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Music Media The Almighty Buck

The Downward Spiral of Music Retailing 415

Posted by michael from the nine-inch-nails dept.
chundo writes "Business Week has an article about the financial problems plagueing specialty music retailers. Tower Records, Musicland, and Sam Goody are all "hemorrhaging money", despite efforts to move sales online. Some chains are trying to adapt - Virgin Megastore is testing an in-store service to download songs to portable players, and their Radio Free Virgin unit hopes to break into digital music retailing. Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?"
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The Downward Spiral of Music Retailing More

The Downward Spiral of Music Retailing

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  • You either download the few songs you like, or you order it from an online store where it doesn't cost so much.
    • I do, as a Canadian. Even with our dollar recovering quickly on the weak American one, it is still bloody prohibitive (what with the shipping and duty as well) to order off most online retailers.
      • Just for a sample:
        Amazon.com Radiohead: Hail to the thief. US$13.49
        Amazon.ca Same cd: CDN$ 13.99
        Plus buy a book or something els which you *need*. Bring the total to $39 cdn. free shipping. Also amazon does have a used cd section.

    • Re:Who goes to the store to buy music? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Frymaster ( 171343 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:36PM (#6258763) Homepage Journal
      You either download the few songs you like, or you order it from an online store where it doesn't cost so much.

      bingo. although it should be noted that p2p only gets a small amount of attention in the article. the bottom line is that the retailers are getting creamed on price. simply, there are other channels that offer the same material for less and consumers are going there instead. sure, p2p is considered a factor, but the three big culprits are:

      1. discount stores: walmart, target and friends can flog the most popular cd's at a discount - sometimes even as loss leaders to generate traffic. with prices sometimes several dollars less than, say, hmv people will pick up the new madonna cd along with their toilet paper. this price discount is all about volume
      2. online sales of new cds: amazon for instance. they can underprice tower records because of volume just like walmart, but also because of reduced operating costs of not having a physical store front.
      3. online sales of used cds: ebay here. even for something as durable as a cd, the used price always comes in lower than new. with the internet facilitating used cd sales, it's taking a big chunk out of the retailers.
      note also that this is only about retailers, not labels or artists. the riaa is concerned about geffen moving units. it doesn't necessarily car if those units are moved through tower or target or amazon.

      • Re:Who goes to the store to buy music? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by bitmason ( 191759 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:17PM (#6259006) Homepage
        Plus (on amazon etc.) you have an essentially unlimited selection. You can read what other people and reviewers have to say about a particular album. You can typically listen to far more extensive (albeit shorter and lower quality) song clips. You can take your time and just put something in a wish list. You can easily skip over to related titles. Overall it's a much "richer" experience.

        I still sometimes go in stores and do the serendipity thing especially in a really good used store (like Amoeba in SF). But, overall, online's bothe better and cheaper (except for loss leaders). That's hard to beat.

      • Re:Who goes to the store to buy music? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @09:44PM (#6259374) Journal
        "the bottom line is that the retailers are getting creamed on price."

        It's not only price. There's three area's where retail music stores fall short of the alternatives:
        1) Price.
        2) Selection.
        3) Convenience.

        Using P2P or online music stores, you can usually get better deals (p2p is free, deals don't get much better than that ;-), listen to fragments without having to ask a store clerk, and choose from every piece of music known to man and then some, generally not having to worry about something being out of stock.

        Alternatives to retail stores don't have to be online though. I get all of my music from the CD rental place in the library and I copy the ones I like. I pay $2 a week to rent a CD, they have 250.000 titles available, and I can listen to any CD I want: they keep the discs inside the jewel cases in the racks. There you have a good deal, good selection and true convenience. Best of all: the rental price and the price of blank CDs include royalties, so it is perfectly legal to make copies and keep them according to the authorities.

    • Re:Who goes to the store to buy music? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I just bought 6 CDs at a record store yesterday--because they were having a going out of business sale (30% off across the board).

  • Not Mutually Exclusive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gleng ( 537516 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:25PM (#6258653)
    Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?

    Both, unfortunately.

  • It's fairly obvious to me that the falling sales are both proof that the business model is failing (due to a change in the market environment) and that it will also provide ammunition for the RIAA's anti-P2P argument.

    The RIAA is, I believe, misunderstanding the situation in that they would lose sales regardless, but the reality of any situation rarely intrudes on the legalities.

  • Duh, door number two (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 1010011010 ( 53039 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:26PM (#6258662) Homepage
    Of COURSE the RIAA will use this as evidence against P2P. Hatch wants to blow up your PC. Perhaps he should think about blowing up the RIAA instead.

    The first candidate for House or Senate who proposes rolling back copyrights to 14 years has my vote, regardless of party.
    • If Hatch blows up the RIAA does he get their money ? If not, can we get it ?

    • I agree with you that the RIAA will do all it can as it writhes in its death throes after having missed the bus when the Napster Revolution took place.

      It reminds me of what Thomas Jefferson wrote:

      "I have never dreamed that all opposition was to cease. The clergy, who have missed their union with the State, the Anglomen, who have missed their union with England, and the political adventurers, who have lost the chance of swindling and plunder in the waste of public money, will never cease to bawl on the breaking up of their sanctuary."

      --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1801. ME 10:259

      • Re:Thomas Jefferson predicted this Re:Duh, door (Score:4, Informative)

        by Ryan Amos ( 16972 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:04PM (#6258942)
        Yes, except the opposition Jefferson was talking about here wasn't really evil, they just held different views from Jefferson and his political party. He's talking about the Federalist party, which had a bunch of really smart guys in it, like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington (though those two stayed out of partisan politics,) John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. All the best though.
        • I originally wanted to mod you down as overrated, but thought it was more important to point out that Benjamin Franklin was *by no means* a Federalist.

          Benjamin Franklin had always been interested in a *uni*cameral legislature, and an executive by rotating committee. Nothing could be further from the ideas of the Federalists.

