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  • RIAA is killing the music

    Spinning Into Oblivion

    By TONY SACHS and SAL NUNZIATO
    Published: April 5, 2007

    DESPITE the major record labels’ best efforts to kill it, the single, according to recent reports, is back. Sort of.

    You’ll still have a hard time finding vinyl 45s or their modern counterpart, CD singles, in record stores. For that matter, you’ll have a tough time finding record stores. Today’s single is an individual track downloaded online from legal sites like iTunes or eMusic, or the multiple illegal sites that cater to less scrupulous music lovers. The album, or collection of songs — the de facto way to buy pop music for the last 40 years — is suddenly looking old-fashioned. And the record store itself is going the way of the shoehorn.

    This is a far cry from the musical landscape that existed when we opened an independent CD shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1993. At the time, we figured that as far as business ventures went, ours was relatively safe. People would always go to stores to buy music. Right? Of course, back then there were also only two ringtones to choose from — “riiiiinnng” and “ring-ring.”

    Our intention was to offer a haven for all kinds of music lovers and obsessives, a shop that catered not only to the casual record buyer (“Do you have the new Sarah McLachlan and ... uh ... is there a Beatles greatest hits CD?”) but to the fan and oft-maligned serious collector (“Can you get the Japanese pressing of ‘Kinda Kinks’? I believe they used the rare mono mixes”). Fourteen years later, it’s clear just how wrong our assumptions were. Our little shop closed its doors at the end of 2005.

    The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite of everything they wanted in trying to keep the music business prospering. The association is like a gardener who tried to rid his lawn of weeds and wound up killing the trees instead.

    In the late ’90s, our business, and the music retail business in general, was booming. Enter Napster, the granddaddy of illegal download sites. How did the major record labels react? By continuing their campaign to eliminate the comparatively unprofitable CD single, raising list prices on album-length CDs to $18 or $19 and promoting artists like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears — whose strength was single songs, not albums. The result was a lot of unhappy customers, who blamed retailers like us for the dearth of singles and the high prices.

    The recording industry association saw the threat that illegal downloads would pose to CD sales. But rather than working with Napster, it tried to sue the company out of existence — which was like thinking you’ve killed all the roaches in your apartment because you squashed the one you saw in the kitchen. More illegal download sites cropped up faster than the association’s lawyers could say “cease and desist.”

    By 2002, it was clear that downloading was affecting music retail stores like ours. Our regulars weren’t coming in as often, and when they did, they weren’t buying as much. Our impulse-buy weekend customers were staying away altogether. And it wasn’t just the independent stores; even big chains like Tower and Musicland were struggling.

    Something had to be done to save the record store, a place where hard-core music fans worked, shopped and kibitzed — and, not incidentally, kept the music business’s engine chugging in good times and in lean. Who but these loyalists was going to buy the umpteenth Elton John hits compilation that the major labels were foisting upon them?

    But instead, those labels delivered the death blow to the record store as we know it by getting in bed with soulless chain stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. These “big boxes” were given exclusive tracks to put on new CDs and, to add insult to injury, they could sell them for less than our wholesale cost. They didn’t care if they didn’t make any money on CD sales. Because, ideally, the person who came in to get the new Eagles release with exclusive bonus material would also decide to pick up a high-speed blender that frappéed.
    Read the next page on the original site : New York Times: Spinning Into Oblivion
    If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

    Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

  • #2
    I agree to a point that the music store will eventually go away, and people will download induvidual songs of there choice rather than buying a CD with only 2 out of 12 good songs.

    Singles are also a good idea but is it priced right? I think not, the average cost for a single (last time I bought it) was aprox $11.00 CND, where it would cost litterally 99 cents online. Though i don't know about the audio quality differences, obviously CD is better, as all music online has to be compressed which is not good for avid music lovers and audio philes. but that's the way the industry is going which pisses me off, just like the video world.

    Anyway, I'm not surprised at all fromthe above comments, only time will tell.

