forced into digital music

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:57 pm

Does anyone else feel that the record industry is making up all the stuff about losing sales as an excuse to cut cd production thus forcing people into online digital buying?

I can understand the importance of digital music, I mean, this site is built around it, but I still enjoy buying a cd and having a box and something physical to look at and maybe read when I listen to it.

I have tried i-tunes a couple of times, and on the second attempt got scammed when their system crashed before the file transfer, after they had taken my money.

I also believe that digital music is beginning to be a little controlled. I no longer feel that I actually own anything of digital music. Especially when my media player attempts to contact all and sundry everytime I turn it on, or asks me to confirm a licence to play the music that I have bought, er, wait a minute..........

Christ whats this?

Hold on........

A camera?

Inside my Modem?

what the................

bbzzzzqqqqqqaaaa...............................

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 5:28 pm

lol...

it's really tough to say how this thing evolves. The record companies don't want to lose control, but it's really out of their hands now. My hope is it will be better for the artists. They get a small cut of their overall sales because of the 'industry' middlemen. I think as this thing plays out, the artist will ultimately get closer to the fans, and it will be less about WHO GETS MARKETED the most, and becomes about who's writing the best songs.

my 2 cents....

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:48 pm

i see your point but i think your wrong.
the music industry's going thro a rough patch cos theres alot of crappy artists,plus people arent interested in buying singles anymore thats were sales are lost, albums are selling pretty much the same.
evidence of a dip in sales comes from consumer research and retailers annual reports rather than record companies,they just complain abut lost profits

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:58 am

well maybe.

I have watched 3 record shops in my area close, and a lot of others change over to selling dvds and only the latest releases.

Not everyone wants digital music. I uses to enjoy going into a shop and finding something new, purely by browsing. It is more difficult to do the same kind of thing on line because you need to have an idea of what you are looking for before you look.

I feel that the record buying side of the industry has not held out against digital music at all, and I do feel that the record companies are trying to force the issue by cutting back on material available through record shops, puting them out of business, giving people no place else to go but online.

Which is ok for those people out there who can afford a computer, but for a lot of people, a computer is not affordable, so an area of the market is being left in isolation.

I no longer buy anything from digital outlets, I buy any new CDs through Amazon or other suppliers who can actually supply you with the actual disc.

My cd collection is worth more to me that a virtual music collection.

The other thing that is crap just now is the mobile phone ring tone market. Fair enough, people should be allowed to waste their money on something as stupid as a ringtone, but should the sales of these ringtones really be allowed to go into the charts?

The singles charts are not worth bothering with if that is the case.

There are even people out there who are producing music purely for its ring tone compatability.

There is also the price implications. Companies have always argued that the high prices in the uk are realistic based on the costs of producing the record. So why is it that the same album in Virgin can cost anything up to seventeen quid, where in the local supermarket they can sell new albums for under a tenner. Amazon UK and some of its subsidiary companies that I have used can sell albums for as little as �3.00.

I recently bought an old Iron Maiden album (The remastered version of The Number of The Beast) and a few Judas Priest remastered albums (Yes, I am an old school metalhead) through Amazon that cost under �4.00 delivered. The same disc in my local music shop (MVC) was selling for about �15.00 for the Iron Maiden stuff and �10.00 for the Priest stuff.

If Amazon and their attached sellers can get stocks of these CDs for this price, and they are still selling them at that price, then surely there is room for movement across the whole industry?

Also: Digital music requires less manufacturing, there is no real manufacturing process once the track is completed, no cds, no paper or printing, no plastic cases, a lot less cost, and yet they still sell it for the same price as a regular cd in a lot of cases. Some tracks are sold for over �1.00 each. Some of these online buying companies also charge you a monthly subscription just to stay on line with them. Bollocks.

The whole industry needs to be torn apart and started again, there is far too much money involved, with very little entertainment coming through at the consumer end.

I make music because I enjoy it and because it is something I am compelled to do. Money does not come into it. In fact, I dont really care if I ever get anywhere in Music, because these record companies just crap all over anyone they take in. Oh dear, you didnt make number one with that recent single, your dropped. Oh and by the way, we want that �50000.00 advance we gave you back. Cant afford it? oh dear, well, we will sue you to get the money back. Ch Ching!

Pop Idol, American Idol, Popstars, Pete Waterman, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne (Her Husband used to be a talented rockstar, now he is just a rich television clown) all of these crap producing programs and people have killed music.

DAGON.

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:15 am

Age groups.

