LakinLand - Voice of the People

LakinLand
Voice of the People

On March 20th Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote that our friend the CD is becoming extinct.
"But with March marking the CD's 20th anniversary, the boom is over. Compact disc shipments in the U.S. plunged nearly 9 percent last year to just more than 800 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The ripple effect is only beginning as the music industry braces for a future that will involve the death of CD stores and the rise of wireless, pocket-size MP3 players that will enable consumers to access thousands of hours of music at the touch of a button. The only real question is how long it will take for those scenarios to become reality." This stuck a chord with music collectors around LakinLand and prompted the following Voice of the People article from avid collector Randy P.

Only 800 million, minus the ones I bought, that still leaves a good 799+ million that somebody is buying. Not too shabby. Are sales dropping, yes. Are blank cd sales increasing, yes. But let's put this in perspective. The cassette medium is dead. Home recording, what used to be on cassette, has moved to cd burning. It is logical that this medium would expect a significant increase in sales. Sales of recorded cds are dropping due to greed, and a lack of understanding of the medium that the multinationals are trying to pedal. Invest little, saturate the market and cash in. The problem is that the industry has been pedalling the same stuff for at least the last decade. Rap, Grunge (excuse me emo), bad R&B divas and kiddie pop have dominated the airwaves, and music television doesn't exist, it's a lie. It's a parade of sluts and gigolos, with an audience tuned into a brain damaged Ozzy (what the bleeping hell) in the new warped version of the all-american family. As for radio, its so stale that if it was bread I wouldn't even feed it to the birds. I can't tell the bands apart anymore, and its not because my hearing is bad. The formula for the songs are identical. start slow, show'em you care (I love her, I hate her), crank up the noise, and bring it home again. If the DJ's pathetic patter doesn't make you reach for the off knob, the mind-numbing number of commercials will. If you're willing to stick it out you end up turning to the classic rock station (oh boy) to hear the same songs ground into the dust. How about music mags, how about not. Let's not even go there. There's a reason most bookstores now put them next to the sleaze section. Birds of a feather ... All this doesn't exactly ring a cha-ching in the cash register.

Developing artists is not a priority for the industry. plug and play is. When one is gone bring the next, make sure they sound the same, keep the formula intact. So if you here a song, download it because the whole thing ain't worth being gouged $18.98 for. Last I knew 20 bucks was real money, and dumping it on a Nirvana clone isn't a wise choice even for a teenager.

Nobody is murdering the industry, it's suicide.

If you want to fix it
1) Open up radio. There is good music out there, from alternative, to alt-country to British rock. They're new and fresh, and if it's heard it will sell it just needs a market. Cut the crap with the DJ's and rotate the playlist in terms of artists and songs.
2) Cut the prices. Know your consumer. If that means that mega-deal artists are a thing of the past then so be it. If they're in it more than for money they'll stay, and if not then so long.
3) Develop artists or more precisely talent. Quit wasting time and money on an artist stable that all sound the same.
4) Recognize the business model. The cocaine snorting days of the record industry are gone. Know your product, know your customer, manage expenses and make sure you are still there tomorrow.

Are the brick and mortar stores dying, maybe. I buy a lot online these days because of catalog and price. I can't find it at Borders and Best Buy.

I don't buy that consumers want to get rid of their cds. There is a connection there that's being sold short. Me, I buy Beau Brummels; Bradley's Barn, and Interpol; Turn on the Bright Lights.
This ain't background noise.

I'm still tuning in, but the industry is tuning me out.