sensitive to fan culture. Also there is something weird about getting music at the same place you order dog food.
― Chuckles Hearts the Cubs (u s steel), Thursday, 26 May 2011 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Some useful points in that article, esp. poking holes in the idea that touring is the cure for all musicians' woes. But a lot of caca too: "How tragic is it that the man behind ‘Anarchy In The UK' will now be forever tied in the collective imagination with Country Life Butter, even though he used the cash to help fund the reformation of PiL?" Seriously? And which collective is this? I've never heard of Country Life Butter until today. Is it even for sale in the USA? And why didn't they get Bryan Ferry to sell it?
Still this is a fine sentence: "Telling people that profit margins are at stake doesn't speak to the average music fan, but explaining how the quality of the music they enjoy is going to deteriorate, just as water would become muddy and undrinkable if no one invested in it, might encourage them to participate in the funding of its future." It'd help his argument, though, if he told us which music isn't muddy and undrinkable. If it isn't, and I quote, Lady Fucking Gaga, then who? Sigur Ros? Hmmmm...
― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 26 May 2011 16:40 (thirteen years ago) link
In re: first paragraph -- Kevin, the Quietus is a UK-based publication and while the audience may be worldwide one can assume that a fair amount of its references will be UK-specific, like that is.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 26 May 2011 16:41 (thirteen years ago) link
that article is really long. all i can remember from it is lady fucking gaga.
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 May 2011 16:42 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost. Right. I got that. But that weakens any sense of a collective imagination.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 26 May 2011 17:04 (thirteen years ago) link
This article is beautifully written.
Something that isn't talked/written about, to the best of my knowledge, and I'm interested in reading about, is an investigation into 'community music'. An increase in the popularity of local scenes, what somebody derisively once called "friend-rock"-- which is absolutely my favourite kind of music.
Many of my favourite bands in the world are ones that my friends are in, play every week somewhere in this city, make records at home that sell 200-500 copies to their fans, and barely ever tour, if ever. This was not the case before 2003 or so.
I theorize that this is the product of two things: first, more realistic expectations on the part of the musicians, re: career. Second, the fact that the 'availability of all music to everyone' has informed people about What Music Exists Out There, and those people are creating better music as a result.
For example, in 2000, I had a handful of friends who had heard of the band Neu! and maybe two who actually owned something of theirs. In 2011, if your band has a motorik beat, even a casual listener can recognize that it is pastiche. To me, this isn't a signifier of any sort of upswing in Neu!'s popularity, but rather an indication that the availability of downloadable media has only served to keep artists more informed.
I'm not really in a position to gauge whether these observations are strictly site-specific or otherwise... but I have noticed that "Talk About Your Hometown Music Scene" threads are pretty popular on other message boards, and the enthusiasm seems genuine, rather than nepotistic.
Is this a dumb theory?
― THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Thursday, 26 May 2011 17:49 (thirteen years ago) link
not dumb at all. it will all be in my new book entitled The New Yokelism:Free-Range & Organic Music Scenes In America & The People That Build Them
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 May 2011 17:57 (thirteen years ago) link
but for real i have been thinking about this a lot lately and the whole back to the land hand-made candle chapbook lathe-cut farm share revivalism thing and where i am and live is a long-running example of this where people do what they do for their friends and onlookers and their is creativity to spare but no desire to make it bigger than it is.
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 May 2011 17:59 (thirteen years ago) link
THERE is creativity, etc...
― scott seward, Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I think a strong home town scene just needs some focal point be it a fanzine or, these days, websites. My home town (oxford) has had a very lively local scene for the last 20+ years with most bands (until recently) performing just for the enjoyment rather than to make a living out of it.
Even before everyone was online there were odd little bubbles of bands influencing each other developing completely outside of what was happening elsewhere.
