Sad state of the music industry

[Axl In Lafayette]

Record Biz: Top 10 CDs This Week Less Than 450,000

Is the music business dead? I’ll say so. If you want to know why the Writers Guild of America (not to mention the DGA and SAG) must hold for proper payment of Internet rights, just take a look at this week’s CD chart. The top 10 sold fewer than a total of 450,000 copies. The record company people let the Internet destroy them. This is the result.

Ironically, the No. 1 album is the soundtrack to the hit film "Juno," on Rhino Records. Rhino is a division of the former Warner Music Group, now known as Warner Mess Group. WMG stock is hovering around $5, a miserable failure. "Juno" sold about 72,000 copies last week, which in the heyday of the business would put it around No. 15. But times have changed.

[Big Lebowski]

Well, the only way for artists to make money today is touring

[Randy Lahey]

I think everybody needs to quit blaming downloading. The record industry destroyed itself, when around 98 they started pushing Boy bands, and Britney Whores and her clones. They quit signing rock bands and catering to the real music fans, who were the backbone of the industry, and this is the result.

Edited January 18, 2008 by Randy Lahey

[John Bonham]

another thing is that everyone replaced their old records and tapes with CDs during the '90s, and that created an inflated sense of demand that became the industry's accepted standard.

It's not that people are buying less albums, it's that less people are buying the same album twice.

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this is just one factor that is often overlooked.

[Big Lebowski]

I don`t want people talking about Radiohead and Oasis nere anymore (I DO love both of them), but take a look at Radiohead. They gave to fans to download their album for free. And after that they begun to sell it CD and people still buy it.

[chesire78]

i feel like the music industry has become more concered with image than talent when ever you mass market stuff it only last for so long actually the general pop is more concerned with image vs talent

Edited January 18, 2008 by chesire78

[Naupis]

feel like the music industry has become more concered with image than talent when ever you mass market stuff it only last for so long actually the general pop is more concerned with image vs talent

Or you could be how the original GNR was and combined superior talent with a bad-ass larger than life image. Not coincidentally combining both turned them into a stadium act. People are naive if they think one is mutually exclusive from the other.

[Randy Lahey]

The last real big year for good music was 97. Oasis had BHN, The Verve had Urban Hymns, The Prodigy had Fat Of The Land, Chemical Brothers had Dig Your Own Hole, and Radiohead had OK Computer. Unfortunately after that the record companies decided to push boy bands, whore singers, and soulless rappers instead of good music.

[zakk]

I agree that the music industry is more concerned about image; but then how do you explain Nickelback selling 7 million albums. I hate Nickelback but I think that proves that if you can make songs the public wants there can be a market. Unfortunetly, what the public wants is crap.

[rockerman]

I think everybody needs to quit blaming downloading. The record industry destroyed itself, when around 98 they started pushing Boy bands, and Britney Whores and her clones. They quit signing rock bands and catering to the real music fans, who were the backbone of the industry, and this is the result.

Amen. Couldn't have been said better. THis was after being cornholed without KY jelly by the whole "grunge" movement.... ya know... that period of time when you were being entertained by the pizza delivery boy and his little garage group.

[ADPT]

There has always been crap music that sells lots. It's usually what labels used to fund riskier projects.

[Elnombre]

Music is flourishing. The music 'industry' - i.e. the age of corporate entities like AOL/TimeWarner controlling what people listen to is dying, and good riddance to it.

I work with independent artists and bands for a living, and with the advent of the internet, there's never been a better time to get started. It's now possible for one guy with a guitar and a computer to attain the kind of promotion that only selling out to a major label could have achieved in the past. It has gone a long way to evening out the playing field.

There is an abundance of great music being made these days, if you know where to look. Its the days of multimillion dollar promotion and advances that are coming to an end, hopefully in favor of a more groundroots approach.

[krissirge]

since now we have iTunes and other such services,people don't quite as often buy an album on the strength of one single,they download the single

nothing wrong with the current music scene

[Sweet Raptured Light]

There has always been crap music that sells lots. It's usually what labels used to fund riskier projects.

It's funny because it's true.

[SunnyDRE]

I think everybody needs to quit blaming downloading. The record industry destroyed itself, when around 98 they started pushing Boy bands, and Britney Whores and her clones. They quit signing rock bands and catering to the real music fans, who were the backbone of the industry, and this is the result.

No, No, No, No, No!!!!!!!!!!!

When will people and even the record companies, understand this.................Record companies are dying because they don't release the "popular songs" as singles, for about $1......something they use to do.

Noone will pay 12 books for a book that has only 1 good chapter.........or a movie that only has 1 good scene.

Duh

[SunnyDRE]

There has always been crap music that sells lots. It's usually what labels used to fund riskier projects.

Ok,

First of all ADPT, I normally agree with you,,,,,,,but ummm there is no such thing as crap music. I don't care what the critics try and tell you.

Music.....is one of the 3 "Genuises"; along with mathematics and painting/drawing..................So to me if you can make any music; even though the critics and other might not like it...... more power to you.

