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Internet 2007: A Bad Year To Be a Music Exec
Tom Corelis (Blog) - January 5, 2008 5:12 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 114 comment(s) - last by mikeyD95125.. on Jan 9 at 12:39 AM
Brick-and-mortar music sales crushed under the boot of a maturing digital menace

2007 was a dry year for music sales, echoing the larger year-to-year trend of an industry’s struggle with changing times.

The numbers are brutal, according to Nielsen Soundscan’s recently-released annual report: U.S. album sales are down by over 15 percent, and digital music sales – while positive – slowed as well, showing a measly 2 percent increase as compared to 2006’s triumphant 19 percent jump.

Christmastime is a usually a strong holiday for the music business, but this year the season proved less than merry: whereas 2006 saw 31.3 million albums sold, 2007 saw 25.6 million in sales – a 19 percent drop.

Together, total yearly sales plummeted to 500.5 million units.

Experts attribute a variety of reasons for 2007’s decline: a lack of big hits to drive sales, piracy and competing forms of entertainment, like videogames.

“I was astounded: There was no CD to give as a gift,” says Mike Dreese, CEO of Brighton, Massacheusets-based Newbury Comics. “I have never seen that before.”

Dreese attributes his stores' slump to a combination of the aforementioned factors as well as bad luck. With heavy snow and a New England Patriots game, Dreese saw an 80% drop on sales on a traditionally high-volume weekend.

Dreese’s statements seem to mirror the sentiments of other retailers around the nation. While Omaha-based Homer’s Music and Gifts expected the usual December weather, company president Mike Fratt says that shootings at a local mall “led everyone into a malaise for about a week.”

Some experts think the music industry squandered its time and goodwill in the battle against digital distribution, with the results ending up as the loss of “a whole generation of kids,” said industry attorney Kenneth Kraus.

Kraus, a partner at Nashville-based Loeb & Loeb, thinks it may be a good five years before the industry is able to recover, hopefully by enacting a pricing system that gives fans the freedom of legally downloading music without restrictions.

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By Mithan on 1/5/2008 5:37:53 PM , Rating: 5
Is this a surprise with all the crap out there this year as far as music goes?

As for sales, perhaps if the music industry could get their shit together and start capitalizing on the music downloads instead of fighting it, they could turn things around.




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By Wagnbat on 1/5/2008 5:44:12 PM , Rating: 2
Not surprising at all really... There honestly has not been much in the manner of notable albums this year. A couple singles yes, but not the phenomenal albums of the year that most are used to.

Combine that with services like Napster offering unlimited downloads of those singles, and I can easily see how industry sales are down overall.


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By FITCamaro on 1/5/2008 7:31:01 PM , Rating: 5
I also think the sales are down because as long as the music industry vehemently goes after people for the slightest infraction, people will be pissed at them and more likely to pirate. Who wants to buy music when the record companies will try to sue you for making a copy onto your own computer?

I don't pirate music but I also haven't bought a CD in years.


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By Odeen on 1/5/2008 8:39:44 PM , Rating: 5
Indeed.

A few years ago, I thought it was a matter of paying according to your monetary means on one hand and your technological sophistication on the other.

Now, any cent spent on major-label (i.e. RIAA-affiliated) music goes directly to feeding the enemy - the cabal that will use the money that I've given it to sue me. This is why anyone who has ever taped a song off the radio (never mind burned a CD, or used P2P software) should avoid paying for major label music if at all possible - because they will use the money to find you and sue you.

Please note that I'm NOT advocating not paying for music. Support independent artists, the ones who play in your local clubs and then stay around sell and sign CD's. The ones who you can actually talk to after the set. The ones to whom you alone represent a much larger percentage of fanbase.

I went to see The Bobs in late December of last year. During the break between the sets I happy picked up a copy of their latest album, "Get Your Monkey Off My Dog" and the career retrospective DVD "Sign My Snarling Movie." I knew where the money was going to go, and it was my way to make sure that I'd get to see The Bobs again sometime in 2008.

Please consult a list of RIAA-affiliated music labels (as well as labels that have been incorrectly listed as RIAA members) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RIAA_member_l...


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By Spuke on 1/5/2008 10:09:30 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Please consult a list of RIAA-affiliated music labels (as well as labels that have been incorrectly listed as RIAA members) here:
Wow! That's pretty much everyone. LOL!


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By mikeyD95125 on 1/9/2008 12:39:32 AM , Rating: 1
Aw not Fat Wreck.....

Are you sure that list is accurate. That would be mean NOFX is just a bunch a bullshitters. Which is disappointing because they are my favorite bands.


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By BladeVenom on 1/6/2008 7:11:05 AM , Rating: 5
No need to stop buying CDs if you don't like the RIAA. Just use www.riaaradar.com to make sure your not supporting them.


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By Regs on 1/5/2008 8:22:04 PM , Rating: 5
When TV commercials are using music from the 70's and 80's, you know there is a problem.

Back then, all you had to do is walk in and demo your music to a recording studio. Now you need an agency, a manager, a publicist, a tour coordinator, full time make up artist, and tons of lawyers to figure out the tremendous red tape for TV and music contracts because of ridiculous law suites and contract battles.

It could also be that parents or retail stores now have become more enforceable in not selling adult content to minors. Hence another reason why minors have likely been pirating.

