| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1992 Registered: 05-2005 |
It has been predicted many times before in recent years, but this guy has a new take on it, reckoning people are willing to pay 99c for a single download but not $10 for an album download. I don't agree with him, and he's not exactly a gifted writer, but what he said made me think at least. http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/01/18/ mark-cuban%3A-album-dead... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1993 Registered: 05-2005 |
That link is not working as the final dot is not highlighted. I'll try again by adding a fourth dot that this system will think is a full stop!http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/01/18/ mark-cuban%3A-album-dead.... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1509 Registered: 03-2005 |
Hmmm. Huge masses of music "consumers" were never into albums anyway. They bought singles when they were still a standard format and finally the digital version of that format is back so they can resume buying music the way that is natural to them. There were always lots of recording artists whose medium was NOT albums. They were ill-served when the 45 rpm record went out. They had to rely upon sales of albums front-loaded with their hits or intended hits, followed by a bunch of filler dreck. The 99c download is for them. I don't think the album is dead as a medium for the types of artists who like to make albums. Thinking offhand of two young (by my standards anyway) currently functioning Oz acts, I don't think either Augie March or the Panics are going to stop making albums. Their music is VERY album-oriented and so are their audiences. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1997 Registered: 05-2005 |
Finally someone else is operating here and I can stop looking like I'm just having a huge, multi-faceted conversation with myself! (Well David was here briefly earlier too). What you said above Randy is very true and far more eloquently stated than the guy who wrote that article managed. I always think of Augie March too when I consider modern day "album bands". | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1005 Registered: 01-2005 |
Maybe rock album sales will fall back to early 1960's vinyl levels for cd's, but they won't die. Randy has a good point, as The Beatles changed everything and the 45 rpm staple groups were forced to follow suit with very thin albums. The percentage of Jazz and Classical cd album sales won't do down much though I'm betting, so the cd is around to stay, strong for a lease another decade or two in those genres. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2001 Registered: 05-2005 |
I don't know about jazz Michael, but classical sales have been falling drastically for years now. I've read a couple of articles in the last year about the death of classical music. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1006 Registered: 01-2005 |
Padraig, Wow, I didn't know that about classical music. Music appreation must lacking in current education systems. A world without classical music doesn't make sense to me. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 317 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've been thinking that bands might start to "go into the studio to make an album" but release the songs as they do them. This would really change things away from albums as there would be pressure to release the best things first. I agree though that the good albums hold together as more than just the sum of their parts. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 419 Registered: 01-2006 |
I think the album format changed fundamentally with the advent of CDs, artists were able to make records of 70+ minutes where previously it was about 50 max. Quality Control went out the window too, I can think of many many albums that would be a whole lot better if they had a few songs taken off. I can never see myself just downloading music, I like to whole package. Hoepfully it'll never get to that. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 2037 Registered: 05-2005 |
XY, my gut feeling is that in 10 years, maybe more maybe less you will have almost no option but to download. The kids growing up are used to it already,and lets face it with downloads it can be done so much cheaper for the record company, or more likely the bands themselves if the Radiohead experiment is anything to go by. On that theme, has anybody heard of Qtrax which launched yesterday - apparently its free and legal with advertising paying the artists fees. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t ol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3 261591.ece However, there is a sting in the tale http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ news/tech_and_web/article3264556.ece I downloaded it anyway, their music player is fairly attractive, even if I cant download anything new from them yet as they seem to be only allowing subscribers to join intermittently | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 421 Registered: 01-2006 |
Yeah U2's manager Paul McGuinness ain't too happy either. You'd think they 1. Had enough money and 2. Had enough money seeing as they moved their publishing tax base from Ireland to the Netherlands. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 968 Registered: 10-2004 |
I don't think CDs (and LPs for that matter, which are actually experiencing a mini-boom in limited edition reissues [eg - recent Joy Division reissues, among many others]), are going to completely die until people my age are all residing absent mindedly in convalescent homes. And I'm 32, so we've got a while to go. Even though the download bug is reaching increasingly older people, there's enough demand by people who are at least my age to keep pumping out the physical media. It'll probably become more costly and more of a limited edition kind of thing, but I think it'll be a while before it completely dies off. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2101 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think Randy is correct. The album was hardly a necessity for the greater masses. I knew people who had many albums stcked up iin their collection, but it was always out weighed by singles, or twelve inches or tapes even. Now its CD's as albums that outweigh the single for sure. Though same can be said about downloads outweighing CD collections in time. in answer to the question the album is alive, but sales are dead. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 775 Registered: 08-2004 |
The suits are hedging their bets here. The download market is rising & after initially resisting they've come to realise a lot of customers are willing to pay for something that requires no manufacturing costs after initial recording. Jeff's right. There will still be a lot of collectors who want a physical item to go with the music. This will push prices of CD's up which is the ultimate goal. The vinyl comeback has been a benefit to the money-men. Where CD's were roughly twice the price of an LP 20 years ago, it's flipped completely the other way. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 977 Registered: 10-2004 |
