2003 CD Sales Officially Down 7.6 Percent 792
Lust writes "CNN is reporting that global CD sales for 2003 are down 7.6 percent, and points to 'rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs.' More grist for the RIAA mill on P2P? I just haven't heard anything new I'd like to buy... how about you?" It's also mentioned that "a strong second-half recovery in the United States, Britain and Australia... has raised hopes that the worst is behind the beleaguered industry", although "evidence of a full-fledged recovery is flimsy."
7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
Happy Trails!
Erick
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm done. I still buy CDs whenever I see an artist playing at a local establishment and they are selling their own CDs, but that's ALL I'll do (and that's a LOT of music anyway).
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Funny)
Why can't the artist get a job like the rest of us?
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
Speaking as an artist: Full time jobs cut into your ability to create good art. It's not an ideal situation.
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
> your ability to create good art. It's not an
> ideal situation
Speaking as network admin, Full time jobs cut into your ability to do anything.
I took 6 months off in the dot-com-crash. Ended up learning another language, a musical instrument and wrote the best part of a novel that, not suprisingly, two years later I'm yet to finish.
Work kills creativity. Full stop.
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, artists should be compensated, but the RIAA and associated big labels take serious advantage of their artists who only get a very tiny percentage of the profits. The RIAA deserves no sympathy, artists that went the route of signing with a label that has such horrid contracts need to wise up and realize there are alternatives out there like the lab
Spank them HARD (Score:3, Flamebait)
Spank the shit out of RIAA signed artists. Beat them until they bleed money - that's the only way change happens in this world.
And if you buy cds at shows you're still just feedin
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
Between 2000 and 2002 I used Napster to download a TON of songs. But up to 2000 I had only ever bought about 20 CD's. At the end of 2002 my CD collection was up to about 60 CD's. Albums that I've bought since 2002? Zero.
I'm a small business owner. I'll admit that I've been cowed by the RIAA. Since 2002 I've only downloaded about 5 songs covered by the RIAA (and a few tracks from Japan).
There's definately a correllation here.
I'd like to sample some new music, but due to my schedule I hardly ever have the chance to listen to the radio.
I sincerely wish that all the record companies would open up their whole catalogs at high compression/low quality so that I can check out new music or download a song I haven't heard in five years.
*sigh*
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm going to break it right down to specifics, in case any brain-dead record execs are reading this. I bought Elements Part 1 by Stratovarius. In fact, I ordered the special edition from Europe, so it cost me over $30. The CD was "copy protected". What this actually means is that the CD is corrupt and won't play in my computer. I don't own a stereo, because my computer is my stereo.
So, in order to listen to the CD I had legally purchased, I had to go to the P2P network and download the MP3's. At this point, I had to ask myself "Self, what am I getting for my $30?" The answer is not much.
For a while, I made an effort to check whether an album I wanted was corrupted or not, but that was too much trouble and took most of the fun out of shopping. Recently I haven't bought any CDs because it just feels like Russian roullette. Either that or work.
I finally got around to downloading some of the songs off Elements Part 2 last week. Don't worry, I live in Canada so it's legal (for now, at least). But the legality of it wasn't an issue. The issue is that I would still have to download the songs even if I bought the album. So what's the point?
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Informative)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately, they haven't yet taken to heart the fact that a distribution-based business model isn't going to be viable over the long run for media companies, so they continue to fight tooth and nail to preserve the status quo rather than adapting their business model to the changing market conditions.
Depends (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
is there a contractural number... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a solution for the artists and distributiors, stop distributing completely. don't try to pawn off copies of work as something it isn't. Don't keep forcing people to believe that a copy is somehow all that valuable. In the olden days, ya, copies of anything were ridicvulously expensive in termsd of time and effort and materials to make, but today? GET REAL. Make your loot from day to day *working* live concerts ONLY,stop milking technology and BSing the people by recording and copying, and make all recordings illegal, then there won't be any conflicts or confusion, would there be? I say, put up or shutup. I will pay to enjoy being in the presence of someone WORKING, I WON'T pay for some vaporus copy of that experience. That's where I draw the line now. Any human on earth can make their own copies now with a pittance worth of gear, so that is where I draw the line, a copy is worth a PITTANCE. Same with movies, make those sorts of fictional representations be done completely live on stage, don't copy them to any media for redistribution. Same with television. Radio re broadcast. If the artist want to dilute their work by copying and distributing, then they can be happy with smaller amounts for a larger wider audience, by doing less work. Right now they want it both ways,sweet deal fopr them if they can manipulate the laws and media brainwashing mind control, big bucks for live honest work, big bucks for trivially copied media and the means to redistribute. sorry, it ain't worth it to more and more people because they can see reality.