          The opposition Jefferson was talking about had used the Alien and Sedition acts and aggressive use of libel statutes in an effort to suppress any pro-French, anti-Federalist sentiment.

  • All because of piracy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by www.sorehands.com ( 142825 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:27PM (#6258666) Homepage
    according to the RIAA.


    WRONG!
    According to the RIAA and MPAA low sales is because of piracy, therefore we must have more laws and no rights.

    Why buy entire CDs when we can pay only for the song we like a from a per song legal music download site? The MPAA claims that movie viewing has gone down, but they fail to take into account that you can see movies as well at home on a home theater system without the $5 popcorn or the chewing gum on the floor.

    • not to mentin that it is almost pure profit becuase with Pay-per-view you don't have NEARLY the overhead is with a movie theater.

    • Re:All because of piracy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SaraSmith ( 602197 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:00PM (#6258919)
      Why do you listen to artists that only come up with a few songs that you like? Seems to me like you haven't found what you like if that's the case.

      Also remember that buying downloads comes with DRM, and also leaves you without artwork or liner notes, or a physical object containing your product. Personally I'd rather go buy a cd single for a couple dollars if I only liked one song, get the packaging, and the disc, and make my own DRM free mp3s, or oggs, or whatever.

      Plus you get a b-side song or two that way.

      I usually download full albums, and then decide if I like them. If I do I look for used copies that are around $4-5 since that's what I'm willing to pay for a cd.

      A new release is Metallica's St. Anger, downloaded it, hated it, not buying it. Nobody lost a dime in this other than me paying for the electricity to listen to it. Hey, electricity broke the DMCA! Time to shut down the power plants!

      Type O Negative's Life Is Killing Me is another very new release, which I loved, (and I'm talking about the ALBUM, not a song here or there) and plan to buy it as soon as I can find it for a price I'm willing to pay. In the meantime they're going to get money from me when they come to town, because I'll be right up front at the show.

      • Re:All because of piracy (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Zzootnik ( 179922 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:25PM (#6259045)
        Actually, I gotta agree with you on that last bit about being at the live shows...

        Seems like the last doizen or so cd's I've bought have been DIRECTLY from the band at some little joint where they were playing... They're generally very eager to sell you a cd at 10 bucks, and to support the band directly like that, I'm willing to shell out the dough. Heck, it's not even JUST the little bar-bands either---Even the ones who made it to the Big Stadium concerts sell their own cds...

        Of course the drawback is that the Record company probably doesn't get a single red cent out of it... Darn!

    • I bought ONE cd last year (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RiffRafff ( 234408 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @10:14PM (#6259497) Homepage
      I haven't bought any this year. I used to buy a couple per week. I have 61 mp3 files (I just looked) on my computer. I have thousands of ogg files, all ripped from my own cds. I don't buy fewer cds because I'm stealing music, I buy fewer because

      a) I don't much care for what the studios are producing these days, and

      b) I've got other things to spend my money on besides cds that may only contain one or two decent songs.

      Piracy is an easy scapegoat, but as long as they believe that piracy is the cause of all their ills, they will continue to lose revenue and must eventually figure it out or die.

      They are blind to their true problems.

  • I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:28PM (#6258675)
    "The downward spiral of music retailing"

    Is it directly proportional to the downward spiral of music quality? How about to the downward spiral of RIAA-member customer "relations?"

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)

      by JebusIsLord ( 566856 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:45PM (#6258822)
      "The Downward Spiral" was an excellent album. WTF are you talking about??
    • The RIAA can blow me. I've been unemployed for 8 months. Even if I had money to spend on their overprices shit, I don't feel like listening to it or any other music. I got on a kick a month or so and ripped most of my CDs to ogg and stuck them on a private server. The server does not get much use. There are many others like me. We are not music "consumers" of any kind. Their mindless crap has nothing to say to me now, though once I could tollerate it. Now it's just another irritant. When I do get a
  • if the business method works or not the RIAA will use it for ammo against P2P reguardless. at some point in the future artists will be forced to either start selling albums in digital format online themselves, go with a non-RIAA affiliated label or die in an RIAA induced pool of debt. its that simple, in the between time we will all suffer the rath of the RIAA.

  • Money to be made in P2P (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:28PM (#6258680)
    The question no one seems asking is: If there's money to be made in running a P2P network (which it appears there is, given the number of sharing systems and people in it for more than their health), and P2P is how at least 40M Americans (plus countless others around the world) get at least some of their music and movies some of the time, then why aren't the record companies putting out their own, successful (since it wouldn't be under legal attack) Peer-to-Peer system?

    How dumb are they?

    • Re:Money to be made in P2P (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:33PM (#6258734)
      The answer, obviously, is that there isn't money to be made in P2P, at least not really. Kazaa can maybe make more money off of advertising than they spend on hosting, but thats because the overwhelming majority of the content is provided by users for free.

      Of course, its not really free. The record companies pay to record, produce, and market it. If they had to cover the costs of actually producing content on ad revenue from a P2P service, they would go bust, like every other dot-com that thought they could make it big off of banner ads while giving their product away for free. They quite reasonably don't want to do that, because they have a business model now that, provided their consumers respect existing copyright laws, is quite a bit more profitable.
    • Successful by whose standards? I doubt a P2P sharing system would generate the huge amount of $ that controlling the whole distribution channel generates at present for RIAA members. As well, most P2P networks are circumventing the $ part that the RIAA covets so much quite effectively. (The morality of this is left as an excercise for the reader.)

      This is what the whole issue is about - not just $, but cultural control. A P2P network is not nearly as easily tamed as distributing CDs, since the clients are n

    • Re:Money to be made in P2P (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drix ( 4602 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:56PM (#6258898) Homepage
      You have two consoles before you. On the left, the blue console. It has a full catalog of DRM-restricted songs made by many major record labels. You are not allowed to burn those songs, listen to the in your car or portably, and each downloaded song costs one U.S. dollar. If your hard drive crashes and takes your licenses with it, you've lost rights to all the songs you once had, and you must buy them again. Downloads are quick and easy.