― jellybean (back again) (Jill), Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Great all I can think about now is "is it local" xp
― THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:15 (thirteen years ago) link
RIAA President Cary Sherman Made $3.2 Million In 2009
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/052211riaa
http://www.csindy.com/IndyBlog/archives/2011/05/23/music-monday-riaa-ceo-earns-3-million-salary-for-suing-evil-downloadersIn case you're wondering why the RIAA has to go around suing grandmothers for downloading music, it may have something to do with the annual $3 million-plus the record industry trade group pays its CEO.
In addition to big chief Cary Sherman's multimillionaire lifestyle, the RIAA supported its staff of executives, lobbyists and minions in 2009 with a reported $16.2 million in "salaries, other compensation, and employee benefits."
Thank goodness the RIAA is tax-exempt!
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:33 (thirteen years ago) link
And Sherman's pay was DOUBLE that of the next-highest-paid lobbyist.
― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Scott OTM.
― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 26 May 2011 18:47 (thirteen years ago) link
I really don't see how this is the music industry's fault. If they're obviously making far less money than they used to, then of course they're going to do everything they can to cut costs. And if touring was as expensive as the article claims it is, why haven't we heard any complaints or interviews or twitter or facebook posts from the musicians about it? It can't be as bad as when Steve Albini wrote that "Some of Your Favorite Bands May Already Be Fucked" article.
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
uh plenty of musicians complain about how difficult it is to tour - the price of gas alone...
― metally ill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:09 (thirteen years ago) link
If the artists and record companies are happy to pay this kind of money for this guy, by all means let them. After all he & his crew are the ones actually collecting the money. The repo man always gets a cut.
Anyway, labels big and small have proven to be spectacularly bad at making money off digital music and unable to prevent piracy. They used to make somewhere around $1-2 per CD on average, but from Spotify they're receiving somewhere around $0.00005 for every song played - so even if all the pirates go legit this will never pay back a recording either. There is no money in selling records. The deals that they're making with Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are the future where labels license their catalogue completely to the IT wizards who've found the way to manage to pry money out of listeners wallets by bundling it with all kinds of mobile phone plans, electronics and cloud services. So they'll be out of the distribution business, drop all pretense of 'selling records', and turn into wholesale financing, publishing & marketing companies.
All this obv for professional musicians, for amateurs who essentially pay to play the current situation is fantastic. It's never been so cheap to record and distribute yr own stuff.
― Siegbran, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:13 (thirteen years ago) link
And if touring was as expensive as the article claims it is, why haven't we heard any complaints or interviews or twitter or facebook posts from the musicians about it?
well for one thing because when you get to make a living as a musician it's gauche, and also kinda embarrassing and humiliating, to complain about costs - I know that coming off as gauche isn't really a concern for a lot of people but I think that musicians who're making a living at it generally know that it's a shitty look to complain that (for example) if you take out a bus for a month-plus you're going to be working every night for two weeks before you see a nickel in profit - everybody not in the biz immediately goes "but you didn't have to go to a shitty day job," and comes up with lots of ad-hoc solutions that aren't really practical, it's an unwinnable argument and most people sort of instinctively figure that out & say you know what, fuck it, I get to make a living playing music so I will not complain about how much it costs
― w of in the attic (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:22 (thirteen years ago) link
wait what? plenty of musicians complain about how expensive it is to tour! Or they complain about the conditions of touring that are largely related to the expense of touring (e.g. sleeping on floors, eating like crap, infrequency of bathing/showering, etc.).
― sarahel, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:26 (thirteen years ago) link
that said I have some major issues with other bits of that article:
Of course touring has always been a next to obligatory part of the job for most musicians. Some are even inspired by the experience, while many improve their craft by playing in front of audiences. But the daily rigmarole of playing the same songs over and over again can also render the process joyless for both musician and fan, and increased touring again means reduced time spent working on new material, conjuring up bewitching sounds, expressing the inarticulate speech of the heart. The romantic vision of the musician in their bus writing new songs is rose-tinted, to say the least. Most are simply too worn out from the tedium to do anything other than talk shit, watch films, listen to music and sleep. Insisting that artists earn their keep by performing the role of wandering minstrel keeps them from exercising the talent that brought them attention in the first place, rendering music valuable only when it's performed live.
