The Generation that killed Rock 'n' Roll.....
 

Great blog post from Nathan Harden. The last line says it all:




Ladies and gentlemen: you are witnessing the death of Rock 'n' Roll.

Consider this the obituary: from 2004 to 2008 album sales fell from 667 million to 428 million units, according to Neilsen SoundScan. That's a 35% decline in just four years.

Last year the Virgin Megastore chain closed the last of its two Manhattan music stores. With this announcement, Virgin is following in the footsteps of the venerable Tower Records, which shuttered its stores and declared bankruptcy in 2006 after amassing $200 million in debt. The Virgin stores were the last big-box music retail shops left in New York.

And don't look for the iPod to save the music business. While digital downloads have been on the rise, they haven't come close to making up for the decline in CD sales. Even after digital downloads are accounted for, total music sales declined more than 20% in the U.S. over the last four years. In 2008, the world's four major recording companies: EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner, posted record losses. Worst of all was EMI, which bled $1.2 billion.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry claims that 40 billion songs were downloaded illegally in 2008, and that 95% of all downloads were procured illegally, resulting in billions of losses. People haven't stopped listening to music; they've simply stopped paying for it. As a college student, I saw this firsthand.

Surveys indicate that more than half the nation's college students frequently download music illegally.

My generation's attitude toward piracy is not likely to change. After all, anti-corporate rebellion is a time-honored Rock 'n' Roll tradition. It's relatively easy to steal music if you imagine that you are merely stealing from 'The Man' -- some limo-riding fat cat, snorting coke off his Rolex, sipping Dom Pérignon.

By now, many people are familiar with the financial woes of the music industry. What isn't well understood, however, is how the economic misfortunes of the music business are transforming popular music itself, as we know it.

In the past, record companies often spent years and, in some cases, millions of dollars to develop each new artist. It took Bruce Springsteen eight years and five albums to achieve his first top ten radio hit.

Today, on the other hand, if a band's first album is not a hit, more often than not, that band is dropped from the label. No second chances. Most artists never turn a profit. According to Andy Karp, a top executive at Warner Music, "There are a lot of great classic bands that would have trouble getting a record deal now, like the Doors or others who didn't have their first hit record until their second or third album."

Labels are signing fewer artists overall. Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America estimates that the number of bands being signed to new labels has declined by a third. Who knows how many great artists have remained undiscovered as a result?

The digital revolution was supposed to empower musicians. On my own MySpace page, I can upload my own band's music to the web in a matter of minutes, and sell it to anyone in the world with an internet connection. Theoretically, it has never been easier to be heard. Yet hundreds of thousands of other musicians are competing for attention online. Winning new fans and staying connected to them requires tremendous marketing sophistication.

Without support from a record label, musicians must master the intricacies of search engine optimization, social networking, email blasts, and twittering -- not to mention traditional tasks like booking shows. Not surprisingly, many musicians lack such skills.

Can you, even for a moment, imagine Janis Joplin pouring over HTML manuals, or Jimi Hendrix spending hours each day spamming potential fans on MySpace? Not likely. Had those two tried to make it in today's marketplace, we may never have even heard of them.

And what if internet piracy had existed in the 1960s? No Dylan? No Beatles? Would Bono be working today as a longshoreman?

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences President Neil Portnow made a plea last night during the Grammy Awards, essentially arguing that people should pay for music in order to support all the unknown artists out there who are trying to "make it."

In other words, it may not hurt Beyoncé or AC/DC if you download their music. They are, after all, astonishingly wealthy. But it does hurt the record labels, which, in turn, cannot afford to sign, develop and promote as many new artists. Consequently, our music is becoming less diverse. In the long run, music lovers themselves are deprived.

Today, fewer artists are being offered record deals; and new artists are being set aside if they fail to achieve quick success. As a result, the music of an entire generation is being muffled. Many of today's would-be Dylans and Springsteens remain lost in obscurity. We will never hear their songs.

Fans of my generation are killing the very thing they love. Despite the self-promotional tools of the digital age, artists today rarely achieve large-scale success without the promotional power of a major label. Yet, increasingly, record labels are unable to develop and market deserving talent.

And that is the real tragedy of the illegal downloading epidemic -- we don't even know what we're missing.

article here

Nice read.


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completely true and sad-

jeezus just look at the Grammys for chrissakes!

Movies-
hollywood is winning..how? same way, make big ass action crap movies that drive people to theatres- but this is how they are beating piracy-

on the other hand for our industry there are rays of light and RealTouch is one of those-

Piracy is not the cause of the music industry's downfall. It's their own inability to change and adapt to consumer trends & demands as well as a complete failure to capitalize on the emerging technology facts of life and continuing to push inferior product.

The music industry enjoyed a boom in the 90s when consumers upgraded en masse from cassettes to CDs, but then dropped the ball when Napster gave them a clear signal that the CD was on its way out. Instead of wallowing in denial, suing their customers, and clinging desperately to a dead model, they should have been moving towards digital deals like currently exists with the iTunes store.