When you go to a restaurant, you pay for the food and service, do you EXPECT to keep paying for the service, forever? I don't think so. Do some actual work, bring me some chow, and I'll pay you again. Virtual representations of real live work are COPIES and as such not "worth" what a live experience is, and never will be from here on out given our level of technology now. that's reality. too bad, expensive copies are the buggywhips of the 21st century, un needed, un wanted, and they WILL be ignored, more and more, except as curiosities for museums.
As long as they make up their minds I don't care, I don't download any music or videos, zip, nada, nothing, I could care less about it so I don't got a dog in this fight, but I can reason a little, and there ain't a hardly piece of this "official copy of work long done awhiles ago" stuff worth more than 2 cents to me. I've enjoyed live performances in the past,paid for it, that's cool, but reproduced fictitios representational copies... really... is just..so so, I could care less, it's not even worth unfilled hard drive space to me.
I think artists (and sports stars and movie stars) are tremendously over valued except during live performances, and with the new ways of copying, they are seeing what their non-live performances are really worth, about zilch. Live performance, equals work, day to day w.o.r.k like everyone else does, reproduced is a dilution,a chimera, it's attempting to get a lot of expensive somethings (everyones money) for the same labor, and in todays world, tough noogies. You can't keep pulling that trick.
That's my opinion anyway. And I'm sorry if that is semi offensive to anyone, but really. This is the year 2004, making copies of anything audio or visual is EXTREMELY easy to do, it's just not worth that much money, it's not even worth a bucka song. It's worth maybe a buck a cd, and that to someone to lazy to make their own copy for a dime.
I know I can't keep making "royalties" off the work I did last week, work as in "sweat outside doing heavy nasty dangerous stuff", if I want another check, I need to do the same amount of work. That's how 99.99% of the planet earth makes their living, too bad most "artists" and their le
faulty numbers again (Score:3, Insightful)
So if CD sales are down 7% and DVD sales are up 10% is it a crisis due to file sharing or is it just consumers spending their money where the find more value for the dollar?
Real things sell better actually (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:tangibles and intangibles (Score:3, Interesting)
This idea is not a brilliant leap forward, but rather a backslide to how things were in the Bad Olde Days hundreds of years ago, when
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
If your only basis for morality is law, then you should take an ethics course sometime.
If your only reason you want to buy it is to cover your ass, you are buying for all the wrong reasons.
There's one more figure not figured... (Score:5, Funny)
God, 'music' is the suck today! Either that, or I'm just too old.
Hey, you kids and your damn rap music! Shaddup!!
Where is the innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)
This general trend of homogeneity has really been brought to bear over the last decade, from what I can tell. Companies really like sustained sources of revenue...ok, yeah, that's a given and has been since the beginning. Companies need it to survive and to grow. But isn't it good to create some nice challenges so that the companies can grow?
Challenges, like, say, the removal of perpetual copyright? If, for example, Disney couldn't keep making money off of old cartoons, wouldn't they have to seriously start making up some new stories or at least go back to the children's section at public library and read some Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson?
In the end, it's all about how we the people want corporations to act in the context of our republic (both the United States and in the larger sense of the collective of industrialized nations). Do we want to give them carte blanche to not innovate? Or do we want to help them along by pushing them a little? Folks, from what I can tell, will almost always take the road that's easiest and offers the most return for the least amount of risk or investment. Sometimes you have to guide them down that road, or at least show 'em where it starts.
My 2 cents, anyhow...
Re:Where is the innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a short (very short) history of innovation in the last 60 years:
40's: Swing. The idea of using big band in a fast and fancy musical tone while borrowing from early blues and jazz really took it to a new art form.
