T U E S D AY, M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 0 7What Is Happening To The Music Industry?I've been having repeated discussions and debates with friends over thepast few months about the music industry.</p><p> Clearly, massive changesare roiling the business.</p><p> Album sales for Billboard's Top 10 are downdramatically.</p><p> Just five or ten years ago, the #1 CD would often sell300,000 -400,000 copies, especially a new release.</p><p> Today, if you sell100,000 copies in a week, you're a blockbuster.</p><p> Hundreds of recordstores - including the iconic Tower Records -- have shuttered.</p><p> Peopleare buying iPods and digital songs and ringtones for their phones, butis that really making up for the shortfall in CD sales? No.</p><p> Here's myback-and-forth with a friend at NYCD.com.Here's a New York Times article from Monday on the same issue.And here are my thoughts on what's happening with the musicindustry.The late 80s to the late 90s featured a bizarre, once-in-a-lifetime spikein sales for the music industry, thanks to the introduction of thecompact disc.</p><p> The CD dramatically changed the business and over adecade the record labels significantly increased the cost of an albumfrom $8-$10 to $18 or more.They also destroyed the singles format, even though the single wasonce the lifeblood of the industry, a great way to break new artists andthe entry level purchase for kids and teens that got them in the habit ofbuying music, a habit that would last a lifetime.</p><p> Why? Because therecord labels thought it was clever of them to force people to buy an$18 CD instead of a $2 or $3 single, even if people suspected or knewthey didn't really want the whole album or simply couldn't afford it.Finally, the CD allowed the record industry to convince everyone toreplace albums they already owned on LP or cassette or 8-track with afar more expensive copy of the same album on CD.</p><p> Then theyconvinced you to buy it AGAIN on CD because the album had beenremastered or now included bonus tracks.</p><p> Imagine the joy ofpublishers if they had a product that convinced everyone to replace thehundreds of books they owned with more expensive, more profitableNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G .</p><p> C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: What Is Happening To The Music Industry?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-is-happening-to-m... 1 of 37/25/09 10:25 PMFAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (17)▼ July (3)1939 -- The Greatest Year ForMoviesSwimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (7)► 2008 (86)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SBiboyAaronMichael in New York POPSURFING.COM: What Is Happening To The Music Industry?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-is-happening-to-m... 2 of 37/25/09 10:25 PMPOPSURFING.COM: What Is Happening To The Music Industry?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-is-happening-to-m... 3 of 37/25/09 10:25 PM
