Great article!

AlanRatcliffe

This guy hits the nail on the head for me:

Five Lessons the Faltering Music Industry Could Learn From TV

TLDR precis:
1. 1. Target adults, not kids.
2. Embrace complexity.
3. Improve the technology.
4. Resist tired formulas.
5. Invest in talent and quality.

Mixerboy

Read it yesterday and couldn't agree more, even though the mediums/artforms are quite different the underlying premise is pretty much dead on.

I know personally I only spend money on music that really fits all those criteria, which unfortunately these days means I don't really spend a whole lot.

The last album I just HAD to buy was Devin Downsend's Deconstructed which ironically complies with all those points.

Bob-Dubery

Yes. Though I to think that this applies more to the Sony/BMGs of the world rather than Rounder or Topic. The small labels often do go for quality and an adult audience.

One consequence of record company strategy and also piracy is that live show prices are going up. This is the one revenue stream that the labels can't touch (unless they bankroll the tour) and that can't be easily duplicated.

Mixerboy

Here's a related article (which I took with a small grain of salt) that might explain why shitty pop music seems so popular:

http://mic.com/articles/95260/the-music-industry-is-literally-brainwashing-you-to-like-bad-pop-songs-here-s-how

Squonk

Mixerboy wrote Here's a related article (which I took with a small grain of salt) that might explain why shitty pop music seems so popular:

http://mic.com/articles/95260/the-music-industry-is-literally-brainwashing-you-to-like-bad-pop-songs-here-s-how

Doesn't work on me and that's most probably the reason I hate the 80's so much. The first time I heard Bryan Adams I just passed it off as typical bubblegum pop, the 20 000th time I heard Bryan Adams it annoyed me something terrible! And that was about 200 000 listens ago.

The radio stations totally killed the 80's and they are still playing the stuff. And most times I am just a passenger to all of this. In my lift club they used to play Highveld, In my wife's CD collection, Shopping Centres, The kids get Sing Star with an 80's disc, Hollywood keep playing the 80's in films of all descriptions, At the office they play it, even when I fill up at the Petrol station I can hear Bryan Adams, Go with the family to a flea market and the entertainer is playing that horrible song from Robin Hood!

So repeated play has the reverse effect on me, I start to feel nauseous!

doc-phil

The author in the first article makes some really good points. My biggest frustration in music (and it is kind of a double edged sword for me personally) is that there are far too many people trying to become professional musicians. I gaurantee that if it wasn't for Guitar Pro and the internet, I would have given up on the guitar many years ago. Technology is breeding a ton of middle of the road musos like myself who think they can make it big. The music industry is saturated across the board, from musicians to engineers to producers.

Take a look at the smaller, 'hardcore' labels in the US (Epitaph, Fearless, Rise etc) churning out millions of identical core bands comprising white males in their early twenties that pretty much exist to sell clothes at Hot Topic to teenagers. The labels hammer a genre into the absolute dust until it is taken over by the next wave (I'm talking specifically the heavier side of the industry - think nu metal -> emo -> hardcore -> (next?).

The critical difference to me is that making music has become too accessible. Anybody can make a song on their PC in an hour or two for very little money. People don't have as much opportunity to do the same thing with TV.

And I wish we did have some kind of subscription service in SA. I don't need physical or digital copies of the music anymore, as long as I can somehow play them in my car and stream from my phone or ipad over wifi, then I'm happy. The amount of content being forced at us is too much now to justify buying all the music for at least R70 on iTunes. I want to pay R200 a month and have access to whatever I feel like listening to. But then again maybe such a service will just exacerbate the problem.

Charlie4

Idols is another example. Everyone think they can do it but no one puts in the hard yards. On the subject of labels, Rise Records is truly terrible imo.

Bob-Dubery

My experience is somewhat different. I find lots of great music that is new to me - and not just because I've been revisiting the sixties. I don't pay much attention to Idols and the like, I hardly listen to radio and certainly don't listen for the music. The only musical reportage I regularly read is Richard Haslop in Business Day (the key thing about that column is that Haslop deliberately avoids the mainstream). So I think if you look in different places, if you travel the side roads more than the highway you can find lots of quality music, discover things that are new to you and have a whole lot of fun.

singemonkey

Good article. I've often confirmed for myself that new music doesn't sound shit because I'm old - otherwise why do new movies and TV not seem shit? I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy and it was the best space-adventure film since Empire Strikes Back. I've seen numerous unforgettable films and TV shows in the last 5 years. With music I've found a few things from the last ten years that I like - and most of them don't seem that great when compared to a lot of music from before '95.

It's a good point and a warning to us as song-writers to avoid conforming too closely to a genre. If we do, our song will be remembered as "That thing they do that sounds like X."

It's hard to imagine how this new revenue model is going to work though.

NorioDS

doc-phil wrote I want to pay R200 a month and have access to whatever I feel like listening to. But then again maybe such a service will just exacerbate the problem.

R60 - Rdio.com & Simfy.com

Both are offered to SA. I've used both. Rdio wins for me.

doc-phil

Well I'll be, that's excellent.