Verfasst: 18. April 2008, 23:50
I don't think the problem with smaller CD sales is primarily piracy.
I think it is the vast array of entertainment options that people have now.
Case in point, the comics industry has seen a similar drop to the music one and it's not because people are swapping free digital copies of comics they have scanned in.
It's because they have so many more entertainment options now due to digital media/the internet/cable tv with 200+ channels/etc.
I don't buy anywhere near as much music as I did 10-15 years ago. One reason is because I am older and feel like I have heard it all. My closet is full of CDs that I consider great and I have dispensed of the ones that weren't as good as those. It takes a lot for a band to release an album that is worthy of inclusion in there. I look around the internet at people's lists of the "top 20 metal albums of the year" and most of the time I like only 1 or 2 of those albums at all, and sometimes none of them. Few new metal bands are doing anything worth hearing to me and the old classic metal artists are almost all well past their prime. The old leaders of the metal scene aren't doing anything worth paying attention to except playing the old hits live and the singers can't come close to hitting the notes any more.
Another reason I don't buy near as much music is that I used to buy a lot of music merely to try it out but now I don't have to. In 2008, I can sample 1-4 tracks off MySpace before I make a purchase. Even nowadays this saves me quite a bit of money but costs quite a bit to the artists in sales I am sure.
Not everything about today's music scene is doom and gloom. There are some advantages to the consumer, that frankly are long overdue, like previewing tracks on MySpace.
I tend to think we built rock stars of the past up into demigods anyway and they were way overpaid. I don't mind seeing them put back down into their place of just being normal working stiffs now.
I think it is the vast array of entertainment options that people have now.
Case in point, the comics industry has seen a similar drop to the music one and it's not because people are swapping free digital copies of comics they have scanned in.
It's because they have so many more entertainment options now due to digital media/the internet/cable tv with 200+ channels/etc.
I don't buy anywhere near as much music as I did 10-15 years ago. One reason is because I am older and feel like I have heard it all. My closet is full of CDs that I consider great and I have dispensed of the ones that weren't as good as those. It takes a lot for a band to release an album that is worthy of inclusion in there. I look around the internet at people's lists of the "top 20 metal albums of the year" and most of the time I like only 1 or 2 of those albums at all, and sometimes none of them. Few new metal bands are doing anything worth hearing to me and the old classic metal artists are almost all well past their prime. The old leaders of the metal scene aren't doing anything worth paying attention to except playing the old hits live and the singers can't come close to hitting the notes any more.
Another reason I don't buy near as much music is that I used to buy a lot of music merely to try it out but now I don't have to. In 2008, I can sample 1-4 tracks off MySpace before I make a purchase. Even nowadays this saves me quite a bit of money but costs quite a bit to the artists in sales I am sure.
Not everything about today's music scene is doom and gloom. There are some advantages to the consumer, that frankly are long overdue, like previewing tracks on MySpace.
I tend to think we built rock stars of the past up into demigods anyway and they were way overpaid. I don't mind seeing them put back down into their place of just being normal working stiffs now.