Great article:A brief history of why artists are no longer making a living making music

Maybe he should try writing some hits.

 

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

 

Yes, the numbers I cited above are the RIAAs, which are different, fwiw, from POS number -- they're shipments minus returns.

 

You make an excellent point. When vinyl faded after the introduction of the CD, the 45 rpm lost it's role as the coin of the realm. It was a role that had previously been played by sheet music if you go back far enough. It was all about the "song." Songs were sold individually and became hits and everyone made money and everyone was happy. The advent of the CD which boasted a playing time of about 70 minutes made the idea of a CD that merely played 3 or 4 minutes --the length of a typical song--ludicrous. So throughout most of the age of the CD, the individual "song' lost it's place of honor.
Napster, downloading, iTunes, streaming brought the song back to it's place of prominence and in revenge, it inflicted a mortal wound on the the CD.

 

For an other thread, I did a superficial analysis of every 2018 album that hit number one in the US and the UK excluding the monster soundtracks. It took an average of 255,000 first week AEUs to top the Billboard 200 with an average of 155,000 physical sales. It took 53,000 AEUs to top the UK album chart with an average of 41,000 physical.

There was a time with 50,000 was considered decent cult level sales. Last year, two acts topped the BB200 with only 5,000 first week physical sales.

But since 2013, 26 singles have achieved RIAA diamond certification; all digital. That's compared to only one diamond album.

 

I was just trying to share what I thought was a great article, I didn't know anything about what you are talking about.
If someone would have IM'd me and told me I would have changed it right away.
I try to find and post music, interesting facts about music, or articles about everyday life, I thought it enriched the
forum. Now I guess I'll join the majority of the members and just read the posts.
Again, all you had to do was send me a private message and I would have corrected the problem.
There was time and I could have had a gort correct it. No call to make me look dumb in public.

 

Larry Mc, I'm sorry if my post (regarding what I perceived as ironic) was upsetting to you. I had no intention of hurting your feelings or making you look bad, believe me. I did find it ironic, and said so. We've had these kind of circular-logic discussions on similar topics here before, and I regret causing you to feel as if I stepped on your toes in my eagerness to make my point.

 

It was absolutely not my intention to make you or anyone “look dumb.” Especially since it has happened to me here. I’m very sorry if that’s how it came off. I thought the irony was worth pointing out b/c there seems to be a lot of hand-wringing over people listening to “free” music but yet written content on the internet seems to be fair game (and I’m not singling you out by any means, it happens time and again). And I admit I can be a bit OCD when it comes to properly crediting and citing posted material.

 

I can't comment on any posts so please just forget I'm alive.
I got two messages in my in box that said this: "Your account's access may be limited based on these actions. Please keep this in mind when posting or using our site."
I've been here 14 years and I'm still not an "us"
I thought this was Steves site?


********************* SORRY FOR THE TYPOS ******************

 

Some of us organize our entire world views and approaches to life around 'moralistic dreams about how life should be'.

I can't conceive of any other way of existing.

 

You can try to spend your life trying to get the world to conform to your personal vision of how is "should" be, or fretting that the world is not the way you think it "should" be. But the world is unlikely to bend to your will. I mean, I know there are charismatic leaders who come along and try, and sometimes succeed, to shape the world according to their beliefs about how it should be -- sometimes for the good (Martin Luther King), sometimes for the bad (Hitler). Maybe you're one of those people. I think there are very few actual moral imperatives, and that most questions in life don't involve moral dilemmas. Some songwriters and performers may think that people should value their work more highly than they do, per the article. But there's no moral imperative in that -- if in fact people don't value the work more highly, it's neither right nor wrong, it just is the way it is.