50's: Emergence of Rock 'n Roll and the multitrack recorder. This is where tech started to make inroads in music. The Electric guitar and bass finally get airplay.
60's: Stereo rock and studio tricks. This is when the experiementation reached an all time high. Things started to be heard on radio that simply weren't possible in the 'real world'.
70's: More studio refinement and the synthesizer finally takes lead. More sounds no one had ever heard, or heard together.
80's: Early 80's saw better synths producing increasingly more realistic sounds. Glam metal makes a comeback as it is mixed with more attention to sound detail and synthesis. Rap makes it's national debut in the song "Rapture". New genre started.
90's: Rap meets metal. Studio techniques are perfected to a point where any differences in sound quality appear negligible. Synthesizers focus on producing more 'natural' sounds. Machiens are developed to help improve vocal tracks (for those who can't sing worth a damn) and/or create backing vocals (for those who can't AFFORD those who can sing with them). True technical innovation has 'jumped the shark'.
00's: For the first time in over 80 years of music, all forms of music that started this decade were around last decade. All technical innovations in the studio have been minor or non-existant as digital equipment is considered standard issue.
The music companies - more than ever - are pushing personality rather than the substance of the music because there is no more innovation, but they are making a mistake.
When Norah Jones outsells a pop star 5:1 and surprises the hell out of everyone for doing it, it's not because she's hot, it's because her music speaks to people in a way that has not been heard in many years. In many ways, it is music that could have been produced 30 years ago (albeit with primative equipment).
If the music industry wants to survive it will need to innovate, but as you pointed out, this will mean returning to the roots of the music itself and not the 'flash in the pan' futures of personality.
Re:Where is the innovation? (Score:4, Interesting)
One thing that hasn't been noted so much in this thread is that in the last few years, the music industry has supposedly been signing fewer new bands and investing less money in putting new titles out.
One thing I've heard is that average per-title sales have been up and increasing the past few years, but when there are fewer titles being introduced, that limits growth.
I wonder if bands are starting to wise up and avoiding the whole label-signing thing, and that is why the RIAA can't recruit as many new bands as they had before. It could also be possible that the RIAA is trying to reduce or slow the number of new titles to help them create their ruse to gain control of internet music.
Re:Where is the innovation? (Score:3, Insightful)
In the past, t-shirt sales and concert profits ALWAYS went to the artists - no more. Bands used to depend upon this income because CD sales just aren't enough for most anymore. Now the labels are demanding a cut of even this one thing.
Most every band out there would like to make it big, but the Internet has gone a long way in being able to show them just how twisted the industry is, w
Re:Where is the innovation? [mod parent up] (Score:3, Interesting)
My 2 cents was mainly focused on the larger issue of innovation and how it's difficult to get the desire to innovate, or change or do anything different without constraints. Perpetual copyrights (perpetual, for the sake of dicussion:) do little to encourage so-called content producers to make more content, when they can just grow fatter off of already established streams of revenue.
This behavior is ultimately dangerous for them, though, as you pointe
Slashdotters always say this (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet, you people don't seem to care because you've grown accustomed to the convenience as well, and in order to remove the label of criminality, you've tried to brush it off on to the record label lobbying group that just so happens to be doing the *exact thing Slashdotters said they should be doing* a few years ago--suing individual copyright infringers.
This is silly. There are online stores now. There are services like iTunes. How many knocked-down excuses will people keep using to justify that they've got eMule down there in their system tray right now?
Artists willingly sign their contracts, and I find it hard to feel sorry for them when they shit on gold toilets, have antique car collections, and do movies all the time. Yet, Slashdot pretends they're fighting for the artist by ripping them off and not paying for their music.
What's amusing is that there is somewhat of a stigma when it comes to pirating games and apps simply because a lot of people here are programmers. Are you guys going to talk about "sampling games" when Doom 3 gets leaked a month early (as they all are now) and kids, college students, and people on high-bandwith connections pirate the fuck out of it?
If everyone here at Slashdot was a musician, the message would be completely different. What I find most amusing, however, is the double-standard pointed out in my sig.
But go ahead and play the "b-but the RIAA is *evil*!!! That gives me the right to pretend their copyright was magicaly transferred over to me to illegally distribute all over the place" game.
