1M Fewer Music Download Buyers in '09

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There were a million less people buying music online last year? Oh no!! Somebody quick, blame the pirates!!! It has to be the pirates because it certainly can’t be crappy music, crappy prices or crappy ideas like this:

"You got some maturity in the marketplace," Crupnick told the audience. "If I ran a record label, the first thing I would do is go out and hire a consumer promotion person from Kraft or Colgate. The consumer is saying they wanted to be promoted to and persuaded to come try this."
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For the record, I do like the “three songs for a buck” idea though.
 
Basically, what they are saying is that the markting for music sucks(it does). There was consolidation in the market place, not to mention, a lot of people who have less disposable income due to losing jobs.
 
When I get another job I'll start buying music again. Right now I'm just trying to pay my mortgage!
 
I would buy my music online... Oh wait, that is pretty much limited to few countries.
 
how many songs were bought alone in the apple store? over a billion? pfff f the riaa ;)
 
When Apple starts offering ALAC from itunes I will consider buying audio online, until then nahhhh.
 
Astronomica said:
I already own every pink floyd album, why would i ever need to purchase a new song ever? :)
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I agree. This is mostly about the kids.

Isn't this also a result of the music companies brilliant plan to increase prices to a $1.39/song?

I also already have all the best Rush/Floyd/BoC/Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden/Tull/Doors/Heart/Zepplin/Police/Yes/Clash etc.. on CD so I don't give a toot about Pirating/buying any modern drivel.

And get off my lawn!
 
i like how the record industry argues different numbers every time to make it look like they are miserable.

We sold less CDs - because people buy individual songs because the majority of the CD is crap
We sold to less people - the article also cites that the amount of money people spend on music actually went UP by 50%... So unless the numbers went from 3 million (or less) to 2 million, the amount of profits went up, a lot. Also, Im going to go out on a limb and say that people who stopped buying music online, didnt ALL stop buying music totally. They just bought actual CDs. so who cares? Irrelevant or biased statistics dont really paint the full picture of whats going on. Maybe Im reading too far into this. I feel like not having online says is being portrayed as a "poor us, we're losing money because of pirates" (even though it does mention that the lost sales are from people who "lost interest").

I dont feel like "advertising to these people" is going to help. They're either A) technologically slow people who tried it and thought it too much hassle or B) people from here who want higher quality.

Unless its informational advertising to show people how to do things (they already tried it once, so getting them to try it again isnt going to make them like it any more than they did last time). And advertising will never fix category B's issue. Maybe... yknow, fix the issues not just advertise better.

Maybe im cynical (i am) but it gets to the point of "Who cares?" We dont see "news" articles on "pepsi is losing market share to coke". this just states "online distribution is losing market share to physical distribution"... or perhaps the article in a nutshell would read "1 million people who got music online in 2007 got fed up with the DRM bullshit and gave up despite the eventual removal of DRM from virtually all online stores. We need advertising to let people know that we fixed our retarded mistake."
 
I've been using Zune Pass for about 2.5 years and I REALLY like it. It really has a lot of value add for the money. The only thing that is a little annoying about it is that from time to time certain releases don't have all the tracks as part of Zune Pass, you actually have to buy them off Zune which is just dumb when like all of the other tracks ARE part of the Pass.

Just crazy. Really who is just going to buy just one song when the rest are part of the pass subscription? Just seems dumb.
 
heatlesssun said:
I've been using Zune Pass for about 2.5 years and I REALLY like it. It really has a lot of value add for the money. The only thing that is a little annoying about it is that from time to time certain releases don't have all the tracks as part of Zune Pass, you actually have to buy them off Zune which is just dumb when like all of the other tracks ARE part of the Pass.

Just crazy. Really who is just going to buy just one song when the rest are part of the pass subscription? Just seems dumb.
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Can you use your credits to get them? (I'm still on my trial but will be subbing soon)
 
soulesschild said:
Can you use your credits to get them? (I'm still on my trial but will be subbing soon)
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Good point, I always forget about the credits! The I issue with them is that they don't roll over and I ALWAYS forget to use my credits every month and so I miss out on this a lot. Just try to remember to use your credits every month.
 
