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Author
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Topic: In an iTunes age, do we need the record store?
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Melanie Loggins
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 154
From: Wayne, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2011
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posted 11-28-2011 09:11 AM
So, this has nothing to do with lp vs. tape vs. cd vs. digital, but I'm with Mike here: pop music is for kids, and there is still lots of great pop music on the radio. You know why you love the stuff from when you were a kid? Because it was the soundtrack to all that emotional sturm und drang, the time when you were literally becoming who you are. It's part of what defines who you are now. When a seventeen year-old girl gets dumped this Friday night for someone hotter, she will hear Selena Gomez on the radio as she cries into her smartphone, and when she's 40, Selena Gomez will still resonate with her. (And the new chick on the radio will not.) People love to pick a random year and declare that there's been no good music since, and I always assume that's the year they became an adult and forgot what it was like to be a kid.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-28-2011 11:39 AM
Great analysis, Melanie....not that our tastes don't grow with us as we age. I certainly love music from every era as I experiece it, and even some music will have emotional ties to certain life experiences later in life which will make that music have more importance to me, but all-in-all, the music of our youth remains an emotional anchor that is extremely powerful and it certainly colors our evaluation and preferences.
On the other hand, rap, isn't music. Period. And for those who say it "poetry," H E L L O...it isn't poetry either.
Question -- Why is anyone even releasing CDs? Why doesn't the DVD, or better yet the BluRay format become the single generic standard for all things requiring optical storage? DVDs would be able to hold much more information -- ALL audio recording could be SACD or TrueHD or whatever super high sample rate they want with as many channels that they would like because there is THAT much room on a DVD and especially a BluRay. Is stamping out a DVD any more expensive than stamping a CD? If they put everything on DVD, they could have so much more room for all the "cover art" that everyone misses as well. I just don't see why we need to retain the older CD formats. And to boot, all DVD players will play CDs as well, no?
Question 2: I seem to recall that originally when CDs came out, they claimed the format had the ability to include video stills along with the music. Was this functionality ever used? And how would you get the video out? Or is my memory incorrect on this?
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-28-2011 11:39 AM
Regarding compressed music, why buy it at all?
I can listen to just about any popular song in lossy compressed format for free. Go to YouTube or Vevo and watch the music video along with the tune (sometimes in 1080p HD). I have the Pandora app loaded on my Android phone and visit the Pandora site on my computer. I can hard wire my laptop to my home theater system via HDMI cable. Boom. Music and video for nothing.
If I'm actually going to buy a piece of music, I want it uncompressed. I prefer it on CD since it's already a physical "backup". I dub the disc to an external hard drive containing the rest of my music collection. From there I can stream it, make MP3 files from it, etc.
I am willing to download uncompresssed or lossless compressed songs or albums. Unfortunately most popular online music stores (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) do not offer lossless compressed versions of music. It's all heavily lossy compressed, either in AAC format (iTunes) or MP3 (Amazon). At least in the case of Amazon's MP3 tunes you can copy/move them around how ever you like without an app like iTunes standing in the way like some kind of gatekeeper. Usually the only way I find anything available for download in uncompressed/lossless formats is when it is posted by the artist on his respective web site. Sometimes you can download it for free. Trent Reznor has done this from time to time in recent years, even offering files people can remix in applications like Garage Band or Pro Tools. Very few music acts do this.
With the way modern music is being mastered (clipped and dynamically compressed to hell to make it louder) I find it difficult to even bother buying the CD. It's really hilarious to import a modern CD track into Adobe Audition and check out what's left of the wave form.
quote: Mike Blakesley
One reason old artists don't get much airplay -- even when they release great music -- is becauuse they don't have marketing money behind them like they used to, and also because when an artist is OLD their coolness factor is zero, hence they don't get new listeners, hence ad sales don't happen, etc.
Actually I hear a LOT of really old music on the radio. It just depends on the music format of that radio station. Most of the mainstream pop and rock stations around here play a great deal of music 10, 20 or 30 years old, or even older than that. A great deal of people in their teens and 20's like listening to classic rock or 1980's pop or alternative tunes. Today's generation of young people are actually far more in touch with "classic" music than any of us were when we were teenagers. To some degree that is indeed a judgment of how much today's music sucks compared to that of previous decades.
The main radio airplay formats that play only new music are R&B stations and country stations, or rather what passes for country music these days. Both of those music genres have a far more derivative and cynical "machine" in place for manfacturing music.
Regarding live music concerts and seeing movies in theaters, yes some people still love either or both. But here's the critical thing: These venues require a minimum number of customers to remain profitable. If too many people just stay at home and watch the movie or concert on TV those venues will go out of business.
There is a certain magic involved with seeing a band play live or seeing a good movie with an audience in a good movie theater. However, there's lots of negative aspects with both too.
It's often crazy expensive to see a very popular band play live today. This isn't going to matter much if it's a modern act like Lady Gaga or a "dinosaur" band like U2 or Eagles. Your wallet is going to get a lot lighter for the ticket as well as any merchandise you might buy. I remember when AC/DC played the War Memorial in Syracuse, NY during their Back in Black tour in 1980. Tickets were $8.
When I was younger I was more willing to put up with being jammed in throngs of other people to see a band like Judas Priest. Some dude vomited on my jacket during an Iron Maiden concert. A few years ago I watched Slipknot, System of a Down and Rammstein play live in Oklahoma City. The smell of pot was so heavy in the air I thought I was going to get a contact high. I get random piss tested at my work place. During Fear Factory's set at Ozzfest '99 in Dallas, I spent much of the time holding my friend Jennifer up so she wouldn't fall down and get trampled in the swaying elbow to elbow crowd.