99% of the users on Kazaa aren't "sampling" those albums. Hell, on eMule they're just RARing up entire discographies now and sticking them online. I'd respect pro-piracy people more if they just admitted what was going on and that it was legally and morally wrong. At least I can debate your position logically because you know where you stand. But this bullshit "it's the RIAA's fault we're illegally sharing all their copyrighted materials!" mindset will never, ever fly.
Uninformed idiots always say this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, it is. So? I never said anything about copyright, but you bring up a good point.
How long should a copyright be good for? You know there's this Elvis revival going on in Germany right now - know why? They have a reasonable 50 year copyright law. All of his works are starting to come out in compilations and it's free and legal to do so.
I'm not suggesting that breaking the law is the answer. I'm suggesting that CHANGING A BROKEN LAW is. The 55 MPH speed limit was broken by many (were you a nasty-wasty law breaker yourself?) That law was found to be stupid and fairly unenforceable (especially out West), and so it was changed.
I'm a musician myself. I've personally watched the struggles of others who have tried to make it. I also know that 99.5% of anyone who signs a contract with these music company bastards commit themselves to being BOHICA'd.
With the self-serving record labels and the RIAA re-writing copyright law every decade it will be a miracle if ANY music ever again sees the public domain in this country. Don't think that you can take a superior tone with me or anyone else just because we don't agree with that fact and want to 'fight the power', so to speak.
If you can't see how one-sided the whole industry is, I would suggest that you report back to your corporate overloads and request more instructions on how to deal with people like me.
Re:There's one more figure not figured... (Score:3, Funny)
I really don't see how, unless the CD includes a bonus clip of footage from the high-definition cameras.
Re:There's one more figure not figured... (Score:5, Interesting)
How old are you - really? It definately has a direct relation to this subject. So does: Are you a musician?
As the in-house DJ for our dances here at the school, I can personally testify how far music has fallen - but not to the kids.
I take solace in the fact that in 20 years or so, these kids will most likely view their own music as memorable but cliched (Example: See Vanilla Ice). Many of them will have moved to other forms of music because of boredom or maturity.
Remember: A little boy will eat as much candy as you give him until it makes him sick. It takes maturity to appreciate a nice fresh apple.
Cliches (Score:3)
I considered most pop music crap twenty years ago and still do today. and guess what? All those hairy palmed dolts who thought Bob Seger wa
Re:There's one more figure not figured... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can document the exact moment of my musical maturity. It was when I suddenly became aware, listening to an oldies station and hating what was playing, that there's nothing special about it. it was just popular music from the 50's0-60's. Maybe that's obvious to some people, but I was a late bloomer to music appreciation. The vast majority of it is crud, just like now.
Yet, people have elevated "oldies" to a freaking GENRE, like it is somehow better, that the music from this period will b
What is 'cool'? (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids want to listen to what's 'cool'. To them, MTV and the radio shows/tells them what is cool and then they share this information with each other to reinforce it. Why is this so important? Peer acceptance - something some Slashdotters who had trouble getting dates will not understand.
I can look back at them and say, "What sheep! Back tatoos, piercings all over your bodies, wearing pants that would clothe 3 or 4 immigrants do NOT make you an individual!" But all of them will invaribly tell you that they are being 'different.'
You know what a joke THAT is, don't you? Or do you? Think back in school. What did you do to be different and how different were you really than anyone else?
Personally, I listened to Black Flag and the B52's (ok, I was a bit eclectic), but did that make me different? No, it put me in a strange minority, but MILLIONS of kids listened to them!
Those that are truly different - the true innovators and pioneers of our time are shunned or ignored, plain and simple. You can't be too different after all, then you're 'wierd', right? If it could happen to a guy like Tesla, you know it could happen to anyone.
Hey - Don't be Dissin' Abba! (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact, I was listening to a live cut of "Does Your Mother Know" yesterday.
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason most often cited for slumping television ratings is the ever-increasing availability of alternatives, from satellite and cable channels to DVD rentals to the Internet. People just havbe more choices when it come to how to spend an evening.
The same is true of music. We have satellite delivered content on a couple of hundred channels now, (CD quality, no commercials, and recordable: different from buying a CD how?)
