Record sales plunge further...

I suspect people said the same thing about malls: they were killing historic town centers. And they probably blamed Fye for the death of independent music stores.

 

Ha! Well, you got me there. On the other hand, I think the Stones were more about lust. That's not just for teens!

 

No one should be surprised by the numbers, which will get far worse.

There is zero financial incentive to make interesting music that would regenerate consumer support. My kids are far more likely to watch movies on Netflix than listen to music. And why not?

Best we can hope for is that the death spiral finishes soon, and new models emerge that encourage creativity.

 

There's plenty of creativity out there. It's just not in the charts. Have you ever read a copy of The Wire.

 

The trouble is, some of us fell in love with the special things that could be done in a recording studio. I enjoy live performances too of course, but the tape and electronic manipulation that can be used for artistic creativity in music has always been king for me. (As Eno has said, it's an artistic medium akin to sculpture, but in sound.) And care in making recordings with quality of sound and reproduction. These things have been devalued in recent years and I fear they will continue to decline for newly-produced music.

 

.......and a direct reflection of the extortionately high cost of concert tickets for the likes of Black Country Communion, (what's left of) Queen, (what's left of) The Who, (what's left of) The Stones et al.

 

Interesting and timely thread. I've been thinking about this a lot, especially since playing with some local musicians and being interested in non-pop chart garbage (sorry) music, which has led me to bandcamp, etc. I'm talking mostly metal, but I imagine the same is true for all types of music not in wide distribution nowadays, which is what, beyond Taylor Swift?

There is no music industry any more, as we knew it. There is no way now for a musician to make a living peddling the fruits of their creative endeavors, with exceptions (commercial, film, TV, but that has high learning curve and very small workforce). The bands that are doing it come from the old system (I'm thinking rock and metal acts) There are plenty of underground labels for new artists, but there is no money there. No recording or tour support. That model is dead. I wonder why bother with labels at all anymore. What I see is to release something physical, mostly vinyl, but is there a future in that anymore?

It has taken me a long time to see this, that music now isn't even bought in files anymore; people pay for streaming subscriptions, since most everyone has data plans now. The musicians I know distribute their music in a package across various platforms, which brings them some amount of pennies every year.
What we're seeing now is music becoming something done for love, as a hobby, etc. The musicians I know take vacation time, sacrifice family and work time, to take quick regional tours on their own dime, to largely indifferent audiences. Maybe outside of underground metal the audiences are more numerous and enthusiastic.

From what I see in young people (I have a tween daughter), music is simply not a cultural "thing" anymore. When I was young, late 70s-->mid 90s, who ("what's your favorite group?" in the early 80s) you liked was important, socially. It said a lot about you, as a person, and me, anyway, influenced who I hang around with. This is barely a consideration anymore. Only kids who are geeks, from what I see. The upside is that I see kids into everything under the sun, from blues to Rush to Van Halen and they don't bat an eye. Kids who just "get" music don't seem to bring baggage to it (e.g., that's grandpa music). But they are exceptional.

Also, I'm too young to really remember this, but my daughter's drum teacher, until the mid-90s, even in Topeka, KS, was able to sustain a living playing with a band 6 nights a week around town. People used to go OUT and see live music, dance, have a good time, for a few bucks. That is totally dead and gone. Sad.

 

Wow ! Such a great post. You are absolutely bang on with your observations. I couldn't agree more. Times change and for us 'oldies' it can be rather sad that the hot times when music really meant something to people is over.

Ah well, must move on ! Now, where's my zimmer frame gone ?...........

 

I would replace the word artists with entertainers...

Can an artist really be annoyed over that? I don't think so.

 

This is my observation on the topic. The reasons that record sales are down could be for the simple reason that music buyers are not liking the music coming out at the moment. I have been recently watching these music talent shows on television and although many of these contestants have sound musical abilities, all their music sounds the same to me. There are no knockout punches that would make me want to go out and buy a record.

In the past, many artists were groomed by producers who were trying to create an identity and/or specific sound to entice a fan base for the sale of records. Although that system has been lambasted by many a band and artist, it was responsible for producing some pretty incredible music over the years. For me personally, all the current music is a cookie cutter format with computer enhanced vocals that makes one person sound just like the other. Bland and boring in my opinion. What ever happened to authenticity? It may be time that we go back and revisit that system in some form. As it stands now, there is no reason for me to go out and buy records, but I would sure like to.

 

My wife completely disagrees with this thread......she says with the number of parcels coming through the door, that I must be single handily propping up the music industry. Don't worry, I tried to shift some of the responsibility onto you lot as well.

Common theme though....wife and children (11, 20 & 24) all use streaming services for music and kids have never made any physical music purchases.