It doesn't cost nearly so much to see a movie in a theater. But when you stack up all the crowd control problems in so many theaters with the relatively low cost of the movie on Blu-ray it gets more and more difficult to make any effort to go to the theater.
I have been watching quite a few more movies lately since I started dating my girlfriend a couple months ago. But we have only been to the theater together once so far (we watched Contagion). We have rented at least a dozen or so movies on Blu-ray to watch at home.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 11-28-2011 05:26 PM
What Martin said.
I do think that crappy radio programming is partially responsible for the decline in record (tape, CD, MP3, etc.) sales. Radio, at its best, provides a way to introduce people to different types of music, both new and old. When people no longer have an easily accessible way to hear music that they may not have heard before, they have less reason to risk their money by buying recordings of music that they may not be familiar with.
Even classical radio stations have gotten bad. Our local classical station (WCRB-FM) recently moved to a less-powerful frequency (to be replaced with--of all things--a country station) and now limits the music that it plays to a very small playlist. It has become sort of the classical variant of "greatest hits" programming. It makes for good background music for doctors' offices, but becomes very repetitive for regular listeners.
I agree that the fix for this is to hire disc jockeys who actually know something about music and who want to introduce their listeners to new music as well as play some favorite songs that they already know. Sadly, the current trend seems to be toward automation and away from people who know music. Too bad.
The other trend around here seems to be talk stations' moving to FM. We now have two FM sports-talk stations in the Boston market, up from zero two years ago. One of these (WEEI-FM) is a simulcast of an AM station and one (WBZ-FM) is a new station. I don't see the point of the simulcast thing, personally, as it seems like a waste of spectrum that could be used to provide something different rather than duplicate something that already exists. There is also an FM talk station (WTKK-FM) with a political focus. That one has been around for years (it was formerly a jazz station).
Most of my radio listening is in the car, and I mostly listen to news. We have two good NPR stations in town, as well as an all-news AM station. Growing up, I listened mostly to music, and I think that age is a factor here.
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 11-28-2011 10:46 PM
2011 U.S. Album Sales Still Strong After Three Quarters
Artists including Adele and Eminem contributed to a 3.3% increase over the corresponding period of 2010.
s the year heads into its home stretch, things are looking up for the U.S. music industry -- sales are on track to increase over the previous year, something that hasn't happened since 2004.
With nine months of 2011 down, album sales stand at 228.5 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- up 3.3% from the 221.1 million albums sold in the corresponding period of 2010. Overall U.S. unit sales, meanwhile, are up 7.2% to 1.18 billion, from 1.1 billion last year. And when albums including track equivalents are taken into account -- whereby 10 song downloads count as one album unit - albums have jumped 5.4%, to 323.7 million from 307.1 million.
The positive showing for album sales can primarily be attributed to the digital format, where the configuration's scans are up 19.7% to 74.1 million units, compared to 61.9 million units in 2010's first nine months.
But it's not only digital numbers that are encouraging. Though physical sales are down from last year, the dip isn't nearly as drastic as music executives had long grown used to. CD sales have decreased only 3.6% this year, after experiencing declines ranging between 18%-20% in each of the five previous years.
A banner year from Adele has helped across the board. Her album 21 has moved nearly 3.8 million units, while the best-selling title at the corresponding time last year -- Eminem's Recovery
With 1.3 million units sold digitally, 21 is the best-selling album in the digital format since SoundScan began tracking such sales in 2003. Adele's song "Rolling In The Deep," with 5.2 million paid downloads, is likewise the best-selling title in the digital format.
Where market share is concerned, Universal Music Group has finally pulled away from Sony Music Entertainment, which had been nipping close at its heels for the first six months of 2011. At the end of the nine-month period, UMG's market share tallied 30.3%, while Sony's stood at 28.9%. Meanwhile, the Warner Music Group's market share totaled 18.7% and EMI's came in at 9%. Independent labels' market share, as determined by distribution ownership, totaled 12.6%.
Billboard will present a more comprehensive article on third-quarter stats, including market share by label ownership, in the coming days.
SOME INTERESTING HIGHLIGHTS:
-CD sales have decreased only 3.6% this year, after experiencing declines ranging between 18%-20% in each of the five previous years.
quote: Joe Redifer
Just got back from visiting 3 different Wal*Marts. None of them had anything by "Lef Leppard". Looked online. Couldn't find any proof that this band ever existed. It's too bad, too. They sound like they'd probably be awesome and relevant! Were they responsible for that cantaloupe outbreak song called "Listeria" way back when?
You can get it on iTunes for $7.99
quote:
So, this has nothing to do with lp vs. tape vs. cd vs. digital, but I'm with Mike here: pop music is for kids, and there is still lots of great pop music on the radio. You know why you love the stuff from when you were a kid? Because it was the soundtrack to all that emotional sturm und drang, the time when you were literally becoming who you are. It's part of what defines who you are now. When a seventeen year-old girl gets dumped this Friday night for someone hotter, she will hear Selena Gomez on the radio as she cries into her smartphone, and when she's 40, Selena Gomez will still resonate with her. (And the new chick on the radio will not.) People love to pick a random year and declare that there's been no good music since, and I always assume that's the year they became an adult and forgot what it was like to be a kid.
Great way to put it Melanie ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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