I agree with the other posting most, though. Give me q
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
Anybody who says that the music being produced today "isn't as good" as older music are just lazy in my book. If you can't put forth a little effort in finding new music that isn't force-fed to you by MTV or the radio, then you don't really know the whole story, do you?
There is a ridiculous amount of good music out there, if you just stop by a music news website to check it out. Also, online radio is a great way to find new artists that you like.
Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons (Score:4, Funny)
Why the RIAA doesn't like P2P (Score:3, Interesting)
Based on your actions, P2P does have a good reason for worrying the RIAA:
(a) makes it easier for indie artists to get exposure
(b) thus makes marketing (the primary incentive the RIAA has to offer artists) less valuable
(c) because pop artists are th
When Business Models Go Bad (Score:4, Insightful)
No there isn't going to be a recovery until their business model is revised.
Re:When Business Models Go Bad (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:When Business Models Go Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget competition from video games too and the music they manage to bundle with them. The Tony Hawk Pro Skater games have at least a full CD's worth of music as the in game soundtrack. GTA Vice City had almost a hundred 80's songs in its in game soundtrack, but it was mixed in with the fictitious radio stations.
Who are the "one hit wonders"? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is one of those common excuses, but I'm genuinely curious:
1) Who are these one hit wonders with only one good song on their CD? Can you cite the one good song on otherwise all-crap CDs?
2) Do you think such CDs are intentionally made with the idea that it's all crap, except for that one song? In other words, does the band, producer, etc, not stand by their work?
Re:Who are the "one hit wonders"? (Score:3, Informative)
Start here at VH1 one hit wonders [vh1.com].
You're kind of correct - the statement was taken out of context. What people are tired of is paying a bunch of money for something that is played over and over on the Radio anyway. So much so that you get tired of hearing it and that Artist then becomes associated with one song and is thought of as a one hit wonder in which cannot ever achieve the same greatness.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:When Business Models Go Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
When I buy a DVD, Im not just buying the movie. If I just wanted the movie, I'd download it.
Im paying for a high quality digital video presentation, a 5.1 DD/DTS audio track, Commentary, Bonus features, widescreen presentation, ect.. All for 15 bucks.
Thats less then the cost of the CD soundtrack of THE SAME MOVIE.
I argue that p2p has MINIMAL impact compared to competition from dvds and videogames.
Re:When Business Models Go Bad (Score:3, Insightful)
The commentaries (which I've never really been able to get into) are the only one of the three that require any extra effor
Re:Think of the older stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
Blame? Look in the mirror. (Score:5, Insightful)
rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs.
Hmm.. they seem to have missed "boring bands, unoriginal music and inflated CD prices."
Here's a free tip from me to the music industry lurkers:
Shrink-wrapping dog shit does not create a market for shrink-wrapped dog shit.
Think about that, act on it, then give me 0.5% of the net.
Don't forget... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blame? Look in the mirror. (Score:5, Insightful)
half the people i know refuse to buy riaa-member label records and use tools like riaa radar [magnetbox.com] to avoid them.
maybe if they'd stop suing their customer base, their customer base would actually buy their products.
just a thought.
Don't forget the tide (Score:5, Insightful)
On second thoughts, never mind. The only conclusion the RIAA will reach by seeing such a list is that P2P hurts those industries too! AIEEE!!
Fall of CD sales doesn't mean less music sold (Score:5, Insightful)
Itunes is selling 2.5 million songs a week [zdnet.co.uk]. The declining sale of CDs does not necessarily mean the music piracy is going up; it means there are also new means of selling music, digitally, and very legally.
I hate it when declining CD sales is automatically attributed to piracy. The way music is sold is evolving too (and the labels are getting their share don't worry).
Re:Fall of CD sales doesn't mean less music sold (Score:5, Informative)
Come on, we're suppose to be NERDS. Do the math. Quit pointing to iTunes as some sort of real cash flow to the RIAA. It's not. Either is the $3000 dollars they make from lawsuit settlements.
We forget how filthy rich this monopoly is. 32 billion dollars is a lot of money. Feel sorry for media companies now? Are we ripping off the artists? Hell no, the music industry has been ripping off artists MUCH longer than we've been alive!