      One the right, the red console: a vibrant P2P network teeming with shares. It has perhaps 50% of the musical selection blue, but with the added benefit of hundreds of terabytes worth of movies, software, images, and, well, above all, porn. All content is free, based on open standards, and unrestricted. Downloads are quick for popular media, but can take days or even weeks for hard-to-find items.

      Which would you choose?

      C'mon, be honest. That the latter exists right now and the former isn't even close to is beside the point. Human nature being what it is, blue has almost no chance of ever succeding while red is right there by its side.
  • Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?
    The answer to the second part of the question (provide more ammo against P2P) is true regardless of the answer to the first part (business plan doesn't work).

  • Hemmoraging money (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'de like to be the medic on call this night ;)
  • ..., including $57.1 million of red ink in 2002.

    It's obvious why they're going down the drain. Workers are obviously lifting red pens en masse.

  • In short.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nerdup ( 523587 )
    "Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?" Yes.

  • New Strategy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by svferris ( 519966 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:30PM (#6258692)
    The real problem is that nobody in the industry is trying to adapt to all the changes that have come about in the past few years. The RIAA has spent all its effort trying to stop P2P sites rather than finding an alternative to lure consumers back to buying.

    And while all this was going on, the retailers were just sitting on their butts not doing anything. What the CD retailers should have done was band together and get on the RIAA's back about coming up with a better product that would bring back consumers to CD purchasing.

    The retailers will always have the hardcore music listeners who will continue to buy CDs no matter what. They are the people keeping those businesses around at least for a little while longer. Unfortunately, the average CD buyer has been swayed by P2P sites, being satisfied with the quality of the files they get from them.

    So, what the retailers (and RIAA) should be doing is developing new incentives for people to go back to CDs (or another media). Why not add cool features (like they've been experimenting with) such as bonus content, exclusive concert ticket buying rights, etc.? Or, they should really push the DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD formats (preferably picking one as the standard), which offer far superior sound to MP3s.

    Perhaps it is too late. Perhaps the procrastination has killed the CD industry. I hope not, personally, because I highly prefer a physical product to MP3s.

  • Why are they called specialty music stores? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:30PM (#6258698)
    They just sell the same crap you get at Target. Real specialty music stores are doing quite well, at least from what I know from articles like this. [thestranger.com] When you sell the same crap as everyone else, the only ways you win are through convenience (e.g., location) or price. When you sell good music - a rarity through the Big 5 - that people want, they'll come back to you both because you offer a unique product and because, at least in some cases, they'll want to hear some of your suggestions. A rapport develops that no crappy chain can emulate or replace.

    • Re:Why are they called specialty music stores? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by KoshClassic ( 325934 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:49PM (#6258853)
      This is a good point. Most of the big stores seem to stock pretty much all the same mainstream items taken straight from the playlist of the local ClearChannel station. I am much more likely to shop at stores that have the mainstream stuff along with a good selection of not so mainstream items.

      Hear Music (which is a small chain actually owned by Starbucks) fits the bill pretty well, and their selling model focuses a great deal on their "Hear Recommends" items (these are items that the store / staff recommends). I really like this because I can go into their store, see what they recommend and get exposed to new artists / new types of music.

      Tower records selection varies from store to store, but its usually pretty good and its prices are at least competitive with other 'real world stores' - they also at least attempt to make the customer feel at home in a place that represents music culture and not just corporate profit. Virgin is similar to Tower in my eyes, except the stores are nicer, are fewer and farher between and they have a consistently large selection of everything - and the prices are a bit higher than Tower on average.

      Sam Goodie, on the other hand, is simply awful. The prices are higher than any other chain, and every time I walk into one I feel like I'm in a generic mall shop instead of a store that is part of the music culture. No thank you.

      On the other hand, when I do buy CD's (which I do less and less these days) I buy at least half from Amazon and most of the rest from Hear or Virgin. Amazon is cheaper that all of the physical stores I've mentioned on nearly every CD, selection is basically never an issue with them and I never have to leave home to make my purchase. In the end, the only reason I don't use Amazon exclusively is that at Hear or Virgin, I get instant gratification (that is, not have to wait for Amazon to ship me my order).

      • Sam Goodie, on the other hand, is simply awful. The prices are higher than any other chain, and every time I walk into one I feel like I'm in a generic mall shop instead of a store that is part of the music culture. No thank you.

        If you're implying that Tower or Virgin are, even a little bit in the 'music culture', you're definitely wrong. I can't say anything about Hear Music, because I've never seen one, but Tower and Virgin just peddle you the same crap over and over again. Their 'indie' or 'non-mainst

  • Aside from new distribution methods... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...they ought to refresh retail.

    I feel that retail audio has stagnated with the CD, perhaps even regressed. Commercial CDs offer very little (in terms of audio) over P2P, and discs now are so heavily compressed sometimes a P2P mp3 from a leaked source might have better dynamic range.

    Retailers should move toward pushing a new mainstream standard, say SACD.

  • Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:31PM (#6258705)
    Why? They want to know why they can't sell music? Here are some lyrics from some song...

    Tell me, tell me, baby
    How come you don't wanna love me
    Don't you know that I can't breathe without you
    Tell me, tell me, just how
    What am I supposed to do right now
    Why can't you love me?
    Why-y, tell me, my baby

    Do you think that would appeal to me, glasses wearing, Linux using, me? Maybe they should try songs marketed towards the demographic with some discretionary income.

  • But... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OmniGeek ( 72743 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:31PM (#6258706)
    Silly RIAAbit. According to a recent NPR piece, several folk and indie labels are doing just fine, thanks; one label just had its best year ever. Seems they distribute music people actually want to - gasp - Buy...

