Declining music sales

[Ash!]

I have been listening to the arguments for and against music piracy and copyrights etc. The music industry keeps moaning on about P2P killing the industry and music piracy is putting livliehoods at risk. (Bleeding hearts of the world unite as EMI rake in another load of cash)

I am interested in what the forumeisters think the reason is for declinig CD & Music sales. IMHO, I put it down to manufactured music such as PopStars, Fame academy and all the other phone a vote-make me rich-buy my t-shirt kind of bilge that the music industry keeps churning out. For me its a just boring, tedious repetitive cack. I would rather cut off my own arse and sit in a bath of Vinegar than listen to Will Young destroy light my fire.

So over to you the music loving nation. Is it piss poor music or piracy that is causing a decline in music sales. Moreover is the delcine in music sales causing more manufactured music for nation ?

Discuss

 

[ECA]

the UK's album sales actually increased by 5% or something last year, but globally yes there are declining sales.

I buy now, at the peak of my filesharing usage, more albums than I ever have, in fact untill I started using napster, I'd only ever bought 2 albums.

I now own > 75 probably.

The reason is simple, I dont buy churned out commercial shit, I buy straight off the artists website if possible, and I own maybe 10-15 albums that I've bought from mp3.com

Fuck the RIAA and the MPAA right up their fucking arses.

I couldnt give a shit which talentless cute girl/boy they are going to put up next to get sales of the teenage girls, I like listening to REAL music.

 

[xane]

Music sales are declining because the music industry is actually producing less units, they are concentrating on "demand" not "supply", they know that rewrites/covers of successful tracks and overhyped manufactured music will sell and are less likely to supply innovative stuff on a chance.

The old line about the successful music bankrolling the flops is no longer applicable, publishers just will not fund new talent unless they are 100% risk free, they want to print money basically.

The only way forward for new talent in music, especially in new genres, is either (a) priuvate pressings played through clubs, or (b) downloads through the internet. Contrary to what the music publishers say, these methods are actually more benefical to the artists and more of them are discovering this, so there is a decline in artists approaching the big publishers anyway, they are losing their raw material.

The RIAA/MPAA are _distributors_ and it is indeed their industry that is under threat and on a decline - that is the _distribution_ of music, not the actual artistic creation itself. Sales may have decreased, but consumption is the same, it just comes from a different source.

A large amount of downloads are for tracks that are either no longer available or difficult to get hold of, the publishers are actually wising up to this and there are official legal websites coming online, but the fees are just a joke, in particular those like HMV where if you stop paying you lose _all_ your downloaded tracks !

 

[doh_boy]

Just to re-enforce the point. In the past I bought a lot of singles(at least 2 a week) the only reason I stopped is because the prices went up(I usally spent £5-£7) when the prices meant I was spending over a tenner I stopped.

Also downloading music encourages me to buy music I wouldn't buy(or know about) before. One example being Disneyland after dark(recommended by someone on this forum mank i think). It also reassures me that a album is worth buying. Due to downloading music I have bought:

The Datsuns,
The Cooper Temple Clause
The D4
Radio 4,
The Libertines,

and intend to buy:
D.A.D(see above)
Ishara Colt
Von Bondies
The Atari's
Less Than Jake

It also meant I didn't waste money on:
Interpol,
Apples in stereo,
Atari Teenage Riot.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Originally posted by doh_boy

Ishara Colt

Ikara Colt I presume you mean? A bunch of my friends went to the same art college as them and invetably have a lot of stories about them. The best being that the female member (arsed if I can remember her name) was only allowed to join the band because her father who is rather rich paid for all the band's instruments.

 

[Shocko]

I'm going to buy Zwan's album when it's out in a couple of weeks, because of file-sharing...

I'm sure there are plenty of people who download, and never buy, however these are the people who most likely not be buying very much, if anything at all, anyway. Distribution over the internet will help new bands tons, because people are more likely to buy their albums, if they can hear a few tracks first.

It's not surprising that the singles chart here has totally died... It was the xmas #1 being decided by "Popstars the Rivals" that signalled how low it really was... This is just something that the record industry will have to face up to, because people will no longer get ripped off buying a single, when they can download individual tracks instead. This is what's happening when previously people would buy singles to decided whether or not to buy an album. It's not surprising that the record companys are pissed about this, because the amount of profit they must make on singles is unfathomable!

 

[doh_boy]

yes, I couldn't quite remember and as for the second thing..hehe sounds like a good deal!

 

[Munkey-]

that was me who reccomended DAD! One of my favourite rock bands. Tbh, if it wasnt for the internet I'd have no idea about any bands due to the inherent crap nature of the only radio station out here.

e.g. Massive Attack, Portishead, Unkle, Glassjaw, Guano Apes, Muse, Saves the Day, Slaves on Dope, The hellacopters, QotSA and various others.

My music collection (CD wise) has grown vastly since I began listening to mp3's as I go out and try to buy the cd later.

btw doh_boy, if you liked DAD then you'll like The Hellacopters

 

[doh_boy]

cheers, I'll go look for saves the day aswell because I'm sure a friend of mine recommended them.

I have the only () unkle album which is mint. Lavelle said he was interested in making another but shadow said he couldn't be arsed which is a bummer.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Lavelle is deffo working on a new one, however Shadow isn't going to be involved this time around. So far Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age has confirmed he'll be featuring on a few songs.

 

[Embattle]

A quote from my reply in the Hilary Rosen thread:

File sharing has adjusted the playing field that the music industry used to sit in the middle of and this is clearly something that annoys the music industry a lot, which isn't surprising with the amount of rewrapped crap around nowadays.

Too often I found myself buying albums based off a couple of songs and then once you'd listen to the other songs you realise that all the rest were crap any way, although you've paid so now you're lumbered with the album and the music industry is laughing all the way to bank.

Many people pointed out that by making a big deal of Napster the music industry would actually make the situation worse, they took no notice and now the bitch that started it all is going to become as much a part of history as her seemingly main achievement, the defeat of Napster. The RIAA may have defeated Napster but it only advertised file sharing to the masses and is now paying for its lack of vision.

I do know a number of people who have downloaded masses of MP3s without buying them afterwards, although most of these people had no intention of buying the album any way, in fact often they don't even listen to the stuff they've downloaded.

Fear not, another twit will most probably fill her shoes, wonder if they will be able to stop their website getting hacked all the time.

 

[doh_boy]

I just realised that I had a saves the day song (under the giuse of the get up kids. :/

So there's another album to buy...