Re:Fall of CD sales doesn't mean less music sold (Score:5, Funny)
" 250 million dollars is only 0.0078 % of 32 billion dollars. Come on, we're suppose to be NERDS. Do the math."
Are you sure you're a NERD and not management at Enron?
Let's adjust that math a little (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, 2.5 million songs per week times 52 weeks = 130 million songs at $.99 each, or about
Third, $130 million spent on I-Tunes could be 130 million CD's not purchased at $15/hit (especially for the one-hit wonders they're publishing these days). Even after adding back the money for the itunes themselves, that's $1.82 billion in CD purchases, which is 5.6875%, which is pretty close to the entire decrease.
Although it is impossible to precisely determine how much effect iTunes has had on this number, it is really poor math (and thinking) to think that it had no significant effect.
Careful about criticizing other's nerdliness, for you bring your own failings to light.
Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really. 7.6% is not that much, considering how many companies have moved to an online sales model [slashdot.org]. If anything this refutes the RIAA's claim that P2P has any significant effect at all. What kinda depresses me was the point in the article that the reduction of top acts helps to boost sales; that the reduction of variety means more concentrated gains in that particular market, is actually bad for the market in the long run, IMHO.
I've bought more CD's this year than previously (Score:2)
The remainder are bought per-track off of Rhapsody and burned by me.
It's not that music sales are lagging, it's that the RIAA, and to a smaller extent, the record companies, doesn't need to be involved in them anymore.
2003 CD Sales Officially Down 7.6 Percent (Score:2, Insightful)
so what? (Score:2)
New Data! (Score:4, Funny)
Carefully chosen words... (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiight. And the introduction of the Compact Disc had absolutely no effect on the sales of cassettes and vinyl. It was clearly completely due to the "file-sharing and CD-burning craze". Uh-huh.
Re:Carefully chosen words... (Score:3, Insightful)
For example from here [riaa.com]:
They never mentio
Quality of music is fading (Score:2, Insightful)
Most New Music Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe prices are also an issue.. (Score:5, Insightful)
When iTunes first came out I thought $9.99 for a CD was silly, but now 50% off is starting to make sense... (Speaking of iTunes this study doesn't seem to take online sales into account...)
Piracy must be the reason (Score:4, Interesting)
- Lame new music
- Increased prices of CDs
I keep waiting for a law firm somewhere to offer "RIAA insurance": pay $5/month and they offer to defend you if you ever get sued by them.
DVD Sales UP? (Score:4, Interesting)
Can someone tell me (Score:5, Insightful)
Murder rates are down too. You know why? (Score:5, Funny)
I have heard lots I want to buy... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just not sold by the RIAA.
There are some great artists. I buy their albums whenever they appear in concert, at the concert. Then I know that at least a fraction of the money will actually go to the artist.
For example, check out Vienna Teng [viennateng.com]. Great music and even better live!
Overkill on the radio (Score:4, Interesting)
I for one may like a song at first, but when radio stations are forced to play it over and over (every hour...) I get sick of it. I'm not going to buy that CD anymore - thanks radio...
That would be an interesting study...
What the article missed... (Score:4, Insightful)
Canadian sales show recovery in 2004 (Score:4, Interesting)
DVD sales are way up in all of the months I looked at. VHS and cassette tape sales are down, which isn't too surprising.
Trying to use up my free iTunes songs... (Score:3, Interesting)
This brings up a good point about what to buy. I've got ~10 free songs coming to me from the Pepsi/iTunes giveaway, and I don't know what to buy with them.
I start looking around for a song I want, and I usually end up buying the entire album instead (latest purchases, Gershwin's Greatest Hits and Buffy: Once More with Feeling). My tastes in music are pretty varied, going from classical to hip-hop, but I'm having a tough time finding music I want to get.
I don't even look at CDs anymore. Too expensive and takes too long to find something you like.
I'm sure every record exec started shaking in their boots with the USA Today article [usatoday.com] that shows that a lot more youth are turning to their parents CD collection of Queen and ZZ Top. No new sales.
Today's music... (Score:3, Interesting)
Plus, very few people even know how to play a guitar anymore (Joe Bonamassa being a big exception).