Radio stations suck. Sorry. I can't find current music on any of them worth listening too. The play the same songs over and over again any they no longer play music for the "niche" crowds. They also have to have a 20 min commercial every 5 minutes likely just to afford the royalties they have to pay to such people as Britney spears and the rest of the boy bands who work for big time agencies who take a good 20% chunk.

Kids who play instruments. God bless them and their talents but you just don't see them as much as you did back then. Maybe I'm hanging around the wrong places, but I'm starting to think teenagers rather play Cyrsis than play the drums or guitar. How many bands do you see today on a major record? The band no longer exists. Take U2, Smashing Pumpkins, or Nirvana for an example. Remember how we could actually identify who the lead base guitar was or the drummer was? You don't see much of that today.

We need musicians, not just singers and performers. One's that write their own music from their hearts and experiences. Agencies and marketers have too much influence now on today's musicians in what they sing, write, or play. It's a damn shame.


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By Regs on 1/5/2008 8:36:49 PM , Rating: 5
And one more thing. Music will never go away. It's been a part of our culture since the beginning. These "troubled" times is just the balancing of what has become a corrupted commercial commodity.

So let the bad go out of business. What will be left in the wake is a group of entrepreneurs with a better understanding of how to make and sell music.


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By TSS on 1/6/2008 6:45:31 PM , Rating: 5
there's another perspective to consider, namely the influence that culture of mediocre singers backed up by nameless bans has on future artists.

my dad i's a composer, of classical music. he went to music college for about 6 years studying music theory and all that. he has a website now, with sheet music on it (doing wquite well, actually) both of great classical artists as well as his own. so i've asked him if anybody ever sends in work for review, to ask his opinion or maybe to list it on the website.

basicly his awnser is he doesn't do that anymore. there have been people sending him their work, the problem is it's not nearly good enough. he has looked at sheet of music of people who have been writing songs for years, with flaws in the very first line, multiple even. music is a very intricate thing. now, i don't expect any artist in what my dad calls "the popular industry" to do such a thorough research... but you have people who know nothing of it at all writing songs, or people who do know but are beeing dictated what to write.

there might be so much "crap" on tv, but you need to define crap. for me, that definition would not be something like idols, but idols 2,3,4 and 5. when you make a cd with 12 songs on them, with 3 new ones and 9 filler of old stuff you arleady knew of with artists you completly don't know or don't want to know, that would be defined crap no matter the greatness of those 3 songs. who, by the way, will appear on the original album, the single, the remix, and on the greatests hits album. and they tell us not to copy *cough*.

i'd say, pirate by all means. isn't that stealing? kinda. but musician never was a occupation you made money with to begin with, aside for street performances. my dad knew he would never, or atleast for very long, make money with composing music. it took him 30 years and the invention of the internet to make not even a fraction of what these guys make a month, and he damn well works much frickin harder, that i know for sure.

all the bands we now call great, never started out for greatness. all of them liked to play, they just happened to find a lot of people that liked to listen. there is hardly anybody left who works that way, simply because the record company's will not give you a deal that way and you don't have a way to promote your music some way else (or they don't have enough knowledge of teh internets).

they know that too. but as long as people are payin, it's all good.


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By Proteusza on 1/7/2008 5:03:09 AM , Rating: 3
As I've said before, the RIAA doesnt sell music as much as it sells personalities.


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By tdawg on 1/5/2008 9:48:44 PM , Rating: 3
It can be a problem finding good music to listen to. I suggest listening to KEXP (www.kexp.org), paying attention to SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin every year, and give a music subscription service a try in order to broaden your search for good music. Even MySpace has some good music. It really depends on what genre you're looking for, but KEXP and SXSW offer a wide range of talented bands/artists and a wide variety of music without resorting to radio singles and the same tracks over and over.


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By Hare on 1/6/2008 4:08:35 AM , Rating: 2
I think ultimately radio will turn into something like pandora or last.fm. Music genome projects are interesting and the concept of listening to music that's similar to your own favorite bands is great.


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By Icepick on 1/6/2008 3:11:29 PM , Rating: 2
It depends upon the market you're in. In upstate NY and Vermont the best station is 102.7 WEQX. That is one of the last independently owned and operated radio stations in the country and they play modern alternative rock almost exclusively with plenty of alternative gems from the 80's and 90's thrown in. I think that since they are not part of a corporate conglomerate they are free to take chances with new bands that are not necessarily "main-stream". WEQX and NPR are the only radio stations I listen to now.


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By tdawg on 1/7/2008 2:22:19 AM , Rating: 2
I'm in the same boat, Icepick. KEXP based out here in Seattle is an amazing independent radio station. No commercials every five minutes. And it is streamed live on their website, provides several podcasts and a reviewable playlist with on-demand listening. Along with NPR, it's basically the only station I listen to.


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By zsdersw on 1/7/2008 7:30:36 AM , Rating: 2
I miss The Smashing Pumpkins. Fortunately, I have most of their CDs in my car's CD changer. :) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is my favorite.


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By shabby on 1/5/2008 10:05:16 PM , Rating: 2
With the talent pool shrinking im not surprised at all, majority of these "musicians" are nothing more than entertainers with no vocals.


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By Christopher1 on 1/5/08, Rating: 0
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By Chadder007 on 1/6/2008 5:22:36 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. 2007 was IMO the worst year ever in music. There was nothing of interest to me to purchase or even listen to on the radio for that matter.


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By zsdersw on 1/7/2008 6:43:50 AM , Rating: 2
That won't stop them from having an awards show or fifty.. which says as much about the people giving the awards as those receiving them.