They love to blame piracy, but conveniently leave out the fact that, with online sales like iTunes, customers are now able to purchase the songs they want at per-song prices instead of paying for a full CD and getting 13 tracks of pure shit and one good song in return. This no doubt has much more to do with loss of revenue than piracy.

50,000 illegal downloads does NOT = 50,000 lost sales. The music industry thinks it does.

If they'd put a little more energy into making a better product, they'd probably see better returns.

But it's probably too late in my opinion. The bleeding may not be able to be stopped. Shutting down Napster was probably one of their greatest mistakes. Users found much more inventive ways of doing what the industry didn't want.... listening to the music they wanted without being raped.

Digital piracy is now literally unstoppable, but it is the music industry's own hard line thinking that created it.

people that make music, don't do it initially to make money, they do it becuase they love it, and if later they're good enough to make a living from it then lucky them. but using the same example as the article, of course there would have still been the beatles and dylan if piracy existed in the 60's.

I tend to think that its their own fault. Can anyone here really say that music made today is even close to being as good as it used to be? Of course there are still some good artists out there, but the majority of pop music today is so boring and generic, and very often interchangeable with other music. No wonder people download it for free - its not worth buying.

On another note, nobody buys CD's anymore. I've purchased over 150 downloads via itunes in the past year. CD's, even though they sound better, are dead.

good article. But it would be more insightful if the write offered some real suggestions to turn the industry around. I agree we have gone digital, and Itunes is doing a great job but today everything is FREE on the internet and tracking down billions if people and suing them is nearly impossible. Heck people buy bootleg movies in the streets of Manhattan every single day and nothing really gets done about it. They turn a blind eye

the music scene has definitely changed. rock won't be killed as a result. i must admit, i don't buy many cds anymore but I have spent thousands on concerts in 2009 alone. Average ticket price is something like 80-120 dollars, add in a couple of tshirts, you're up another 100.

Spike Lee took a crew through New York streets with baseball bats to stop piracy of his stuff.

I wish they had not shut MP3.com down. We had a popular streaming radio station on there, at the time, and there were totally opportunities to turn that into a revenue stream via the affiliate model, among others, there.

Maybe people just make shitty music these days?

too bad that article doesn't include the recording industry itself for the current woes.

I still download all my music and just days ago learnt how to burn full dvds to be playable in any dvd player. So you're now lookng at someone who will never pay to watch a movie ever again either. Fuck both industries, they have overinflated the value of their product so heavily i can't justify what they expect me to pay for any of it. $8 to rent a fucking DVD at blockbuster? GO FUCK YOURSELF. $20 for an album of garbage that has 2 songs I enjoy on it? GO FUCK YOURSELF. $10/month for unlimited downloads via Rapidshare? HELLO!

Adapt or die.

You're doing it wrong, torrents cost $0

You're doing it wrong... Direct downloading is far superior to the instability of torrents. :2 cents:

Could be, could be...

... and here in lies the prob. Same thing with porn, a generation of fucking freeloaders who don't want to pay for shit online :2 cents:

It is EXACTLY the same thing with porn. Mass produced WORTHLESS product, that is far overpriced... :2 cents:

There's plenty of great new rock bands out there. The difference is you have to put effort into finding them. They're not gonna be on MTV or the radio. They'll be in the underground clubs drinking with their fans after their show. It's the way it's supposed to be.

Now you have the ability to buy 1 song off an album, as opposed to buying the entire album. I think people are sick of paying for an album they haven't previewed, and there are only 2 good songs out of 15. It's a ripoff.

The music industry has been ripping people off for decades! With mostly shitty albums consisting of only a few good songs (of course there are artists which every single song on the album is fantastic, but this is rare).

Now people are paying for what the album is REALLY worth.

Exactly. And maybe, just maybe, with the internet people can now find these bands and enjoy the music they make because they love to make it. Resulting in less of a need to go to the local music store and buy whatever overly produced commercial crap of the month the major labels have put out.

Revenge of the consumer? :thumbsup

I have no sympathy for the music industry.

Plus the really shitty "music" and "singers" like Taylor Swift

true, their incentive has already been met by just getting heard ;-)

As someone who grew up in the 80's, I realize it can be easy to say something like that -- but I remember there being a whole lot of crappy music also. The "inferior product" argument is pretty subjective.

Even though I grew up listening to Boston, Van Halen, Bad Company etc, I consider myself very progressive, and I'm always seeking out new music. That old stuff doesn't sound so good to me anymore(Ok Boston still rules).

The good stuff is out there, you just have to find it -- and believe me, I'm constantly being floored by new music that affects me in even more profound ways than that old school rock I discovered as a teenager.

Anything on the Grammy's sucked ass, but that's really just the tip of the music world ice berg. It's a business in which the cream doesn't rise to the top(most of the time). It's about who got picked to be the new "it" band.

i wouldn't have so much of a problem with Swift being the manufactured pop star that she is, if only she could actually sing. I mean, she sucks. There are 100 girls with an acoustic guitar and a YouTube account that blow her out of the water.

