iPod Generation
According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales were down nearly 5% for 2006 however total music sales - offline and online - was up by 19% for the year. It seems like online music services may lead to the death of the conventional compact disc however it is not the killer the industry once wanted us to believe. Maybe the new age consumer is no longer interested in paying $15.99 for an album that only contains a couple of good tracks. Maybe we have found that if you want those 2 or 3 really good songs, why not just buy just those for $o.99 each. Ultimately the next generation is going to listen to their favorite tracks in the same way anyhow, that is on their portable mp3 device and the source of the music is nearly irrelevant.For example, let's look at Billboard's top selling album this week - Daughtry [which by the way I really like]. 12 tracks long and has a list price of $18.98 but can be bought for $13.99 at Best Buy. On the other hand you can purchase individual tracks for $0.88 each at Walmart.com or even better you can download the entire album, including 2 bonus acoustic tracks, for only $9.44. That is only $0.67 cents per song!
Since the industry would argue that the cost of discovering, developing, recording and promoting a new artist is so high, that the cost of the album has to be such to recoup those invested costs. That seems fair however how does that explain the cost of artists that no longer have those costs or are no longer even in existence? Taking a different example, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album [known as IV or ZoSo] was recorded in 1970 and has sold over 22 million copies and the band has sold a total of over 84 million records since 1969. Clearly this artist and label do no have to recoup any out going costs except the physical manufacturing of the disc to be sold however today this legendary album still sells for $13.99 at Best Buy. If the artist and labels still think selling records is important, they might want to find a way to make the whole disc comparable in price to its online equivalent.
In the meantime, Generation iPod continues to consume their music in their own way and we all stand by and watch the end of the recorded album - at least in it's physical form.
posted by TheWino @ 9:21 AM
3 Comments:
If the recording industry is "democratized" and anyone can sell songs on ITunes, that's great. I don't care if the record labels will live or die, because they eventually will die. Yay, internet! However, if irresponsible people freely distribute MP3's to anyone, you can have a world where musicians can be very popular and have sold only a handful of 99 cent songs. That sucks for them, and it sucks for music listeners in the long run, as those musicians will turn to more lucrative gigs instead of singing, like McDonald's Drive Thru Technician or Assistant Night Manager and Bottle Washer at Stop and Shop.
Think I'm crazy? Just ask any PC game fanatic why games are coming out for Xbox 360 and not PCs: Piracy kills profitability and most Xbox owners PAY for games.
Still think I'm crazy? Ask how many drug companies would still be in business if there were no patent protections. No patents, no profitability. So why develop drugs? Or create games? Or write music?
Leelee, you better also return those books to J-man and buy your own copies...
I agree J and the artist do find other jobs to make money - it's called touring where they get to keep the bulk of the cash generated. How could they make? Try these numbers on for size:
Aerosmith / Motley Crue - 3 nights in Cadana
Dec 5, 9, & 11 in Montreal, Edmonton & Calgary respectively.
Total Gross Sales: $.039 million US dollars
DAMN!
How in the world is a one-hit wonder going to tour? Yep! Get your ticket for the "Five for Fighting" concert! The concert lasts about 10 minutes. They play "Superman" and then do "Superman" for an encore. Sweet.
I am not saying you can't share with a friend. That is not going hurt anyone. But you can't share with 1,899 of your closest friends on the web. That DOES hurt the artist.
And by the way, I want my books back.
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