if you're going to be an artist, it is your responsibility to yourself & to your craft & to the people who respond to what you do to rise above the "daily rigamarole" etc. You got really tired & cranky and spent your downtime talking shit, watching films, etc? Well, shame on you, then. That was a choice you made. Everybody's job gets tiring - yours wasn't supposed to? If you're going to trade on your inspiration, it's your responsibility to guard it zealously, and that means nurture it at all times.
― w of in the attic (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago) link
"friend rock"....yikes anarcho-utopia is just around the corner!
― Deremiah Was a Bullfrog (u s steel), Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago) link
It's also career suicide for a musician to say on Twitter "if you motherfuckers just bought my cd instead of lining it up in Spotify, I wouldn't have to sleep in a van for three months".
― Siegbran, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:33 (thirteen years ago) link
i dunno if it's career suicide, it depends on the musician, really.
― sarahel, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:33 (thirteen years ago) link
I can only imagine that most bands lose money touring, short strong t-shirt sales. From gas to lodging to food to other incidentals, it just doesn't add up unless you're earning big guarantees. Or touring solo, I imagine. Maybe Aero or Owen can illuminate/refute.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 26 May 2011 23:34 (thirteen years ago) link
The two Queen comps in the '92 list were there because they were technically new releases put together to launch Hollywood Records' reissue campaign of the Queen catalogue, and were gifted extra commercial legs by the release of Wayne's World and the related single rerelease of "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Regular catalogue albums like Rumours etc. were ineligible for the Top 200 unless they received a new reissue. This stood until the industry cratered enough that they let any catalogue release in just to make #'s and not have like some SoundCloud dude who pushed 500 units chartbust.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 3 September 2022 23:21 (two years ago) link
All those albums cited in the new chart are doing the business on vinyl in big box stores.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 3 September 2022 23:24 (two years ago) link
Ah, that's more context.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 September 2022 23:32 (two years ago) link
My loose thoughts: they really should just have a heritage chart at this stage
Disgraced UKIP boosting DJ Mike Read is on the case! https://www.heritagechart.co.uk/
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 5 September 2022 09:58 (two years ago) link
U Music chief sez he's not down with the status quo: https://variety.com/2023/music/news/universal-music-lucian-grainge-slams-streaming-economy-spotify-1235486063/
― Wet Legume (morrisp), Wednesday, 11 January 2023 18:10 (one year ago) link
Obv I wouldn't trust him to make a magically better model that reduces his business's share, but at least he's not saying he has one, and it's good to see this on the record.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 January 2023 18:24 (one year ago) link
Billboard article making the case that the album remains strong: https://www.billboard.com/pro/album-format-dead-narrative-music-discovery-tiktok-singles/
― Phair · Jagger/Richards · Carl Perkins (morrisp), Friday, 17 November 2023 01:49 (ten months ago) link
hmm paywall
― budo jeru, Friday, 17 November 2023 02:23 (ten months ago) link
Weird, I didn’t hit it – try this?
― Phair · Jagger/Richards · Carl Perkins (morrisp), Friday, 17 November 2023 02:30 (ten months ago) link
that'll do it, thanks!
― budo jeru, Friday, 17 November 2023 02:35 (ten months ago) link
Interesting article - thanks for sharing
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 17 November 2023 11:18 (ten months ago) link
UMG "calls time out" on TikTok: https://www.universalmusic.com/an-open-letter-to-the-artist-and-songwriter-community-why-we-must-call-time-out-on-tiktok/
― jake morgendorffer core (morrisp), Thursday, 1 February 2024 01:15 (seven months ago) link
Yeah this isn't surprising
https://variety.com/2024/music/news/hipgnosis-songs-takeover-by-concord-1235974846/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 April 2024 19:58 (five months ago) link