[Randy Lahey]

There is no larger than life rock bands and rock stars these days. That's what people miss in my opinion.

[Elnombre]

There is no larger than life rock bands and rock stars these days. That's what people miss in my opinion.

There's another fact 'the industry' don't wanna here. Me and some friends were checking out a bunch of music dvds the other night - Queen in Montreal, Alice Cooper '73, Michael Jackson in Bucharest, the Zeppelin reunion, and the Guns last show in Argentina. There's absolutely no one current to compare to these guys. If any of them were starting out now, they would blow the other shit so far out of the water, its incomparable. The music industry has dug its own grave by cultivating its own 'talents' in a slew of brainless pop sluts and 'family friendly' scrotumless 'men'.

The pendulums gonna swing the other way soon enough.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Elnombre

[Randy Lahey]

What really sucks is that these are the last days to catch the great bands from the past that are still around. I can't imagine any of the current bands selling out arenas in twenty years or ten years even.

It really sucks that Axl can't seem to release an album because in todays music climate he could easily be the biggest thing around based off the new material we have heard.

[Elnombre]

What really sucks is that these are the last days to catch the great bands from the past that are still around. I can't imagine any of the current bands selling out arenas in twenty years or ten years even.

It really sucks that Axl can't seem to release an album because in todays music climate he could easily be the biggest thing around based off the new material we have heard.

Don't remind me. You know how the Stones, Zeppelin, Coop, Meat, Aerosmith and co. are all around the same age? Imagine what a fucking depressing few years it'll be when those old gods start dropping like flies - particularly since no-one's picking up the gauntlet.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Elnombre

[ADPT]

There has always been crap music that sells lots. It's usually what labels used to fund riskier projects.

Ok,

First of all ADPT, I normally agree with you,,,,,,,but ummm there is no such thing as crap music. I don't care what the critics try and tell you.

Music.....is one of the 3 "Genuises"; along with mathematics and painting/drawing..................So to me if you can make any music; even though the critics and other might not like it...... more power to you.

Doesn't literature count as a genius?

Actually I don't believe in 'crap' music either. I was just trying to get my point across.

One thing that makes me laugh, however, is the idea that corporations foist music upon us. No, they don't. They give people what they want. People buy this stuff because they like it. As labels start to lose money they won't take any risks. Why sign and promote the next Neil Young when there's a good chance people will just download it for free? It's not worth it.

No-one's saying that labels aren't greedy or cynical but they also did bring us the likes of NWA and David Bowie and they did have people who were passionate about music and went out to find the talent. These same people weren't afraid either to tell musicisians when their work sucked and to go back and make an effort.

Another thing that worries me as well is what future will there be for the likes of Columbia's jazz catalogue or EMI's classical music?

I sometimes think if people made the effort to see beyond 'it's cool I can get if for free', they'd realise that not all change is neccessarily for the better.

Edited January 19, 2008 by ADPT

[kevdo242]

Christ. It is a great time for new music. Fuck the downloading craze. That only adds to things.

Look at bands like Enter Shikari and Klaxons. They've reached stardom without even releasing an album. Thats pretty fuckin good if you ask me. There has been a paradigm shift. Before, it was the record company controlling everything the artist. Nowadays, the record company has no idea what to do. The artist stands alone, with all control over how their music is handled.

Music should not be a business at all. It should be universal.

[Midnight Rambler]

I think everybody needs to quit blaming downloading. The record industry destroyed itself, when around 98 they started pushing Boy bands, and Britney Whores and her clones. They quit signing rock bands and catering to the real music fans, who were the backbone of the industry, and this is the result.

i think you've got a point there man. i still think downloadin has somethin to do with it, but i also think it goes back to what u said, the record companys shot themselves in the foot.

[ADPT]

Christ. It is a great time for new music. Fuck the downloading craze. That only adds to things.

Look at bands like Enter Shikari and Klaxons. They've reached stardom without even releasing an album. Thats pretty fuckin good if you ask me. There has been a paradigm shift. Before, it was the record company controlling everything the artist. Nowadays, the record company has no idea what to do. The artist stands alone, with all control over how their music is handled.

Music should not be a business at all. It should be universal.

You want to apply that logic to everything creative? Film? How about video games? Now that I think about it why don't the staff of Marvel Comics turn up and produce X-Men for free?

Edited January 19, 2008 by ADPT

[kevdo242]

Christ. It is a great time for new music. Fuck the downloading craze. That only adds to things.

Look at bands like Enter Shikari and Klaxons. They've reached stardom without even releasing an album. Thats pretty fuckin good if you ask me. There has been a paradigm shift. Before, it was the record company controlling everything the artist. Nowadays, the record company has no idea what to do. The artist stands alone, with all control over how their music is handled.

Music should not be a business at all. It should be universal.

You want to apply that logic to everything creative? Film? How about video games? Now that I think about it why don't the staff of Marvel Comics turn up and produce X-Men for free?

I'd love that, honestly. But this whole capitalist way of thinking has bastardised everything.

I believe that all arts should be universal, but the realities we face have prevented this.