JohnleMVP said:
Yeah I would buy more digital music if higher quality was offered.
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The vast majority of people who state this can't actually hear a difference, so they are complaining for the sake of complaining.

I did some personal blind testing. I am picky SOB and poor encodes drive me nuts, but I couldn't tell a 160K MP3 from pure wave/CD at all. This is with optical out to high quality amp/speakers (Denon/Paradigm) high quality headphones listening again and again trying to find any element that was off IOW way more critical than a normal listening situation. Try as I might I couldn't spot a single difference.

Isn't the standard now 256K AAC/MP3? Only someone with near superhuman hearing could detect a difference between this and CD.

Try some of your own blind testing with software like this to get a realistic expectation of your own limitations before you crap all over current compression standards.


Blind testing software to test those assumptions of super human hearing:
http://ff123.net/abchr/abchr.html
 
Steve said:
There were a million less people buying music online last year? Oh no!! Somebody quick, blame the pirates!!! It has to be the pirates because it certainly can’t be crappy music, crappy prices or crappy ideas like this:



For the record, I do like the “three songs for a buck” idea though.
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Give me ten to twenty songs for a buck and I'll be interested. Seriously

When every top 40 song sounds like dance music, regardless of genre, and I mistake most current male artists for women new tracks have best be cheap
 
I think it went down because a lot of people are now caught up with their digital collection, so the market is saturated. When I first subscribed to Napster last year for $9 a month, I grabbed every song I liked and loved and after a couple months there wasn't many songs left that I could think of that I wanted, so I canceled my subscription.
 
That's the great thing about something like Zune Pass. It's all about listening to stuff you'd never think of because its all there all the time, including new releases. I don't know about you but there's been some good stuff coming out for a while, Sade's new album is just fantastic, and its just cool to always have pretty much the some total of all music all the time, with some exceptions, like the Beatles and some others, but there's plenty of legitimate ways to fill in Zune's gaps and still want to keep Zune Pass.
 
I like how companies and various industries wail and cry that their profits are down because nobody's buying anything, even as they read the same paper/website/magazines we all do that more or less say THERE ARE NO JOBS!

And then proceed to continue bitching. Seriously? how about creating jobs so people have the money to buy your stupid shit?
 
Ya know what is funny? Music is SO shitty right now - I can't even find music that is worth my time to pirate - let alone paying money for. I am seriously not joking at all, I haven't torrented music in ages...
 
I buy most of my music/movies used at a local shop that does a great job cleaning/polishing/repairing the discs, making them look like brand new & the prices are great. Also, if you're a good costumer, the owner will let you bring a few damaged discs at a time & repair them for free with this huge machine he has in the back. :)

So where's my motivation to buy music/movies online?
 
I do use itunes now that they have gotten rid of the DRM. But I'm also not pleased that they are starting to raise the price to $1.29 for the 1 or 2 songs that are high demand on the albums. Thats a 30% increase....for what??

And, have you seen actual CD's now-a-days....they are disc's wrapped in posterboard...but them call them "eco cases" so as to make you feel like they care about the enviornment and hopefully you'll forget all about liner notes.

I've been checking out Galbadia Hotel (anine/game music), because like some people have already mentioned I already own most of the mainstream music I like so I'm checking less traditional stuff just trying to something different.
 
Cyraxx said:
Ya know what is funny? Music is SO shitty right now - I can't even find music that is worth my time to pirate - let alone paying money for. I am seriously not joking at all, I haven't torrented music in ages...
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truer words have never been spoken, even Dream Theater is starting to put out shoddy music.
 
Cyraxx said:
Ya know what is funny? Music is SO shitty right now - I can't even find music that is worth my time to pirate - let alone paying money for. I am seriously not joking at all, I haven't torrented music in ages...
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That's like McDonalds saying " Why is there no one buying our butter on a bun? Let's put some sardines on them in hopes of more sales."
 
Release something worth listening to and stop pumping money into pet projects that don't sell records (Selena Gomez, Heidi Montag!?), back some talent then complain.