    • Re:But... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It depends a lot on the label. I have friends that work at (or are signed to) several indie labels in various parts of the electronic music scene - from what I can see they're being hurt WORSE than the majors. Nowadays you can have a world-wide "hit" and it'll only sell a few hundred copies.

      I don't personally think that "the sky is falling" because of file sharing. Music will still come out regardless of what happens to the labels. I think it's absolutely naive, though, to think that file sharing is so

      • Re:But... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Froobly ( 206960 )
        Some good points here, and your anecdotal evidence does seem pretty conclusive that piracy is where all the sales are going in this regard...

        But I'm not convinced that on-line file sharing is the main vehicle of piracy. To point, have you actually tried assembling a complete album entirely from P2P applications?

        First, you have to get a listing of all the tracks, and then you have to search for each track individually. Then you hope that they're all listed at the time you're on, which more likely than no

    • Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "Seems they distribute music people actually want to - gasp - Buy... "

      Jack Valenti really pissed me off by saying "There is no business model that can compete with free!" in reference to P2P trading of movies. What he doesn't understand is that people actually pay for services too as well as goods. Why would I spend an hour downloading an album I want if I can pay $10 to a website and download it in couple of minutes with guaranteed quality?

      I'd love to ask him this: "Your office provides all the coffe

  • NO MONEY FOR MUSIC (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 4pksings ( 255835 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:32PM (#6258719)
    No, that's just bull, the fact is, I and many, many others just don't have the money to spend on music...plain and simple. It's just not a high enough priority.

  • It's the economy stupid! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MountainLogic ( 92466 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:32PM (#6258720) Homepage
    The US economy was booming and record sales were strong.

    The US economy has crashed and record sales are down, doh!

    Put people back to work and record sales will go up, doh!

    • Population Demographics (Score:3, Interesting)

      by weston ( 16146 )
      Recent thought that occured to me: mass market tactics are generally designed to appeal to young consumers. You could argue that the high water point for the median target age of that demographic happened when the children of the baby boomers, the largest demographic wave to hit the scene in a while, peaked sometime in the late 80s and early 90s. Put plainly, there are fewer kids to pick up the trends.
  • Are there many industries doing WELL right now? (well, I suppose porn is, but porn always does well) The overall economy is in a slump. You could virtually reword that article with any product type \ related chain stores and keep it pretty accurate. That being said, I see little way that the music industry will do better unless they bite the bullet and lower CD prices significantly. I'm not trolling or trying to be a freeloader; I just don't see any other plausible way they can compete.

  • Using Virgin Records as an example for the market. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:33PM (#6258725) Homepage Journal
    When Richard Branson started the music retail arm of his empire (of course, back then his empire was only a youth advice center anyway!) he capitalised on a big gap in the market. In the UK at the time (the early 70's), all record stores were really boring places, no music playing, and the people in the store didn't care about music.. it was just another thing they sold, along with pins and ribbons. Richard Branson figured he'd create somewhere where music was playing, where the staff were all hippies who 'digged' music, and where customers could lounge around on beanbags smoking pot and checking out the latest tunes. What's more, he'd sell the records cheaper than anyplace else. His store (in Oxford Street, and on which he actually paid no rent to start with!!) was flooded with customers for quite some time. He noticed after a while, however, that while sales were brisk, a lot of people were just turning up and smoking pot all day without buying anything. He cleared these people out, and made it so that people would still want to come to the store, but not that they could stay there all day. And so was developed the current model of 'specialty record store' retail. This is a model that hasn't changed since the 70's! Virgin Megastores tries new things like having listening booths, and computerised searches of their CD database.. but it's too little too late, in my opinion. The next model of retail kicked off in the late 90's with the discounted 'pile it high, sell it cheap' WAL*Mart model of selling records. The big problem, however, is that this is not much different to how records were sold in the UK in the 60's! The staff at Wal*Mart don't know music, and they could care less about what you're buying So.. it seems we've come FULL CIRCLE. And let's face it, the whole music industry has lost its vibe anyway. I remember back in the 'good old days' that it was fun to go buy records, and it was a real thrill to get them home and put them on. Nowadays? Sure, there are a lot of good gigs going on, but few people exhibit the same excitement over CDs these days, since you probably heard half of the tracks on MTV/the radio already anyway. I think commercially music has lost its way, and while there's still a LOT of great music out there.. music just isn't as fun anymore. These stores are feeling the pinch. Why go and hang out at a record store when it's not fun anymore?

    • Nothing special about specialty (Score:5, Insightful)

      by poptones ( 653660 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:10PM (#6258969) Journal
      Sounds like the UK was the very opposite of here. When I was a kid my best friend was the guy who ran the record store in town. I used to hang out there all day, too, although I didn't smoke pot. I just hung there (and a few others) because we were friends and the store was usually pretty slow (small town).

      But we all cared about music, and we knew music very well. All the store sold was musical equipment, stereo equipment, and music - not pins and ribbons here. But my bud was in school and didn't really care too much about the store - it was a trap for him (the family business) and he was more concerned with getting his phd so he could get on with a career of his own.

      Anyway there were probably tens of housands of music stores like that back then. Some were hard core, some were family businesses - but most all had one thing in common: the people running them at least KNEW something about the music they specialized in. A good many of them traded in used records as well.

      But most of those places are gone now - they died even before the chains started feeling the pinch. With the chains in the back pocket of the majors, I think this change is actually a good thing. Because the one thing the indierecord stores CAN provide like no other is service. If the indies were to specialize in indie artists, in providing a local "hangout" and a place for people to gather and trade knowledge and music, they could once again become a dominant force in the industry.

      Consider: why is it OK to hang out in a book store, sit and drink coffee and read all day, but record stores think this is so bad?

      Even with the internet, people still like gathering and hanging out. Provide a place for them to feel comfortable and organize your service around that model, and there's no telling where the stores of the future could go. Think about people sitting around, drinking coffee and eating crullers, trading music on their ipods, exchanging knowledge - maybe even bringing in their old LPs to have them "ripped" to SHNs or APEs on the store's high quality LP playback system.

