| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1337 Registered: 05-2005 |
and it's not good news. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/busine ss/media/26music.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&ore f=slogin (You may need to register with the NYT to access this.) | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1093 Registered: 03-2005 |
I don't see any problem. All this means is that the music market will be more realistic. Our little corner of the music world will not change all that much. The big change is for the delivery of music to stupid people. They used to be saddled with albums of filler just to hear one, two or three singles. One way in which our artists might change, though, is that they might go into EPs more. That would be a welcome change to the extent that it cuts the huge length of time between releases. It remains to be seen whether the physical object such as the CD or vinyl record survives. I, of course, would like to retain the physical object. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 542 Registered: 01-2005 |
I wouldn't mind more ep's. I'm not sure how long 78's were aroud, but let's make it around 30 years or so. Vinyl LP's had a nice run of about 35 years. Cd's were introduced in 1982, so I fiqure we have another 10 years if you are a believer in past history. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 10 Registered: 03-2007 |
Randy, I purchase a lot of Swedish stuff and they are into EPs in a big way. I have to say I much prefer the album format so I am not sure I would welcome the change. Oh for the days when artists/bands put out albums on a regular basis. I can remember Matthews' Southern Comfort releasing three albums in a twelve month period. Back To The Story by the Idle Race which we discussed in a previous thread ( Box Sets Which Don't Suck? ) is getting a re-release in April, 2007, and there is also talk of a five disc box set which will include remastered recordings of all the albums, including the rare mono recording of their debut, single A & B sides, previously unreleased material and recordings made for the B.B.C. See the following link for details. Not sure if it will ever see the light of day as the site has been promising 'More Updates Soon' for some considerable time. www.ftmusic.com/biogs/idle/idle_biog.htm l | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1341 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah, I didn't think this trend would immediately affect those of us with more discerning taste; but eventually this stuff trickles down. And hey, sometimes I buy the same records the stoopid people buy! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 483 Registered: 08-2006 |
There have always been more than a lot of singers and bands who I would call "singles artists," whose albums contain a few great songs puffed up by bland-to-worse filler. Now that the big labels are run by MBAs instead of music fans, though, that seems to be the entirety of what they're peddling: 12-year-old flash-in-the-pans, auto-tuned Hollywood starlets and "American Idol" hacks. Is it any wonder kids who listen to top 40 aren't buying whole records? And bands like Arcade Fire are opting to stay with smaller labels like Merge rather than get put through the accounting department meat grinder at Universal? At the mega-labels, there was a meeting of art and commerce and art got its ass handed to it. When even the teenagers start shying away from the results, you've got a problem. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1750 Registered: 03-2006 |
I still keep thinking that it all comes down to albums being too expensive - it is my pet issue. But I think a large part of people choosing to buy singles is that albums are just too frigging expensive, and as a result of that, just too big a financial risk for many people. On another thread I said I thought albums should cost no more than $10, but maybe that's too much of a half-measure. Maybe they should all be $1, and come in cardboard sleeves, with the consumer having the option of more expensive packaging for more money... Getting a high-speed connection at home for the first time last year, was quite a revelation. It made me see how easy it is to just grab music, even for an old Luddite like me. And for me, it does feel like stealing, so I don't do it, but I'm not sure a, say, 14 year old, one that hasn't grown up revering and treasuring albums, even processes it that way. I'm sure, to them, no more thought process goes into downloading a free copy of an album than turning on the TV. Intellectual property is just a construct, after all, and a fairly recent one at that. I do think, btw, that's probably what things are evolving, or devolving, back to - the way things were before there was recorded music, when it was basically impossible to copyright music, and you made your money from playing live in front of people, unless you were a classical composer lucky enough to have a patron, like one of the D'Medicis. So, I think that's probably what's gonna happen - albums, singles, whatever they are, will be loss-leaders, enticements to get you to see the artist live when they hit your area. And, I don't think that will hurt the people who are really in it for the love of the music, like the GBs, or Luna, were. I think those people will be able to eke out a comfortable living, and on top of that, do what they love. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1350 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's happening already LK. CDs in Australia now are far cheaper than they were when I first lived here in 1992. But the price of concerts is going up and up all the time and it's not just because bands have to travel a long way to get to Australia. I wrote something about six years ago about copyright and the changing nature of music. I'll post it on my myspace sometime when I get round to it and link to it from here. I recall mentioning the gamelan orchestras of Indonesia in it and how a hundred or so years ago they could not understand why anyone would want to record their music. "But we'll play a different concert in another village tomorrow night," they said to whomever it was wanted to record them. |