Oh and crappy vocals run through software doesn't count as talent.
 
Wow. Some of you guys really need to learn how to discover new music. Here's a hint: if it's on the radio, then it's probably awful. The days when interesting, innovative bands like Zep and Floyd could be super super mainstream popular are over. You have to work to find good music now, and maybe I care way more than most people and don't mind putting in the effort, but it's there if you're willing to be a little active in finding new bands.

The fact that you don't need to be on a label to record a professional-sounding album and get a decent amount of attention means that far more innovative, interesting, experimental music has come out in the last decade than any other time in history. Most of these bands will never be played on the radio, even satellite radio, but if you seriously believe that "no good music is made anymore", you've either become complacent or close-minded. Keep in mind, basically every generation has gotten older and made the same complaint about "today's music."

Mainstream music is worse than it was 30 years ago, autotune is the worst thing to ever happen to the industry, but overall, music is just fine.
 
othellomcbane said:
Wow. Some of you guys really need to learn how to discover new music. Here's a hint: if it's on the radio, then it's probably awful. The days when interesting, innovative bands like Zep and Floyd could be super super mainstream popular are over. You have to work to find good music now, and maybe I care way more than most people and don't mind putting in the effort, but it's there if you're willing to be a little active in finding new bands.

The fact that you don't need to be on a label to record a professional-sounding album and get a decent amount of attention means that far more innovative, interesting, experimental music has come out in the last decade than any other time in history. Most of these bands will never be played on the radio, even satellite radio, but if you seriously believe that "no good music is made anymore", you've either become complacent or close-minded. Keep in mind, basically every generation has gotten older and made the same complaint about "today's music."

Mainstream music is worse than it was 30 years ago, autotune is the worst thing to ever happen to the industry, but overall, music is just fine.
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You make it sound like complacency is a new thing.

Remember when your parents hated heavy metal but you thought it was the bee's knees?
Their parents hated Rock and Roll, but your parents thought it was awesome.
Their grandparents loved jazz and Bing Crosby, but your great grandparents frowned on it and only listened to Mozart and Beethoven..

It happens every generation. The new generation's music is shit compared to yours. That mentality is never going to go away. I'm an 80's child, so classic rock and some heavy rock (Metallica) is my preferred music along with a few New Age instrumentals (Narada and Kitaro), and I think alternative, grunge and rap sounds like horse shit.

It's not complacency. It's what you consider to be music.
 
Snowdog said:
Try some of your own blind testing with software like this to get a realistic expectation of your own limitations before you crap all over current compression standards.
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Last year I did just that and batted 100 on picking the difference. I loaded up the same album from itunes and one from a cd and set playback to random. I could tell a difference every time with headphones on. It's not worth ditching mp3's by any stretch but if I'm going to pay for something I want a) a hard copy and b) the best quality available.
 
othellomcbane said:
Wow. Some of you guys really need to learn how to discover new music. Here's a hint: if it's on the radio, then it's probably awful.
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I have a general rule that if it's NOT on the radio it's probably awful. People who push indie music remind me of the nonconformists in high school who hate everything popular just because it's popular. I love these people worship bands before they make it big and the moment they get played on the radio they scream sell out and complain how terrible their music is.
 
The last CD I purchased was in '07, the last itunes/amazon etc. track in '09, why? market saturation, I own everything I want and nothing new in the last 6+ months has even come close to tempting me to spend money.

If I want to listen to newer music, my Hero does internet radio such as shoutcast, pandora, and iheartradio.
 
Blown 89 said:
Last year I did just that and batted 100 on picking the difference. I loaded up the same album from itunes and one from a cd and set playback to random. I could tell a difference every time with headphones on. It's not worth ditching mp3's by any stretch but if I'm going to pay for something I want a) a hard copy and b) the best quality available.
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I don't blame you if you want hard copy. I only buy music on CD as well. But I find the quality argument ridiculous. Was this before they switched from 128K files to 256K files?