They either: Don't know the right people/ not in the right place at the right time. It's just a fucking lottery. The lucky ones don't even have to be the most talented.

Not that she's rocknroll, but Beyonce can't sing either.

The music industry's problem is putting out crap music for decades now.

When a CD is 12-15 tracks and maybe 1-3 are any good. That is a problem. Especially when you are charging people $9-12.00 for that single hit song they liked (before itunes). People get tired of being ripped off. The costs of technology, and disks have become cheaper since the early 80's, yet the cost remains the same.

Add in all of the 'pop' and image artists of the past few decades that were more about fashion and scandal then actual talent, and you start a landslide that has been going one for some time now.

Instead of actually developing long term artists, they are simply investing in the new flash in the pan. After all, they make more money on a new artist then an older one they have to pay royalties to correctly.

There are a number of different major issues that have been going on for some time, and no post, or thread will be able to solve them all. All media companies are hurting from this shit. From movies, music, games, and software.

:2 cents:

It wont be missed. I am enjoying the silence as we speak.

Yeah we do it because we love it when we're teenagers. But once you get out and start playing...you WANT to make money.

Money, fortune and fame and lots of pussy. They all go hand in hand synergistic-ally.
And yes, piracy has destroyed the music industry. And yes, it's all interconnected. Clubs no longer hire bands like they did when I played 7 nights a week every week across the country and made damn good money playing rock.

Once the money is gone...everything else follows. Without money there are no new bands able to stay together long enough to get good. And the reason that the bands today can't play their way out of a paper bag is because they just don't have the experience playing that we had.

Believe me...when you play 5 45 minute sets 7 nights a week every week and travel from town to town doing it...you get real good.

These new bands don't have a clue on how to entertain audiences. And practicing in mommy and daddies basement does not give you the chops you get playing live.

People don't buy CD's now, the music industry is dead, new people turning 21 have never heard a good new band because the music industry isn't there to make it happen, so they go to clubs and listen to DJ's because they don't even understand the excitement of a good live rock band in a club, therefore they don't buy CD's...and the circle is complete.

torrents are not only unstable but a breeding ground for the worst malware-virus shit in existence...at least that is the story that is rapidly spreading to millions:winkwink:

oh yes, of course illegal tubes loaded with the same shit didnt ya know

Solution:

Get a Livio Radio. You can access pretty much ANY radio station in the world as well as Pandora.

If you can't find good new Rock and Roll with that, then you're doing it wrong :)

interesting

I find loads of "new to me" music constantly online. Bands covering a good 4-5 decades of music. How do I find these artists that nobody I know has ever really heard of? Blogspot and Rapidshare of course! Tons and tons of Rapidshare blogs with music fans sharing their entire collections of full albums. The trick is finding a blogger that has a handful of artists you already like, then going to town downloading all those other albums you would have never seen or never given a chance. If it's someone I like and go see a show, I'll goto a show and buy a t-shirt or something. But my album buying days are done. That's what happens when a multibillion dollar industry is built around a product with no real cash value.

If there is an industry that deserves to collapse it is the music industry.

Was at a party a few weeks ago with a bunch of other 40 Somethings, and one dude says to me, "I just heard this killer tune from Linkin Park called 'In The End'...."

Told him that shit is at least 10 years old dude.... he had no idea it wasn't a fresh release.

That's pretty fucking sad considering the radio played that thing into the ground.

Music industry is already dead.

Sorry, can't burn illegal tube sites and watch them on the bigscreen at near perfect quality... :2 cents:

And it IS a massive breeding ground for malware and shit ya, but so are direct downloads. Know a few guys who made fucktons of money blasting PPI installs on torrents. I don't generally trust pirated software much, but meh, that's what a virtual machine is for... :1orglaugh

rock n roll isn't dead...it just smells funny

reality is, there are tons of killer rock groups out there, they just dont get the top 40 play because they dont fit the mold...of crap!

butthole surfers,pixies,dickies,portishead,radiohead,mars volta,rev horton heat,fishbone...just to name a very few still kickin and still great-

Speaking of still kickin -- listen to Jello Biafra's recent album "The Audacity of Hype". I bought it on Amazon a few days ago and have listened to it about 10 times. It's pretty progressive, with a touch of that old school punk from his Dead kennedys days.

https://youtube.com/view_play_lis...+hype&rclk=pti

Damn, didn't even know Jello had a new album. Rapidshare here I come.

That's sad. They like to sing that "rock and roll will never die."

Exactly.
How much effort does it take to sue 12 yr old girls, instead of staying on top of the system.
They fucked themselves.

ha! great stuff, still kicking ass, and as you can see, had to change me avatar cuz that cover, like many dk/biafra covers before is the shit!

the funny thing is that this pretty arguable article where someone complains about people stealing, stole the article from http://www.datenteiler.de/translatio...usic-industry/ :helpme:1orglaugh

even more funnier is the only original additions to the article are.... THE ERRORS AND MISINFORMATION!!!! :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

ya, they call it CRAP ... dunno where i read it, but i love this cite: "music of today is music from the past, just twice the speed at half the quality" :2 cents: