A few comments, random stream-of-conciousness insights, and some food for thought. Then I'm outty, because this discussion could literally be endless, like politics or religion...
*Things have changed, and they haven't. That's why I loved DJ Polair's one-line analysis
*There is no way anyone can successfully argue that the Internet and "free music" haven't changed the game, much of it for the _negative_. I was only using one example, but there are a million ways that downloads have impacted the business, and in principle, "free music" is wrong. Try applying that sort of thinking to any other business model or subject, and maybe the concept will become clearer to you. There are just too many facts and figures to cite, but I suggest you read the things that Moses Avalon has written to get a better idea with facts and figures to back it all up
*At the same time, the "doom and gloom" really isn't all that real, especially if you look beyond the area of pop/top-40/dance, which rap and modern r&b are firmly a part of now... Lots of other genres, while smaller nitch markets, still sell lots of CD's, and hardly any downloads, and sales are not nearly as bad as the press and the "freetards" would have you believe (again, read Moses Avalon and others)
*There are people that still want a "real music" experience... Some sectors of
the business are experiencing _amazing growth_; now would be a great time,
for instance, to own a _vinyl record pressing plant!_ And don't forget that there are now _two_ annual "Record Store Days" that see great success financially
*Radio is not the be-all and end-all for pop music, but it is still a hugely viable medium. If this were not true, advertisers would not still be spending millions on radio commercials
*The Internet, along with the home recording phenomenon, has had a huge impact on the business, some of it in positive, but some of it in very negative ways... In other words, _we_ are part of the problem, in that there are far too many records released per year for the average consumer to even think of keeping-up with, and yet a lot of it is crap and there are no real filters anymore. But the gear companies still make bank, and hardware and software developers continue to proliferate. This is one area where music business money is-- in selling equipment to all of us
*Yes, services like Spotify pay, but it's not much, and others aren't much better. I can tell you that after selling 2,000 downloads, that that $75 sure doesn't go very far after a couple of tanks of gas
*If the Internet "helps" so much, and we are all supposed to use our recordings as loss-leader to gain income from live performances, than you would think that live performances and opportunities (paying) would have increased for the average, non-stadium level performer... Not so, if you check the facts
I could go on and on, but change is here. Some of it is good, but a lot of it is bad, and in some ways, it's "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." The promise of the Internet has definitely not become the reality of the Internet, and what we are living is nothing like what we were sold in the 90's. Guys selling "$10 beats" don't help much, either. At the same time, things change, and we get older, and the "good old days" will always seem better in our heads than they actually were...
GJ
---------- Post added at 09:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
PS-- To clarify a few things:
*The 2,000 downloads example was meant to emphasize the differences in getting paid based on .001 cent per song versus say $4 per unit for a physical single (as an independent artist in both cases)
*While I know the content on a lot of radio stations has changed, there is still a lot of music happening on radio, both commercial, public/independent, and especially college radio
GJ