You probably didn't match levels properly. At the very least rip the CD to WAV. Use the software to match things up properly and to hide the source from you. Read here about proper ABX testing:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16295

These guys take the blind testing seriously and conduct open testing where they put up a set of samples (which aren't identified) and a config file that work with the ABX testing software and then plays the samples and has the user pick the better one. Then it tabulates results which they build into a table that shows serious results.

They essentially gave up ABX testing on 256K encoders because they are so good, almost no one can spot a difference. Here is a result of one of their last 128K encoder runs:

http://listeningtests.t35.com/mp3-128-1/results.htm

These are proper tests. I remain skeptical of your random play test between CD and Itunes and 100% accuracy claims.
 
For those interested in trying ABX testing. There is a practice page here with instructions/sample:
http://ff123.net/64test/practice.html

The batch file is producing 64K sample it should be easy. But click the ABX link try 10 trials. It should be an easy 10 for 10 (it was for me).

Now make it more challenging: delete encoded files and change the batch file to this:
Code: 
encdec\flac\flac1.03.exe -d newkid\newkid.flac
encdec\lame\lame3.92.exe --alt-preset standard --scale 1 newkid\newkid.wav newkid\newkid_lame64.mp3
encdec\lame\lame3.92.exe --decode newkid\newkid_lame64.mp3 newkid\newkid_lame64.wav
encdec\ogg\oggenc1.0.exe -q 6 -o newkid\newkid_oggq0.ogg newkid\newkid.wav
encdec\ogg\oggdec1.0.exe newkid\newkid_oggq0.og

Now try the test again and do the ABX.

My results in ABX testing this time were no better than guessing. In one sample I thought I detected something, but in ABX testing I scored worse than 50/50 (6 wrong/4 correct). On the second sample I couldn't even imagine I was hearing a difference. Now this is listening extremely critically, quiet room, headphones, quality setup, closing eyes while carefully listening with both ears trying to spot a difference anywhere.

To me at 200Kbps here there is zero difference between the original and Ogg/MP3. Bear in mind the included ecoders are older inferior versions. If you can't tell the difference here. Modern encoders running 256Kbps is overkill for you. Complaining about not having losses is complaining for the sake of complaining. Phony "golden ear" snobbery.
 
Why do people insist on buying crap like:
Rush/Floyd/BoC/Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden/Tull/Doors/Heart/Zepplin/Police/Yes/Clash
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When the only thing most radio stations play is:
Rush/Floyd/BoC/Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden/Tull/Doors/Heart/Zepplin/Police/Yes/Clash
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?

Advertising of new + good music by :GASP: playing it on the air ( not just satellite radio ) would improve sales dramatically.

Some people hate indie music, or specifically the "idea" of indie of music. They are scared to try new things. There is plenty of great new music out there of every genre.

Just because its a group of 20 somethings that you don't recognize doesn't mean that they aren't capable of good music ! All those "classics" mentioned above were 20 somethings at some time too.

... ugh

I could go on but it would just be a rant.

Shut off your radio / ipod , go to the local record shop, tell an employee there " I want something NEW that sounds like XXX, surprise me ", and buy whatever he/she suggests. Live a little.
 
expansionsss said:
Why do people insist on buying crap like:
Just because its a group of 20 somethings that you don't recognize doesn't mean that they aren't capable of good music ! All those "classics" mentioned above were 20 somethings at some time too.
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I guess you are failing to grasp the concept of having enough music. I don't need to spend my time looking for more. I have all I need. I have tons of music that I know well to cover every situation. Also as you get older music is no longer a big discovery/social thing it is when you are young. No one in my peer group talks about some new band anymore.

So I am not discounting that there is some good new music out there somewhere, it simply isn't worth my time to go looking for it, because honestly it wouldn't even matter if I did find it. I would just be a tiny unneeded addition to a lifetime collection that I started accumulating a LONG time ago.

It is just a bonus that most current music appears to be derivative annoying drivel, that sells in proportion to annoyance level of the celebutards that manufacture it. :D

Now get off my lawn.
 
That sucks that there is no longer any spark in your life/soul/being that you feel that you don't need/want to experience *any* new music.

Even my grandmother comments to me from time to time about stuff she hears that is new/interesting to her.
 
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