      No matter how they spin it, I just never hear a downside when talking about the death of the (old) music industry. It's a great time to be alive... unless you're a slave of the RIAA.

  • More Ammo? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mkoby ( 642450 ) <michael.koby@noSPAm.gmail.com> on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:33PM (#6258729) Homepage
    More then likely it will give them more ammo against the P2P crowd. The RIAA and the companies it represents are trying hold onto a buisness practice that doesn't work with the changing market. The real estate market is going through a similar problem. Instead of fixing the way THEY do things, they expect everyone to buckle and do things the way they've been doing them for so long. The RIAA knows they aren't going to get too much money out of the people they're suing, it's mainly a scare tatic. We sue a few people and guess what, people might not want to do it just because they don't want the hassle. So even if sales keep dropping they'll never admit it's them. And when/if sales do return to normal, they'll just simply praise their own efforts. Either way, the people on the technology side lose.
  • when I hear that, regardless of how the article defines it, I don't think of large chains that you find in malls. Rather, I think of small, hole in the wall places, that have a good selection of used music, and you never know what you might find there.

  • Or because of a bad economy? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LamerX ( 164968 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:34PM (#6258743) Journal
    Is it just me, or is sales for EVERYBODY seem to be a little bit slumped? From what I learned in a basic economics class, is that the economy can go up and down. You would think that since we've got the worst economy in 20 or so years, maybe people are holding off on buying CDs to do things like, oh I don't know.. PAY THE BILLS?

    Perhaps sales for them will start going back up when jobs quit getting exported overseas, when people start buying things as locally as possible, and corporations stop paying people dick for wages. I think if this were to happen, people here would have more money, and they could buy more CDs.

  • Here is why... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mullen ( 14656 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:35PM (#6258755)
    I'll sum up why the music biz is taking such a hit: "you can't put shine on shit."
    There is no good new music out there. Period. It's all a rip-off of something else, which sucked.
    CD's are over priced. I wanted to buy a older CD (Metalica's, Ride the Lighting) and it was $14. Come on, that album came out 20 years ago, why so much?
    Amazon.com and other like online sellers are killing these companies. Why? I can sit at home and order new, used and hard to find CD's, DVD, books and more. Why drag my ass out to Tower Records (Which always plays the worse music on the store's stereo system) and pay too much for music and DVD's.

    The music biz business model is not working in todays market, so they'll blame pirates. Make a good product and sell it at a fair price.

    • I'll sum up why the music biz is taking such a hit: "you can't put shine on shit." There is no good new music out there. Period...

      Can't say I disagree. Offer me something worth listening to and I'll pay a fair price for it. I'm happy to pay, because I know how much work it is to make music (my brother has recorded a couple of albums, described by a former colleague as "A bar band. A good bar band"), and if the performers don't get paid, they'll quit making music.

      The fact that the current distribution

  • " Another problem is consumers' growing appetite for grabbing music online. Downloading, legal or otherwise, has already hit CD sales hard: Since 1999, annual retail music sales have slid 15%, to $8.9 billion in 2002." [emphasis mine]

    Has anyone provided a credible causal connection between the use of Kazaa et al. and declining CD sales? Many more factors have been cited, such as DVDs and games competeing for disposable income, a 20%(?) reduction in new material and new artist releases, and the inevitabilit

  • It's a little problem called a three year economic recession. Perhaps they've heard of it.

    No, what am I thinking. it can't be unemployment leading to lower sales.

    --Pat

  • Note: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by leviramsey ( 248057 )

    It's the specialty retailers who are feeling the pinch. Their plight in actuality has little to do with P2P apps, but does have to do with illegal activity by the RIAA.

    Specifically, they're suffering because the RIAA started obeying the law.

    Allow me to elaborate.

    With the rise of big box retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.), the RIAA began to fear about ten years ago that the big-boxes would start selling only hit music at huge discounts (possibly at or about wholesale cost) as a means of generating f

  • Sam Goody Experience (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Cruciform ( 42896 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:37PM (#6258778) Homepage
    I have no idea how Sam Goody would be hemorrhaging money when they inflate their shipping costs by 875%.

    I bought the GBA game Advance Wars from them and paid $14 US for shipping. It took well over a week to arrive, and when it did the postage mark was for $1.60 US.

    I let them have it in an email, but they claimed it was all part of the "third party shipping".

    Whether it's games or music, if they're going to practice business like that, I hope they fold sooner than later.

  • It's the prices, stupid! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by milkman_matt ( 593465 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:39PM (#6258786)
    The reason Musicland, Tower and Sam Goody are losing money is because they charge 16-20 bucks for CDs you can get at Best Buy or someplace for 12-14 bucks. I've wondered for years why these people are still in business at all with the prices they charge.

    This goes for DVDs at the offending retailers as well.

    -matt

  • Price, not piracy (Score:5, Informative)

    by sxltrex ( 198448 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:43PM (#6258811)
    When the price of a new CD went to $20 I simply stopped buying. I have no downloaded MP3s and no copied CDs. I've simply curtailed my music purchasing due to what I see as exorbitant pricing. Period. And until prices come down I will not purchase another CD. I am who the music industry is loasing as a customer, and they just don't get it.
    • It appears that the RIAA has been judo chopped by the "invisible hand" of economics.

      I mean between the fact that the RIAA is acting like an economic cartel and the fact they've set the price point somewhere in the stratosphere (e.g., US$18 or more per album-length audio Compact Disc), no wonder why sales are nose-diving. Anyone's who's taken a beginning course in economics in college knows that if a cartel sets its price too high, there is WAY too much economic incentive for consumer to thwart that cartel,

  • iPod would work so well here... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrklin ( 608689 ) <ken...lin@@@gmail...com> on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:46PM (#6258827)
    Imagine that - go to any store, download an album onto the iPod in a matter of seconds (via the fast Firewire or USB2 ports). This way anyone with an iPod, no matter what OS or platform, can get music onto their iPods!

