[NewMusic] Dying Industry...(sic)

[Phillip Greenlief]

Hey bListers,

It seems that "the dying record industry" (yeah, sure) is on the minds
of lots of folks these days. Here is a post I received from another list
- it starts with some commentary from Steven at WPVM (Vermont) who is
responding to a comment from Robert Beam, from Thirsty Ear Records...

The thoughts and views expressed in this missive are the sole
intellectual property of the commentators and are not views particularly
expressed by the distributor (me).

;)
PG

*******************

>>>The problem is that we've over-convenienced the industry, and made 
music much less of a difficult commodity to get. 
The lowering of demand 
for packaged cd sales is directly correlative to these simple factors: 
1) music today is lame and has been overly marginalized. people buy it 
now like they buy shoes. it's an extension of vanity, and has little to 
do with the appreciation of actual singing, playing, or compositional 
abilities. 

2) It's virtually free now. Why run out and buy something 
that I know another person already has that i can burn onto my own cd? 

3) people are less easily fooled. In the olden days, you'd buy a tape 
or record, and it would be a crap shoot. You really didn't know what 
exactly to expect from a record, and you'd have only to go on faith and 
hope that it's what you wanted ( of course there were fewer big selling 
acts, but they were constants, and as such, could be expected to come 
up with the same stuff they always did, until they decided it was time 
to sell out and make some dough, after achieving street credibility ie. 
van halen or red hot chili peppers, shadows of their former selves, 
watered down for profit. and of course, the young upstarts with a 
gimmick that won't last past their first use in a car commercial. A 
has-been these days only takes about 3 months to a year to make. it 
used to take ten years for an act to officially peter out. )

The essential problem is simply bad fruit. Say you were buying oranges. 
Imagine that there are hundreds of orange sellers trying to get the 
business. Now imagine that years have passed, and everyone copied 
everyone else's business model and growing techniques for how to make 
and sell an orange down to the point where everyone's oranges have 
become virtually identical. Eventually, experiments relating to 
different breeds and their marketability would occur, and those less 
desirable by the majority of customers would be forgotten, leaving only 
the most popular variety, even though the more peculiar strains of 
oranges might still have a small audience. To bad for them because the 
"niche" oranges just aren't cost effective enough to produce, given the 
price breaks. Those that were interested in that quality of oranges 
will just have to settle for what's there, or give up on oranges 
altogether.

Over time, it becomes less of a matter of the quality they can produce 
in their oranges, and more about what the perveyers of this fruit can 
do/leave undone to get away with cutting corners and putting out 
substandard oranges, all the while telling the public how great they 
still are, and employing every promotioal organization that their 
dwindling money can buy, making insulting and loud ads about "BRAND X 
ORANGES" to get the word out that this is the new hot orange for the 
summer. It's just the same orange that people were already sick of 
last summer, it just has a different sticker.

But people aren't stupid, and in this neo hippy/diy era, people are 
proud to not buy into ad campaigns of any nature. This, incidentally 
is why teen smoking has actually gone on the upswing. Too many ad 
campaigns against smoking. If it's on tv, it's fake, says john q 
adolescent.

If EVERY orange grower creates this same lack luster product, people 
will lose all their likes for oranges altogether, save for remembering 
the bygone days when they tasted good, and there was a variety of them. 
Eventually, these oranges would be given away, perhaps as a promo 
vehicle to sell grapes or something.

Now replace the oranges with music, and that's what's wrong with the 
industry.<<<


On May 31, 2007, at 6:15 PM, < knowfish at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> The problem is that we've over-convenienced the industry, and made 
> music much less of a difficult commodity to get. The lowering of 
> demand for packaged cd sales is directly correlative to these simple 
> factors: 1) music today is lame and has been overly marginalized. 
> people buy it now like they buy shoes. it's an extension of vanity, 
> and has little to do with the appreciation of actual singing, playing,

> or compositional abilities. 2) It's virtually free now. Why run out 
> and buy something that I know another person already has that i can 
> burn onto my own cd? 3) people are less easily fooled. In the olden 
> days, you'd buy a tape or record, and it would be a crap shoot. You 
> really didn't know what exactly to expect from a record, and you'd 
> have only to go on faith and hope that it's what you wanted ( of 
> course there were fewer big selling acts, but they were constants, and

> as such, could be expected to come up with the same stuff they always 
> did, until they decided it was time to sell out and make some dough, 
> after achieving street credibility ie. van halen or red hot chili 
> peppers, shadows of their former selves, watered down for profit. and 
> of course, the young upstarts with a gimmick that won't last past 
> their first use in a car commercial. a has been these days only takes 
> about 3 months to za year to make. it used to take ten for an act to 
> officially peter out. )
>
> The essential problem is simply bad fruit. Say you were buying 
> oranges. Imagine that there are hundreds of orange sellers trying to 
> get the business. Now imagine that years have passed, and everyone 
> copied everyone else's business model and growing techniques for how 
> to make and sell an orange down to the point where everyone's oranges 
> have become virtually identical. Eventually, experiments relating to 
> different breeds and their marketability would occur, and those less 
> desirable by the majority of customers would be forgotten, leaving 
> only the most popular variety, even though these peculiar strains of 
> oranges might have a small audience. They just aren't cost effective 
> enought to produce, given the price breaks.
>
> Over time, it becomes less of a matter of the quality they can produce

> in their oranges, and more about what the perveyers of this fruit can 
> do/leave undone to get away with cutting corners and putting out 
> substandard oranges, all the while telling the public how great they 
> still are,m and employing every promotioal organization that their 
> money can buy, making insulting and loud ads about "BRAND X ORANGES" 
> to get the word out that this is the new hot orange for the summer.
>
> but people aren't stupid, and in this neo hippy diy era, people are 
> proud to not buy into ad campaigns of any nature. This, incidentally 
> is why teen smoking has actually gone on the upswing. Too many ad 
> campaigns against smoking. If it's on tv, it's fake, says john q 
> adolescent.
>
> If EVERY orange grower creates this same lack luster product, people 
> will lose all their likes for oranges altogether, save for remembering

> the bygone days when they tasted good, and there was a variety of 
> them. Eventually, these oranges would be given away, perhaps as a 
> promo vehicle to sell grapes or something.
>
> Now replace the oranges with music, and that's what's wrong with the 
> industry.
Robert Beam
Promotions/Production Director
Thirsty Ear Recordings
22 Knight Street
Norwalk Ct.
USA
06851
rob at thirstyear.com
203.838.0099


Phillip Greenlief
c/o Evander Music
PO Box 22158 Oakland, CA
94623-9991
www.evandermusic.com