My kids are happier with a purchased glitzy copy of their latest favourite pop star, than a d/loaded plain looking cd with hand written or pc printed labelling . That's the young teens tho, where the parents buy it for them Laughing

When people have to buy it themselves at $30 a pop, dloading will become the norm. Both markets are huge and have become quite separate. How many shareware sites have mushroomed in the last 2-3 years.

I reckon song quality becomes the deciding factor at that stage instead of a well marketed image with glossy booklets to read. Record companys know the power of the young and young parent's wallets.

2 cents from me

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 2:27 pm

Age groups mean nothing to me.

I am 30 (Almost) and have been buying music for decades now.

I bought most of my music before the digital music thing started. Most of the pleasure in discovering new music for me was finding bands and music I had never heard, maybe because I liked their album cover or something else that I could only find through browsing the music shop.

Now I dont have access to that, and as a result, I have recently only stuck to buying what I know through the internet, and even that has begun to slow down as I find absolutely no inspiration on line at all.

Song quality doesnt always make me want to turn on my computer to hear it.

Nine times out of ten, I never listen to music through the computer, I put the stereo on and listen to it through that.

Having the cd cover etc is not just about being a kid and getting a cd bought, its also about having something of value to the person owning the disc, and for me it is the way into discovering a new band, or appreciating an old established one.

I feel my collection has more value to me if the correct covers and information are there with them.

This goes back to the vinyl market for me though, I liked vinyl albums not only for the music, but also for the artwork that goes into them.

I appreciate someones song more if I have a little info on them. I dont buy into the mysticism of a song speaking for itself, there has to be more than that for me, the whole atmosphere that a band or artist can create begins with the cover, and continues on the inside, and into the music.

MP3 files to me are cold and lifeless. I dont feel like I am getting anything for the money that goes into them. And with the cases now springing up everywhere of people getting sued left right and centre for illegal downloading, I feel even more inclined to ignore this method of music.

I am interested in more than just a digital file, thats all. And when you turn your computer on one day to find that your harddrive has failed and all of your music is gone, my music will still be safe and sound up on the shelf where it belongs.

Dagon.

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 4:16 am

I use to love the music shops here, speaking to the punk behind the counter and checking out their feature albums. Just recently I chucked away some old crap vinyl, definitely kept the gems, (not for the covers though)

and get a hard time from the family big time hehe

It's always cool having the origional artist cd with info.
And it's also cool d/ loading a song from sites like this, or $1 per d/ load on other sites, converting to wav. burning a disc and putting it on the shelf beside the NME mags and computer backup files incase the hard drive fails one day. Laughing

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:07 am

I think a degree of control is going back to the artist.

Lots of good reasons why music sales are flat to declining, not the least of which is the crap music that's getting promoted... but I'm getting older and am starting to sound like a fogey Smile

. I think video games are serious competition for entertainment time and dollar now. Internet is big competitor too.

I could be wrong, but I also wonder if music is being somewhat displaced in a cultural sense by other factors - like when I was younger the music you listened to was close to your heart and part of your identity... I'm not sure that kids of today place music so much at the center. Also - I do feel like the degeneration of MTV has had a large negative impact. Videos were huge in breaking a new and broad selelction of bands to world when I was younger, and the combination of image and song helped listeners identify.

Consolidation of radio has also sucked things up. I've stopped listening to radio (except for sports-talk on my way to and from work) because it's degenerated so badly, but when I was younger I would lie in bed at night and listen to perhaps a half hour to hour of radio each night as I was falling asleep. Now there's more commercials than music and it's better to just turn it off and read. End result less new music is getting heard by me through traditional channels.

smili

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:09 am

I've still got some old LPs in a box. I love the big album covers on some of them, like the cover of Van Halen's Diver Down or Boston's big fold out album covers with spaceship art! <g>

smili

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:23 pm

I think that the worst of digital music downloading has been demonstrated recently with the release of the Crazy Frog album.

Brace yourself people, this is just the start of a long line of crap albums born through the mobile phone farce.

Long live real music and creation.

Death to the Jamster Clubs, and any other wallet raping rip off companies.

DAGON.

Evil or Very Mad

ubw newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2005 Posts: 2

I personally don't mind digital music. I am happy getting 25 free and legal streams a month from Rhapsody 25 . I like being able to pick and choose since I don't tend to like every song on an album. They also have alot of indie music you can't find in the stores which is always a plus. I mean I am not made of tons of money so if I can benefit from using it instead of buying a CD I will. Plus I save even more by not having to listen to pay satellite music anymore since I get ad free radio with them as well.

forced into digital music

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