  • RIAA Will Use It to Score Points, But There's More (Score:3, Insightful)

    by reallocate ( 142797 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:49PM (#6258848)
    OF course the RIAA will use this to score points. That's what good lobbies do. But, a number of other things are going on that preclude attributing the bad times at speciality shops solely to p2p downloads.

    First, the population is getting older. Buying music is, for most people, an activity that decreases as they get older.

    Second, in addition to downloading, music is offered for sale in many venues that weren't available a decade ago. As the article notes, why make a special trip to a speciality shop when you can buy it from Amazon, at Walmart, or on your next stop at the bookstore.

    Third, I'm skeptical about the 40 million Americans download music claim, or the common assertion that filesharing prompts purchases that wouldn't happen otherwise. But, if/when it does, it seems likely that the purchaser will be inclined to order it online using the same computer used for the download, rather than going tothe trouble of traveling to any store -- big box or speciality shop -- to make the purchase.

    Fourth, this is very speculative, but the music industry has, for a number of years, lacked the one or two overwhelmingly popular acts that can spike sales across the industry. (Think Beatles in the 1960's.) People who would not otherwise ever buy music do buy the music of these acts.

  • *Non*-specialty stores? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JasonMaggini ( 190142 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:53PM (#6258875)
    Isn't Wal-Mart one of (or *the*) largest retail seller of CDs at the moment? I'm sure that's not helping. Of course, I won't buy anything there either, not if I can help it.

    I prefer used CDs, anyway. Cheaper, same discs. Unfortunately, the one chain store that stocks 'em - Wherehouse - seems to be bleeding out into oblivion as well. They've closed most of them in my area, and I saw a bunch closing down in L.A. recently as well...

  • Change what you are Selling (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Herkum01 ( 592704 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:55PM (#6258891)

    The problem with these stores is that they are all trying to sell a commidity item. There is no difference in that CD whether you are purchasing it from Amazon, Goodies, or Tower Records, somehow do these stores expect that just because they have the product that they automatically will have people begging them to sell them that CD? It is a commidity, someone can get it anywhere.

    If they want to sell something, they have to sell a service, give people a reason to go their store and buy a CD there, listen before you buy, or a nice place to relax while chilling with their music. Just throwing the thing up on a stand with a big sign saying *$16.95* is just not good enough anymore.

  • not all record stores are doing bad (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xluserpetex ( 666816 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:56PM (#6258897)
    Sales at the independant record store I go to have been steadily increasing. How do they do it?

    they have reasonable prices (about $11-$14 new)

    they have a good selection (everything but pop and newer country)

    they have a knowledgeable staff

    quick special ordering

    they carry smaller, independant labels you'll never find at *insert huge chain here*
    Just an example, the new Radiohead album:

    borders: $19.99

    independant record store: $12.88

  • What the stores really need ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RPI Geek ( 640282 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @07:57PM (#6258905) Journal
    ... is employees who know where the really good stuff is.

    From my experience, the clerks in music stores - with a few notable exceptions - mostly listen to rap, metal, or old rock. What I want is to walk into a store, talk to someone, and have them guide me to where the good (!!!), relatively unknown music is. I love going to my friends with a new CD and saying, "Check this out, I bet you've never heard of them, but they're an excellent band!"

    Until that happens, I'll listen to shoutcast [shoutcast.com] and download the good stuff. I'll do the work myself.

  • Both! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rhizome ( 115711 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:02PM (#6258929) Homepage Journal
    Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?"

    The RIAA uses P2P as a scapegoat for the failed business models of the labels it represents and their inability (or unwillingness) to adapt their copyright stance in the face of new technology. In fact, the answer to your question is "both" in that as the reports of declining sales come out, the RIAA uses P2P to distract attention from the fact that labels have degenerated into top-heavy marketing machines.

    The RIAA is not the record industry. When the RIAA says "we", they mean the big 5 record labels (Universal, Sony, EMI, Warner's, BMG). The RIAA is the recording industry's lobbying arm, charged with keeping the names of the labels out of the headlines as they seethe forward into the breach.

    I'm wondering if accused P2P users can adopt a defense that they are non-profit broadcasters who got caught not paying their compulsories.

  • uhh (Score:3, Informative)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <`nomadicworld' `at' `gmail.com'> on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:02PM (#6258931) Homepage
    Why do half the posts on this story talk about the RIAA? The story isn't about the RIAA. It's not even about CD sales as a whole (though they do mention the declining CD sales); it's about SPECIALTY MUSIC STORES losing market share. Even if you don't want to read the article, at least the story submission. Or at least the first sentence of it.

  • What the overlook... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Snaller ( 147050 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:06PM (#6258952) Journal
    ..is that most people treat P2P as radio/TV - and just as people don't run out and buy everything they hear/see on TV likewise they don't do it with P2P - and wouldn't have anyway - the loss is probably negligible.

  • There's an answer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rudy_wayne ( 414635 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:12PM (#6258982)
    There's an answer that could virtually wipe out P2P music swapping, but the record companies are so blinded by greed that they will never see it.

    Ever since recorded music first came into existance there is one thing that consumers have wanted and the record companies have steadfastly refused to deliver:
    The ability to purchase exactly the songs you want and only the songs you want. At various times you've been able to buy singles in various formats (45 rpm, CD, cassette) but even then, the record companies dictated which songs were available.

    The answer is amazingly simple: Put every song in existance on-line in one central location for download at a reasonable price (25 cents per song or less) in standard mp3 format with no DRM crap. This would be enormously successful and would generate huge revenue.

    But the record companies will never agree to this and never even allow it to enter their minds. They are still locked into the mindset of "why should we let people buy one song for a quarter when we can force them to buy an entire CD for $18".