I didn't see a "it sucks" cause in the article...
Yeah, I'm geezing, I know....
I have 40 song credits in iTunes (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I have 40 song credits in iTunes (Score:3, Funny)
*snicker*
Entertainment dollars and poor quality (Score:5, Interesting)
The other factor bringing down my music purchases, other than higher prices and a lower paycheck, is lack of quality. Most of what I listen too, you would never find in Best Buy or FYE. You're too concerned with "golden money makers" than with providing us with interesting original music. I understand the business principles behind trying to make a profit, but when you minimize your risk, you potentially minimize your return. Think of all the CDs in the past 2 years that you (RIAA) have released? I can't really name any that I've liked the entire CD, except for Coldplay's A Rush of Blood To the Head. One. Oh well, you may learn someday, and someday may be too late.
Amigori
RIAA free top 100 (Score:5, Informative)
RIAA Safe Top 100 [magnetbox.com]
RIAA Safe Top 10 Alternative Rock [magnetbox.com]
all based on Amazon Sales
Used CDs (Score:3, Insightful)
There is so much good music from the past that I haven't heard yet, why do I need to pay full price for the new stuff.
When I do buy new I try to do so directly from the artist.
I love this. (Score:4, Insightful)
HAHAHA! RIAA, the music industry has changed! Technology has allowed greater sharing and therefore we don't need to go to a brick and mortar store to buy your crap!! Information wants to be free, it's everywhere!!! No laws will stop this!!! YOU are the thieves!
Yours truly,
Slashdot Crowd
Dear Congressman,
Due to recent changes in technology, American businesses are now looking overseas to cheap labor to perform what used to be my job. This is economical for them because of increased ability to communicate cheaply and ubiquitously over the Internet.
THIS HAS TO STOP. You MUST do SOMETHING to protect my job. EVIL corporations are taking advantage of Americans by using new methods and technology to their advantage. This is not fair.
Yours truly,
Slashdot Crowd
Beleaguered???? (Score:5, Funny)
Hilary Rosen [eweek.com], head of the Powerful Trade Organization for the $15 billion recording industry, is full of contrasts...*snip*
Fifteen billion?? May I please be next in line to be beleaguered???
Weaselmancer
How about "it had to happen eventually"? (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the things that a lot of people have been incorrectly assuming is that music sales should react proportially to the economy. This theory doesn't hold true because (even at $15/CD), CD's are something that people can afford one or two of in order to nurse themselves through the disappointment of (for instance) not being able to replace their failing appliances, or remodel their kitchen. It's a small enough expense that people use it as "brain candy", or as consolation spending.
The drop in music spending may just be because more of us are back at work now, and don't have as much time to moon over the music that we don't have time to purchase.
P2P trading continues to be a non-issue (and possible a net positive) in the music industrie's income balance, they're just too greedy to realize it.
Bundling (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually, on-line music distribution will increase quality, as artists will focus on making a couple excellent songs instead of many lame ones.
CD sales down 9.1% -- NOT 7.6% (Score:4, Interesting)
The 7.6% figure is for Global music sales. The article states that "Global compact disc sales -- the most often cited figure in discussing the health of the industry -- fell 9.1 percent in value in 2003, the IFPI said."
(Of personal interest to me, since I've <shameless plug>just released single on vinyl [loud-devices.com]</shameless plug>: "Total sales of singles, including cassettes and vinyl, which have dipped significantly since the Internet file-sharing and CD-burning craze began in the late 1990s, fell 18.7 percent in value terms between 2002 and 2003." It should be noted, though, that quite probably the majority of independent record labels ' sales aren't included in these numbers: IFPI-related releases compete, possibly increasingly, with small independent labels [csmonitor.com].)
Just look to American Idol 3 (Score:3, Insightful)
Because people are listening to less music. (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe people *just don't like* the music that is being put out, and as a consequence, aren't buying and/or listening to CDs. Maybe they're out having lives. Maybe they are listening to live music.
Every time I see something like this from the RIAA, it sounds like, "our business plan isn't working! It must be a conspiracy! Piracy on the high seas!"
Whatever.
Maybe you should produce some music that we want to listen to?
Maybe you should make it easier to find music we *like*?