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    • #3
      Personally, I like to buy CD's. Maybe if they got rid of DRM and allowed you to download high res album art to print out and make your own CD, then I would possibly switch.

      Funny thing is, I know of one band who does this Metallica

      You can buy their concerts online, download in FLAC, print out the CD cover and you are set
      Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

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      • #4
        Yup, Metallica understands 'new media' distribution but the 'biggies' still haven't a clue.

        IMO in the future most all bands will be their own publishers/distributors. Better for them as they won't be bled dry by the big media companies royalty systems and costly distribution system. Better for us as we'll have a better selection and more affordable prices.

        In short: shoot the middleman.
        Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 30 April 2007, 14:37.
        Dr. Mordrid
        ----------------------------
        An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

        I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Dr Mordrid View Post
          Yup, Metallica understands 'new media' distribution but the 'biggies' still haven't a clue.

          IMO in the future most all bands will be their own publishers/distributors. Better for them as they won't be bled dry by the big media companies royalty systems and costly distribution system. Better for us as we'll have a better selection and more affordable prices.

          In short: shoot the middleman.
          And in short why they hunt the little guy sharing...
          If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

          Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

          Comment


          • #6
            I think one of the only ways to get sales up is by releasing cd's on SACD format first( and make them cheap). Then release mp3 and cd versions after.

            People now have PS3's which play them. And they will become accustomed to the better sound.
            ______________________________
            Nothing is impossible, some things are just unlikely.

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            • #7
              why would SACD sound any better than CD? (provided that they use the same master)

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              • #8
                Originally posted by dZeus View Post
                why would SACD sound any better than CD? (provided that they use the same master)
                Usually, the master is higher quality (e.g. 24 bit, higher sample rates) than plain CD.


                Jörg
                pixar
                Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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                • #9
                  That article is nothing more then a heart breaking requiem to the old music business.
                  When record companies decided who to sigh, and you had to read underground magazines to find out about newer stuff.
                  in the old music business, the logistics was the barrier for new artists. A decent recording was a very expensive thing, printing the vinyl or CDs and distributing them to stores was even harder. the worst was convincing radio musical editors and snobbish music critics to pay any amount of attention to the music. for those reasons you needed a strong record company. economy of scale.
                  and nowadays? things are a lot easier for musicians. getting a decent recording rig together is very easy and cheap. kids do it. distributing is as easy as file sharing, and spreading the word is all about blogging, youtubing and the rest of the Web 2.0 buzz words.
                  in todays reality, record companies and yes, music stores are fast becoming obsolete. so I feel the the good folks that wrote this article. I really do, but they are doomed. not because of the record companies, but because the earth only spins in one direction (I stole this from the play "Angles in America").
                  Originally posted by Gurm
                  .. some very fair skinned women just have a nasty brown crack no matter what...

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Fluff View Post
                    I think one of the only ways to get sales up is by releasing cd's on SACD format first( and make them cheap). Then release mp3 and cd versions after.

                    People now have PS3's which play them. And they will become accustomed to the better sound.
                    The people out there that have spent 500 to 20,000 on a CD player would really enjoy that
                    Q9450 + TRUE, G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2, GTX 560, ASUS X48, 1TB WD Black, Windows 7 64-bit, LG M2762D-PM 27" + 17" LG 1752TX, Corsair HX620, Antec P182, Logitech G5 (Blue)
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                    • #11
                      Thread cleaning/split

                      Split out the thread. The audio discussion can be continued here: http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?t=62538.
                      “And, remember: there's no 'I' in 'irony'” ~ Merlin Mann

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                      • #12
                        Thread doesn't exist

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                        • #13
                          rut roh
                          Q9450 + TRUE, G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2, GTX 560, ASUS X48, 1TB WD Black, Windows 7 64-bit, LG M2762D-PM 27" + 17" LG 1752TX, Corsair HX620, Antec P182, Logitech G5 (Blue)
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                          • #14
                            "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."

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                            • #15
                              Don't worry Singstar will save the RIAA.
                              ______________________________
                              Nothing is impossible, some things are just unlikely.

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