  • Give me a reason to visit! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PapaZit ( 33585 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:23PM (#6259036)
    Everybody sells records these days, including (and especially) Amazon.
    • If I want to buy a "top 40" record, I'll pick it up for $12 at Best Buy or Target or something like that the next time I'm in the neighborhood.
    • If I want to buy an obscure record by a local or indie artist, I'll visit the local House O' Piercings And Attitude (aka indie record store).
    • If I want to buy something that nobody'll have in stock and it'll have to be special-ordered anyway, I'll go to Amazon.
    See Sam Goody in there? Neither do I. There's no reason for me to go out of my way to visit a place that charges 50% more than Best Buy for the same mainstream crap. Besides, my days of "gotta have that new record right now" are over. If I am feeling lazy and willing to pay the premium, I'll just buy it from Amazon.

  • Why would I pay for this crap? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Geekbot ( 641878 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:24PM (#6259039)
    I spent 20 years of my life buying mostly overhyped crap by these companies. Almost every album I bought was a ripoff with just a couple songs of any quality on them. For 2 or 3 years I didn't buy any music because it was so awful, expensive, etc. Then I found p2p. I can listen to what I want at no expense to me. If I find a group I like that is independant I can buy the CD for a nice quality copy that supports the artists that have earned it.

    At $15 to $20 per CD that works out to about 3 hours to 4 hours of work for someone working minimum wage. Who would work 4 hours so they can support Britney Spears' music career? The sooner her career's over the sooner we get to see her in Playboy.

    The RIAA/music retailing business in its current form is dead. It's not dead because of P2P being good. It's dead because it has been a piece of crap years but they locked out competition. P2P is the only competition out there for RIAA. Anything hurting their sales helps respectable companies and artists enter the market.

  • Broken model (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BiggerIsBetter ( 682164 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @08:57PM (#6259170)

    Industries like the RIAA and music distributors are using a model that doesn't work anymore. Technology has made them redundant. All you need to play recorded music is to have a copy of it. Obvious enough, but only recently has the media carrying the music itself become irrelevant.

    Time ago, that copy came on vinyl, then tape, then CD. Fine and dandy, and the record companies supported this customer demand fairly well (not really music companies - the label and the artist was a different thing). They progressed through the different media and made a ton of money.

    So here we are in 2003, and people still want music, but many of us don't need or even want a CD to hold our copy of the music - we just want the music!

    That's what the record industry can't handle. Their distribution and business model needs to be overhauled. They need to reshape themselves into pure production and marketing houses, but get the hell out of the distribution game. If they were smart, they'd sell "per song" to Amazon, or whoever, and do it just like iTunes does. Hell, you could set up terminals in CD-Stores for punters to grab the tracks they want directly to their iPod and then pay at the counter.

    P2P has always been there - we used to swap tapes and dubs back in primary school years ago - so I don't buy the "Napster is Killing Us" lines. If they play the game right, people won't need to scour the net to find their favourite tracks in high quality - they'll just dial up Warner Music, or the 50c website or whatever and download it. I'm sure some payment method could be handled, say a monthly account type of thing (eg, pay up purchases on the 20th), or an online version of EFT-POS to avoid CC charges.

    It's not that difficult, but these cats seem to be shit-scared of making the necessary changes

  • Has anybody tied this in with ClearChannel yet? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jimmulligan.com ( 683355 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @09:09PM (#6259223) Homepage
    (A RANT) ...Especially since the FCC's recent "deregulation" ruling allowing monopolies of the airwaves. Say goodbye to anywhere having a "local scene" that would generate some income for the music industry. Without the local airwaves to promote local music there will be less and less choice. Without a large pool of local musicians to draw upon, and by focusing on narrower and narrower "cash generating genres", the music is always going to get worse, and sales will go down. Right now music is targeted at 14-year-old girls and moody teenagers, AND THAT'S IT. What about the rest of us? Box sets of stuff that's 20 or 30 years old. Wow. How about some good music? How about videos on regular TV? If the Beatles came out now they'd be ignored, because they "don't fit the mold". Screw the music industry! Support the musicians, encourage the good ones, and spread the word around when you hear something good. Go see the bands live. Buy a t-shirt. It's about time that the music industry stopped being a bunch of lawyers and turned into artists again.

  • Pardon my french, (Score:5, Insightful)

    by paranoidsim ( 239426 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @09:16PM (#6259265)
    But fuck them. Fuck them in their ears, just as we get fucked in the ears listening to the shitty music they put into the machine. Fuck their silly equations implying what music we "must" like. The stuff in these "speciality" stores is the crap that plagues today's radio stations. I Live in one of the most culturally diverse areas of the US, the New York Metro area, and most of the radio stations here are owned by the same company, and most of them play the same garbage. Do they think we want to listen to a bunch of whiney, scrawny white kids with tatoos or a bunch of illiterate hip hop artists talking about clubs, cars, guns and bitches? I certainly dont, and none of my friends do either. Maybe thats why album sales are down? Maybe its also the 18 dollar sticker adorning the cd's. Have i illegally downloaded music? yes. would i if i felt i had a viable alternative? no. Being morally bankrupt as they are ripping off the consumers, i hope they go financially bankrupt as well.

  • The cat won't go back in the bag (Score:3, Informative)

    by ghjm ( 8918 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @11:13PM (#6259734) Homepage
    Napster may be dead as a bent dog, but while it was still kicking it achieved something significant: It convinced my mom, my grandma, and my friend's mom and grandma that they could find and download all the Perry Como songs they could (force me to) tolerate.

    They haven't forgotten. If they can't P2P, it just makes them pissed off - they aren't buying $20 CDs ever again.

    -Graham

  • Internet content distribution is here to stay (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tonygeek ( 679530 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @11:54PM (#6259858)
    It is here to stay like it or not, barring draconian political measures and dictatorship.

    Clearly there is need to change business model. What else was Internet bubble all about? Many established business models, literally ported to HTML, few scripts and few servers, clearly don't work. What else was Internet bubble burst about?