7% in Dollars - how about CDs? (Score:3, Insightful)
I would love to see sales volume in units sold, not revenue, and I bet the reason why we haven't seen that is because it doesn't reflect a decrease. Also, I'm so sick of seeing numbers showing net decreases since 1999 - what HASN'T decreased since then, except unemployment?
The professional Economics of all this (Score:5, Interesting)
I do believe that slashdotters are from all earth citizens... the bunch who are nearer to understanding the problem.
That is however a problem in itself. Do the average Joe or heck.. do even RIAA or the firms they represent, understand the problem? not at all...
I am currently a postgraduate student in Economics, and I am writing my dissertation (Thesis) on all of this. Several top schools (Chicago/Harvard) can't even agree by using postgraduate economic measurements if there has been ANY impact of P2P on CD sales.
What are we to do then? The problem is, as I said, a monstrous amount of misinformation. The all time cliche that we fear what we don't understand is specially true now. Two centuries ago Luddites smashed machines in England to *prevent* technological progress from displacing artisans... and of course, the government supported them... until they needed the machines to combat famine and other economic shocks...
Is piracy wrong? of course. Are we, users of kazaa and bit torrent, to blame? partly... the other persons responsible to that are the record labels themselves that didn't provide a business model before Napster came along. Had they understood the market.. they would have invested on it ages before and we would be enjoying new technological progress on music.. and later movies and software...But no.. they decided to sit on their comfortable sofas and watch the eternal kingdom of CDs.
But businesses that forget to watch technological trends are just too many. And we never learn. Of course a natural answer is to use the law or some other means to savage whatever is left of what they don't want to believe, but definately is, a sinking ship... I can safely bet that if Kodak could sue digital camera users they surely would.. that is certainly less expensive than investing tons on R&D and assesing the new tech threat.
Our children will still be complaining of how a company should stop protecting its old business model instead of promoting innovation. It always happens.
The answer lies in the record labels themselves.. the CD market is a gonner... they have to provide new ways to entice users to buy content... Did anyone care to buy the same CD even if they had an old vynil record? of course not... Did anyone complain in buying the same DVDs again in order to update your VHS libraries.. of course not... and that is because there is extra value on the new technology... (nonlinear search and extra features anyone?)
Come up with a new idea to sell content, *that is your job* spend on Research.. and customers wil surely come in droves... just see the i-pod...
Just my 2 cents...
Don't speak for the masses, but.... (Score:4, Funny)
The RIAA regularly insults my intelligence, and if I want music, then from now on I'll just make it myself.
Re:Don't speak for the masses, but.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yet anothering meaningless statistic. (Score:4, Insightful)
CDs is a medium that is slowly being replaced by mp3s & other digital music players. I would fully expect the sales to drop. Soon, it will be the same as vinyl records.
Get over it. Move on. The world keeps turning even if you refuse to come along.
Personal sales up 5000+ % (Score:3, Interesting)
I have purchased more CDs this year than in all other years of my life combined. I attribute that to three things:
Study Says File-Sharing Has No Impact On Sales (Score:4, Informative)
CNN: "Timberlake helped boost the business..." (Score:3, Insightful)
Is that a fucking joke? That's the problem right there!
Some reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Um, the economy is in a slump, stupid. I'm not spending as much on anything I don't need because I don't want to be caught flat-footed in a layoff the way I was after the crash.
2. There hasn't been much new music in the last year that I've liked. What I have liked, I actually have bought.
3. I'm so disgusted by the RIAA that I've made a conscious effort to spend my spare change elsewhere. Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders have been the primary beneficiaries of this shift. They have these neat-o products called books that provide days and days of quality entertainment for less than the cost of a 74-minute CD. (Lately, for example, I've been rocking out to Ursula K. LeGuin in the cross-platform paperback format.)
4. CDs are still too expensive. For $15-$20, I expect to see the band live. In fact, I've been patronizing a lot more of the relatively unknown bands that roll through town because they're not regurgitating the same focus-group schlock as the big-name "artists".
Since four items is a bit much for the RIAA to absorb, let me summarize: "I don't have much money these days, your products suck, and I don't like you."
Please note that I did not say, "I am downloading MP3s happily," though that's what they will surely hear.