Also, on a small, local scale, young bands will always want to make CDs to sell at their shows. Selling merch is what helps put petrol in the van and get you to the next town, especially when the venue doesn't pay enough. It's also the best and most direct way to get your music into the hands of potential fans. This has absolutely no bearing on the industry, so maybe it's not totally relevant here, but it is another way that will keep CDs alive for some time to come, I think. On another note, I will deeply lament the death of cover art, which will surely happen if our predictions for a full industry shift to downloading happen. I know it's silly to be preoccupied with inanimate objects, but downloading a bunch of mp3s really isn't quite as satisfying when you don't have this (ideally) cool album cover to gaze at while listening to the music. Sure, downloads tend to come with an image file with the cover art, but how many people are really going to print it out, burn the cd, and buy a jewel case for it? On yet another note, another lamentable aspect of downloading is that it renders the various recording engineers and producers (and whoever else helped) invisible. With downloading, there are no credits, and it suddenly becomes very difficult to find out who produced or engineered an album. This is especially bad for the engineer or studio owner who relies on recognition to get more and better jobs. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1518 Registered: 03-2005 |
I pretty much agree totally with your post Jeff except, sadly, I'm noticing that the smaller size of the art on CDs has already taken me away from looking at it. And often the print is too #$@# small for my failing middle-aged eyes. Sigh. But I've always fetishized the objects to at least some extent. My guess is that producers and engineers will start to make a credit posted with the download a part of their contract, at least with the big-buck productions. Whether any of the people buying the downloads notice the credit is another matter but they probably never looked at the credits on the CD or LP either. I agree with you; I want that information very much. The identity of the producer or engineer is often a good tip whether to check out an unfamiliar release. And, yeah, I can see us paying extra dosh for the privilege of owning the physical object. Hopefully we'll get something for our money, like a nice luxurious bit of packaging and good annotations. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1025 Registered: 01-2005 |
I've got over 500 of my cd's loaded in my Dell notebook, and I like looking at the cover artwork while scanning in My Music looking for something to listen to! I'm with you on the cover art Jeff, it won't be the same listening experience without it. I would like to see more bands offer cd's at the merch booth of their performance after the show, or later on from their website. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2021 Registered: 05-2005 |
Michael, it seems I jumped the gun a little in what I said about the decline in classical sales above. Here is a link to a very interesting article in The New Yorker which, while not saying everything is hunky dory in the classical world, is definitely saying it's not as bad as other articles I read said it was. This article is really worth reading even for those of you with no interest in classical music. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/ 10/22/071022fa_fact_ross | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2022 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jeff, the loss of the album cover is something I miss a lot too. I was delighted, therfore, to discover that Band Of Horses are at least trying to be artistic with how their Cease To Begin CD is packaged. Inside the sleeve a eight rather beautiful, pictures. All the pictures are on seperate cards. It's the best artistic use I've yet seen of the limited space on a CD package. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 423 Registered: 01-2006 |
The vinyl albums were always much better to knock up a number on too... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2104 Registered: 05-2005 |
XY! You mean phone your local directory enquiries!? ;) | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 424 Registered: 01-2006 |
indeed spence ;) | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1027 Registered: 01-2005 |
Recommended classical music of a Medieval age, if you can lay your hands on a copy: The Romance Of The Rose - Feminine Voices From Medieval France / Heliotrope http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Rose-Femin ine-Medieval-Heliotrope/dp/B000001SEO/re f=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1201870754& sr=1-1 | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1016 Registered: 10-2004 |
Interesting: on a recording message board I sometimes frequent, there was a discussion recently about how it's quickly becoming de rigueur for bands to sell their "albums" at shows on flash drives. In fact, a few bands had designed custom little cases for the flash drives, with the band name emblazoned on them. So maybe the CD *is* truly on its death bed. This issue is particularly interesting to me, since, as a musician, distributing my songs and doing all the legwork involved in burning CDs, making artwork, etc.., is an issue I always have to put a lot of energy and thought into. Now it's like, what's the point? I'll just make them freely available on the website. A tangent that grew out of this discussion on the other msg. board went into how several people have been selling their entire CD collections, since they are content to have everything on iTunes. I suppose this is great news for people who go for that modern, uncluttered, minimal look in their homes. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2146 Registered: 05-2005 |
People won't be exchanging audiable "hello's" or high fives or handshakes soon, it'll be a wink or a bleep from their effin blackberry!!! What an effin sad prospect!! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1017 Registered: 10-2004 |
Maybe in 6 months we'll have figured out how to encode the music into the booze sold at shows, and then the bands can get a cut of the bar money. And maybe next year we can all just become pure energy beings and everyone can just BE music. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 331 Registered: 05-2005 |
Covers have always been the problem with cds - too small! I've got a very tiny music room where vinyl lp covers line the wall in an ever changing collage. The trouble is, historically it finishes at about 1990 when I started getting cds. It would be nice with downloaded "albums" if you could also get a slideshow of screen savers or "something" so that the art of the record cover would not be lost. |