    Clearly music is not what it used to be. When I was in college I could find exciting new band at least once a month, if I tried. I (and many from my generation) could listen to 2-3 albums from a single band for 6 months or more, over and over.

    Still, even the hardest music junkies arrived at 200+ vinyl records and that was it, for the next 5-10-15 years. Eventually they upgraded them to CDs and bought maybe extra 20-30 CDs of new, young bands. To stay in shape and remain open for the new things, so to say.

    So where is the basis to expect the sales of music via standard distribution channels to grow, or even stay level nowadays? It doesn't exist.

    Yes, I don't like ordering online. I also want to have hard CDs of any music that I want to keep for a long time. But there is a limit to it. At the same time I am getting tired of changing CDs. I used to think I need a brand new stereo equipment at least every few years. It was also very important piece of furniture, in every aspect of social interaction. Now I see it almost as garbage, taking room space.

    Most people won't rush, as they used to, to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. Minority will continue to play with Linux and Mac. The same goes for hardware. At the same time more and more people are getting used to keeping music and other media content on their computers.

    So where is the big money in music distribution via Internet? Nowehere. People just develop needs to experiment more for less money. On Internet there is no place for monopolistic vendor to apply the old business equation: increase the quantity and lower the cost.

    Otherwise, by now we would all be happily paying $35 per month for guaranteed quality and delivery monthly stream of music of our momentary choice to our computers over the Internet. Why are we prepared to do the same with cable but not with music?

    First, because the technology is still not reliable enough. Second, because the medium is different. It is much more about the discovery, search, temporary whim and experimentation. It is much less structured, preprogrammed and much more diverse and distributed.

    Sorry media content distributors, but without planetary dictatorship and complete control over all Internet backbones, money flow will only continue decreasing. And so even if piracy was nonexistent.

    Eventually it will hit its evolutionary bottom. It would still be a good chunk of money but nothing as stellar as it used to be.

  • nothing worth buying (Score:3, Insightful)

    by geoff lane ( 93738 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @03:01AM (#6260329)
    I've not bought a full price CD for over two years. Neither do I use any p2p service.

    Why, because the current music promoted by the big media companies is unoriginal rubbish.

    There is new stuff worth buying, but you will never see it on the shelves of the mainstream retailers.

  • Meanwhile, game sales are up. DVD sales are up. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @03:18AM (#6260362) Homepage
    Game Developer says that game sales were up about 12% last year. DVD sales are also up. Both of those items are now sold in most of the places that also sell music on CDs.

    That's the RIAA's real problem. Competition.

    There's a lot more content on a DVD than an audio CD, it costs far more to make a movie than an audio recording, the movie plays longer than an audio CD, yet movies on DVD are cheaper than music on DVDs. What's wrong with this picture?

    And then there's the basic problem that most of the mainstream musical genres are mined out. The best symphonies are a century or more old. The best jazz is from the middle of the 20th century. The best rock was made several decades ago. The best house, rap, and hip-hop dates from a decade ago. Until somebody comes up with a new mainstream genre, the RIAA is stuck. (People keep trying. Gospel rock? Country/rap crossover? Noise music? Next, please.)

    Video killed the radio star...

  • Or else... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by retro128 ( 318602 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @03:24AM (#6260373)
    Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?"

    Or it could be that the teeny boppers are running out of disposable income and everyone else knows the music sucks ass. I haven't heard any new decent material on the radio for a long time. Everyone is trying to sound either like Blink 182 or Britney. I think the music industry is starting to feel the backlash of homogenization and the one-size-fits-all mentality. I hope I'm right, because I would love to taste the irony that the RIAA and Clear Channel are on the path to mutual destruction at each others' hands.

  • Lots of reasons (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Facekhan ( 445017 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @03:38AM (#6260398)
    CD sales are down for a few major reasons. One people see less value in them than they used to and they are expensive and risky compared to other forms of entertainment. That is they don't give you the bang for the buck that a dvd or a concert ticket does and you never know if your gonna even like the music on the cd.

    Two, the RIAA has been by their own numbers selling 25% less albums than were for sale in previous years. Compare that to only a 10% decline in their cd sales.

    Three: CD's as a loss leader. Stores that sell CD's as their primary business cannot compete with stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Kmart, and Wiz and Circuit City that sell them at a loss because they bring people in to buy high margin items like TV's, clothing, and computers.

    Four: P2P "piracy" and disdain for the RIAA and its tactics. When people copy a movie they say "oh cool I don't have to buy a ticket to see this movie" When people download a CD, they say "Heh sticking it to the RIAA again" The music industry has the worst reputation. Even worse than hollywood and oil companies and politicians

  • Macroeconomic effect of RIAA (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Beliskner ( 566513 ) on Saturday June 21, 2003 @11:01AM (#6261409) Homepage
    It's possible that the average CD purchaser is switching to Kazaa. In that case, the music industry can either:

    1. Fight P2P - This is what they're doing now, and if they want to make it illegal the majority of the populous will have to understand, otherwise it'll just be Prohibition all over again. Unfortunately the record industry is looked upon by its customers as a dirty industry, with Britney Spears deliberately marketted to take money from children nagging hard-working Parents like Happy Meals toys are. The Government cannot be seen to be on its side, otherwise it would upset the voting establishment (people older than 25) which sees this music as disgusting mass-manufactured rubbish. It would be regarded in the same way as the Government supporting McDonalds toys. Screaming, nagging children are the bane of Parents and is visible to all. It dissuades potential Parents from having children, inverting the Country's population triangle which will cause huge macroeconomic problems in the future.

    2. Alter their product - This will be unsuccesful, I go to buy CDs because of the music they contain, not because of some snazzy stuff

    3. Decrease prices - You can't beat free

    4. Die out - the only remaining option. In its corruption and decadence, perhaps this would be most fitting. China illustrates what happens when a country has mass music piracy.

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