CD Sales Continue To Fall

[GJSNeptune]

But then he'd sue us for something.

 

[ICOM]

I seem to recall that I listened to music because I liked the musicians. Some of them could actually play an instrument rather well. In addition, the lyrics were poignant.

I believe the quality of music waxes and wanes. The early to mid 80's had a bright spot with bands like Joy Division and The Jesus and Mary Chain. The late 80's to the mid 90's gave us bands like Soundgarden and Primus. Man, good stuff.

The majority of "music" available now is shallow racket. It's just a lot of shouting about disrespect and blaring bar chords. I'm not buying it.

 

[meanmodda[H]]

Oversaturation of shit music is the biggest problem. People are slowly developing their taste and want better stuff. But its getting harder to find the good stuff when you gotta wade through a ton of rubbish. Hence people lose interest and blow their income on Home Theater and dvd's. I don't see a chance of that reversing either.

 

[Bill Clo]

I rarely buy CDs because:
1) awful music. I mean the industy is more concerned about how a band looks, and how they sound in a "American Idol" type runoff. Doesn't matter if they can write a good song or not; the songs will be provided, pre-written by some corporate drone based upon scientific calculation that X number of consumer droids will like it enough to buy it. Said "Band" will sing said pre-selected song, or if they can't sing (but look good on stage) may lip-synch it.

Band performs X number of performances, puts out X number of albumns with X number of "songs predicted to be liked by the consumer droids" add filler songs to the album to round it off. Push the album via every avenue known to man. Make big income fast, screw the "band" and give them a pittance (but promise more royalties down the road which rarely materialize).

2) The quality of artists seems to have gone downhill, in general.

3) The main way people used to hear new music, Radio, has been homogenized by huge mega-corps who own most of the country's radio stations. The music has to be played according to format and what every criteria some corporate drone sets up. It sounds remarkably alike, regardless of where in the country you go. How many stations have the same old "morning crew" that sounds mind-numbingly alike and say more or less the same old shit as everyone else does?

4) I think people have finally started to awaken to the scam that the RIAA has been running and are voting with their wallets. Of course there are still plenty of suckers, oops, sheep, oops, customers for the RIAA to fleece (or sue if that fails)...

I've been listening to Pandora.com to find new music to check out and it's been an eye-opening experience for sure...and I'm actually buying a CD from a non-RIAA affiliated band (as far as I can determine) that I've never had heard on the radio around here.

 

[zero_vertical]

i don't think it's all crappy music. people have been buying crappy mainstream music for decades.


It's that every other person on ths streets of the city has an ipod stuck in their ears.

 

[abramsgunner]

This is just my opinion.. so I could be wrong or full of S#*@, but the problem is not a problem... its progress.

Think about it.. before the big record labels.. when you wanted music, you had to go see the band play. Then recordings popped up, and records were born to fill a need for music distribution. Everyone loved being able to save, transport, listen to tunes whenever they wanted and the music industry was born. They made a zillion bucks because they filled a need. Actually, they got pretty fat off filling that need, and even engineered a few extra needs that needed filling.

Guess what... those days are over. The need no longer exists. There is a new distribution system available that kicks the snot out of the old system. RIAA trying to use the law to defend an outdated distribution model is like newspapers trying to sue everyone for watching the news on TV vs. buying their newspapers... or the VCR repairman trying to sue DVD makers for putting him out of a job...

Musicians need to get paid (and I think the bulk of that should come from live performances.. but I'm not a musician so my opinion on that doesn't count for much). The engineers that produce/make the recordings need to get paid. The tech guys that host the music need to get paid. The fat cat music middleman needs to realize the party is over and find a new career, just like everyone else who's job is no longer needed.

 

[WarMace]

...The fat cat music middleman needs to realize the party is over and find a new career...

They are, if you consider lobbying for Piracy taxes on MP3 players and CDR's. Seems you cant make money these days without suing your competitors and suing your customers. Its like a bad Dilbert nightmare.

 

[eggrock]

i don't think it's all crappy music. people have been buying crappy mainstream music for decades.


It's that every other person on ths streets of the city has an ipod stuck in their ears.

Yep, and I can get individual songs for $0.99 and most albums for $9.99. And preview it before I buy it. Works way better than buying a CD and hoping it's good.

 

[zero_vertical]

Yep, and I can get individual songs for $0.99 and most albums for $9.99. And preview it before I buy it. Works way better than buying a CD and hoping it's good.

Same here. IWhen i hear something i want, i find it online. It's way easier, and cheaper. I don't always want to buy the entire album if 9 of 12 songs are garbage. If i really support the artist, I'll do it, but otherwise, I don't need to fill up my HDD with crap I'll never listen to.

zv

 

[zero_vertical]

Plus, CDs scratch and get damaged. My music is all safe and secure in my computer now.

I've bought some albums 3 and 4 times since High School on CD. That's total crap. The medium proved to be faulty, and I had to pay $48 to have access to that music because of it. That's stupid.