Me?? I have already stopped buying albums of artists who release as streaming/download only. No physical release (CD)...no purchase. As and when they stop physical releases...I have enough in my collection to keep me going.

Am I the only one who finds it hard to feel sorry that the music industry finds itself in its current state??

 

It doesn't help that the music industry has been turning out muzak that even by industry standards from the past, all sound pretty much the same. A lot of artists don't write their own music ( the popular ones) . It reminds me of the early 60's before the Beatles broke through. Of course buying music in its physical form has been dying out for some time. Not hard to see why the compact disc is stuck in between streaming music and LP records. I see young people, early twenties trolling through records more often than in the recent past. One particular young man was into the Blues. He had a fair bit of knowledge of the Blues from his father's music. They "get" why the LP has had a resurgence in sales. Artwork is bigger, there are colored discs, picture discs, and you can buy turntables that can plug right in your computer to play. They don't have to spend a bunch to get into vinyl, even though most of us have and do. Still I don't believe we will see the heyday of vinyl sales that were once the standard. Not unless there is a birth of a new hybrid band or artist that would drive people to buy their music like Elvis or the Beatles once did.

 

Hah ! Hah ! You too eh ! For me it is a constant challenge to get to the postbox in a morning before the missus does

I am with you there

 

I now work from home on a Friday.... to be there for the new release parcels coming through the door.

 

Well said!

It's that loss or disconnect from the experience of enjoying music (which can only really come from the physical or hands-on hobby of collecting it and consuming it) that has seemingly vanished (to a great degree). Which is not to say that one can't just consume raw music through bytes over a phone or computer screen and dearly love it, but it's the experience of "being at one", or having to hunt through shelves, or being able to keep and handle the music I enjoy that I love the most. To not have that physical or tactile connection is kinda like saying "you love the outdoors" but then you travel or experience it by way of a virtual tv indoors. Being with the subject of enjoyment (and being able to feel it or experience it) is what makes it what it is. At least for me.

I do know that time marches on and things advance, but that will always be an element of music enjoyment that I just need to have. At least on some level. I never want to just be "dabbling in music" from a blind sonic or "because I can" perspective. I'd rather buy and own the real thing from ten favorite artists (and be passionate about them), then be able to simply listen to 10,000 random artists as they stream by on a phone or a youtube playlist. Call me crazy. I'll happily accept the label. And I'll take my mere 500 physical albums with me...

As I always say, it's always about the quality not the quantity.

 

In the area of more minority, non mainstream releases in the UK, it’s a hideously ironic fact that these days a reviewer in a publication often gets more money for reviewing an album than the artist will ever see from it, even if it’s liked by listeners and / or said reviewers, due to streaming and / or people not paying for recorded music.

The reviewer doesn’t get much, but it’s often more than the album will ever generate for the artist. You see my point.

 

My sons are 24, 27 and 32.
Gonna shock you, they all buy and love LP's.
I like to think it's my influence.

 

Lyrically it might have progressed, but the production struck me as completely generic teenybopper junk. And there are younger acts pumping out the exact same product.

 

No, I'm pretty sure I'm paying $15 to $20. Weird that you think you know better than I do what my LPs cost.

Specifically, here's my last 10 Amazon vinyl purchases:

Soccer Mommy -- Clean $17.99
Soccer Mommy -- Collection $14.19
Tracey Thorn -- Record $17.81
The Orielles -- Silver Dollar Moment $23.98
Belle and Sebastian -- How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 3) $10.99
Television Personalities -- Beautiful Despair $22.99
Superchunk -- What A Time to Be Alive $14.19
Rolling Blackouts CF -- Talk Tight $14.19
Rolling Blackouts CF -- The French Press $13.99
Salad Boys -- This Is Glue $18.98

So 10 LPs, and the only 2 that were over $20 (neither of which were $25) were UK imports.

So...yeah. $15 to $20 over here.

 

The consumer shift to streaming is gutting the industry's existing business model. At the same time this is occurring, the continued fracturing of the mass music market's attention span into 1000 different sub-genres is ensuring no new act can grow their fanbase beyond a small following.

 

Then they need a better agent who can negotiate a better deal.

 

Exactly. The way things are, there is no future business model. Streaming, as it is monetized now, is not a business model for the creatives.

 

Nah, it's the beards and lumberjack shirts..........

 

Not only that, by past standards even Taylor Swift is an old act. Her first album came out over a decade ago. What is happening is that people have access to so much entertainment everywhere they go that music isn't as important as it was.

 

What is the fair amount for one person to listen to your song one time ? I mean for $10 I can get a whole month of Netflix, or a movie a day from moviepass or four video games from Microsoft ? For nothing I can go to the library. For $5 I can get an AAA used video game that has hundreds of hours of game play and hours of music on it.