Is The Internet Killing The Record Industry? | You Said “No”
I wasn’t sure how I was going to go about doing it but I had
planned on discussing this poll in depth. 2/3 of the people that participated in the poll said “No, the internet is not killing the record industry”. I agree that it’s not killing the record industry…but they are pissed cause they are not making nearly as much money as they used to. I was cruising through some older posts on Metalsucks.net and I came across this post where “Vince Neilstein” (I love it!) talked about that woman in Minnesota that has to pay over 200 grand and then he goes way in depth about this whole subject. Below is a short excerpt of the post. Follow the link to read the whole thing. It’s kinda long but it explains everything way better than I ever could.
“The recorded music business is not going to die. Whether it shifts towards pay downloads (i.e. iTunes), a subscription service like cable, or some other model, I do believe that there will be some form of monetization for recorded music.
The problem lies in the way the current major label model works, and the incompatibility of that model with the way it looks like music will be sold in the future. The labels are holding on to this antiquated idea of the mainstream, where millions of potential listeners are marketed to via the carpet-bombing technique; market to everyone all at once, all the time, via as many methods as possible. The fact of the matter is that computers and the Internet make this model irrelevant because people no longer depend on mainstream outlets for their music (or at least they are depending on these outlets less and less). For starters, everyone with access to a computer has the ability to make very inexpensive recordings of surprising quality using cheap programs like Garageband, meaning the marketplace is flooded with many more different kinds of music than ever before. What this means on the user end is that music fans can now seek out their own favorite sun-sub-sub-genre. Trickle this down to the record labels, and you’ve got a problem; if the marketplace is so divided, each individual act/release is not going to do as well as before.”
Read the entire post here: DEAR MAJOR LABELS, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. By Metalsucks.net’s Vince Neilstein
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9 opinions for Is The Internet Killing The Record Industry? | You Said “No”
Danny
Dec 26, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Not to mention the diluted quality of the music nowadays…I find most of what I download are things I owned on cassette and vinyl back in the day.
Scott
Dec 26, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I hear you, Danny. Me too. Like stuff that I bought on Cassette that was only good for one or two songs. I still hold on to some vinyl and a few cassettes, Like singles that are few and far between. Thats whats great about the internet. You can find those rarities as opposed to searching records stores high and low, burning up gas and time just to come up empty handed.
michael
Dec 27, 2007 at 3:11 am
yes the internet is killing the rec industry, CD stores are closing down every wear you look!
Excuse me, Michael, but
Dec 27, 2007 at 10:36 am
Record shops or “CD stores”, while I’m sad to see them go, are not the recording industry. CD’s are just the recording industry’s medium of choice for delivery of their product, which is recorded audio. Unless their is a studio and a band in there, a record shop is simply a retail outlet.
Izzy
Dec 27, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I really don’t think it is the internet killing the industry ( although it is hurting it ). I always thought it was the huge amount of crap that the industry is putting out. Who wants to pay 20 bucks for a cd with one good song on it? And I mean this in all music formats ( metal, pop, classic rock sound, hell even country ( actually country is still the biggest overall seller so this genre may not be hurting as much as others). And the 20 bucks thing is another problem. CD’s are way overpriced. If the industry wants to re-invigerate sales, drop your prices, and stop putting so much garbage into the stores.
DAN
Dec 30, 2007 at 7:27 pm
I agree with Michael. The internet IS killing the industry. When you look at it this way, the guys who REALLY make money are the executives and producers, not the artists. A couple years back Britney Spears was the top paid artist at $50 mil. How many execs in the industry made that much that year and yet only one artist made that? Next the artist has to repay all of there fees to cover recording the album, making videos and going on tour through album sales. Who is selling albums besides iTunes? Well there is your answer. It is the internet. If you must buy from iTunes then you must buy from the internet. If you must buy from the internet then you probably have shopped for bargain sites that sell mp3’s for cheaper or you have… must I say, leached from someone else the music. Well then, how do you expect the poor lowly musician to ever repay all of the fees associated with starting up?
Scott
Dec 30, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Valid points, Dan. However, the record labels own the music, so they control it’s sales on iTunes, Amazon, or wherever. If they have control then they need to either come to an agreement with the companies they allow to sell the music or start selling it themselves.
I think the internet has helped a lot of Indie Labels and bands get their name out there, but if they weant to survive they need to adapt.
Over the past three decades they have had to adapt to all sorts of things. When Cassettes came about they worried about “Dubbing” and same thing when CD’s and CD-r’s came into play. They have adapted to all these things and they are adapting now. They just aren’t getting payed as much. The problem I think is that the labels will cut the artists pay before they will cut their own pay and then blame it on everything else. Thats why a lot of established artists are dropping their labels…they simply don’t need them anymore and I think any other band that has fulfilled their label contracts needs to do the same thing.
DAN
Dec 31, 2007 at 12:33 am
I agree with you on the whole. My only prob is that most musicians are good at music and don’t have a clue about running a business without the industry help. Bad enough to say that most musicians have their own ideas and that is one of the major players in most breakups. They unfortunately do need support of the industry for this side of it and if those guys who actually do take all of the money stop making money… the bands all end up back at square one. The internet is a great way to get your band noticed. iTunes is a decent avenue to sell your music. But neither of these options have really shown a way to adapt to the present crisis with theft. Dubbing tapes didnt put Tower records out of business. The Pirate Bay probably did.
KevinC
Mar 18, 2008 at 7:15 am
I certainly don’t think that the internet is killing the record industry. The way I see it, major record labels are being way too greedy, and have to learn that times are changing. They can still be quite prosperous, but they, like you said, have to adapt, and realize that they need to stop expecting to make as much money as they have been in the past. Buying cds isn’t as big as it used to be, and hopefully they’ll see that it’s not all because of the internet, but because of the way that they are currently working. They need to loosen up and start caring more for the artists and consumers. The internet may have a slight effect on the record industry, but they should stop fighting the internet, and start working with it. And lawsuits against fans and whatnot does not exactly help the situation at all…it just pisses us off.
LTC
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