So let us talk about sales of audio mediums and why the music industry is not going anywhere any time soon. I will try to keep my reasons and such, though opinion based, as unbiased and as educated as I can. Please keep in mind that my opinions for stating the reasons for changes in the industry are based on sales and opinions working at a used CD shop in Cambridge and should be seen as an idea or argument. Do not use this blog as any sort of absolute fact on anything, but especially this piece. The charts the actual numbers come from will be linked at the end.
The thing that gets brought up oh-so-often at my cash counter is "isn't the music industry dying?" and "why not just download everything?" Well, the easy reply to the downloading idea is that it is still illegal most places and most websites do not want to get caught in the crossfire. When people bring up places like iTunes and (legal) Napster, opinions and feelings often become thrown around as fact.
The first point I would like to make is that the music industry would not bother if it was not profitable. It is far too early in the year to have any sort of fair comparison to last years numbers, so let us pretend it is closer to January. Physical sales are down from a sudden peak in the year prior and digital sales are spiking from a very low 2011. Physical medium sales are still 80 million units outselling digital distribution. Now, would those sales go to digital if there was not an option for physical sale? I have a couple of customers who come to our store from the country who can barely get internet access. Would these people be able to switch to digital? Obviously not. Now, I am aware that the few customers I mention is not enough to even make the industry bat an eyelash, so I'm going to bring up some census information! YAY CANADIAN CENCUS!
A study done in 2010 shows that 1 in 5 Canadians do not have internet access (so just over 6.8 million Canadians). With Canadian physical purchasing sitting at 20.5 million last year and digital sitting just over 10 million, and assuming we go by the idea that 0.9 albums sell per person, would mean a decrease in sales by 6.12 million albums. The average price of a new CD at my work is approximately $15 dollars. This would mean a loss of 91.8 million dollars in revenue. Now factor in people like me: I do not download albums from iTunes unless I have to and I never purchase one off songs because the album is what is important to me. When you compile all the numbers, it will cost the music industry less to press CDs than they will loose in total sales.
Signs that the physical age will be on its way out? Price hikes would be one, and rarity of mainstream albums being another. I feel as though we would see Wal*Mart stop carrying CDs long before HMV went out of business, but we might see random pop albums all of a sudden become very difficult to find. Though I can no longer find the information on the actual situation, who remembers the Warner snafu? Warner went through some huge reconstruction thing at the corporate level and threw their distribution of music into the strangest tither. Customers would be able to find some WMG merchandise at my store, but not at the HMV in the mall behind us. Kitchener would be the only city in all Ontario to have Lykki Li, for instance. It was awkward to explain the situation to those who were just looking for that new release and it seemed to get fixed out of nowhere. There were a couple of us who started speculating a digital only push in cities. If it was an experiment, the consequence was the loss of thousands of sales..
What about vinyl? At one time is was viewed as the dominant source for quality of sound. People still spend tens of thousands of dollars getting setups and rooms for perfect acoustics. Audiophiles will always be around for every medium, but vinyl was always viewed as the "purists" form. This grand resurgence has been great for people who just prefer the sound and feel but did not want to give a million and one reasons every time a friend came by. It has now become accepted as just another medium to a huge part of the market and, with sales increasing in double digit percents every year, that market has become bigger and bigger. We now have Record Store Day with sale numbers that almost double every year. I personally do not think that vinyl will ever be the dominant form of music distribution ever again, but what a fantastic decade for vinyl to come back!
Before I wrap up, I would like to mention song sales. This is a fairly new idea, since singles from the days of old always came bundled with a couple of perks. When you purchase a song from iTunes at a dollar, 30 cents goes to Apple and 60 cents to the distributer. The total number of songs sold in 2012 was 1336 million. The cost for an indi artist to upload a song to iTunes using TuneCore is $9.99 per year. With these numbers, I am having a very hard time why anyone thinks the music industry is hurting.
Website used and not tagged already :
This article had a nice collection of charts with all the sale information from 2012 and 2011. Very informative and just kind of cool to read over.
During the writing of this, I was enjoying 2 records: Do Make Say Think Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Both seminal albums in their genres and two of my favourite albums of all time. Please, as music fans, check into these.
Saturday 18 May 2013
Sunday 12 May 2013
11) Isn't this supposed to be dead?
I witnessed two police cruisers flying down a main drag in front of my work tonight. I was just in the parking lot when the blaring sirens and shimmering lights danced and bounced off of the front window of the store front. The record store I work at is on this fantastic intersection between a Police headquarters and a fire station. All day, ever day, we bare witness to dozens of vehicles speeding and dodging down the road, usually barrelling towards the major highway that resides just over one kilometre from our front stoop. I wish I could say that we play some sort of game guessing how many will dart past that day, but usually I just stare out the windows for a moment to remind myself that the world outside is still present and dangerous. I then continue to collect discs, buff scuffs, and price merchandise.
Today I think I heard the same compact disc four or five times. I think I have discovered the art of completely ignoring the music that plays up above. We have great freedom to play what we wish, but after seven years your mind compacts everything you once loved into the categories of "Store Playable" and "You will enjoy this when you get home." It can be rather depressing when you realize that you have actually started to not listen to favourite bands based on the very idea that you can listen to them when you work if you really need your fix. As I write this, I am listening to Beggars by Thrice.
I picked this album up shortly after its release back in 2009. Though I am not normally a Thrice fan, they destroyed all my expectations after they released the four part Alchemy Index just a couple of years prior. My point for referencing this album is that, for the first time since 2009, I am listening to this album outside of work.
Who else has fallen into this trap? Our Lady Peace, The Cardigans, The Foals, The Tea Party, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sigur Ros, The Stills, Coldplay...
What I am trying to say is that I think I can finally go back and listen to bands that I tried to avoid for quite some time. Maybe the next time someone asks if I would be okay listening to some Death Cab for Cutie I will reply with "Yes sir or madam, I would love to!" Instead of the standard "only if it's one of these two albums that never come through my work because of reasons."
It also amazes me how, working at a CD shop, fans can ruin everything. I used to like the Black Keys until I realized why everyone else liked them. Now I can't listen to them through the general popular opinion. This may sound like the standard record store employee bull shit but please, hear my plight.
All people talk about is how "innovative" and "unique" The Black Keys are, but all I hear is a cross between The White Stripes and Robert Johnson. Do I take great pride in relating bands to one another? Only mildly. El Camino sounds like Brothers sounds like Attack & Release.
Of course, I am not aloud to say such things at work, even though they love to do it to other people in the news. The fans become irate and they feel like they have to defend this friend who takes all their money to release the same album over and over and over.
You are aloud to like what you like. I am not saying that The Black Keys do not deserve the career that they have. I am not saying that if you like The Black Keys that your opinion is less valid. I am not saying that I am immune to the comments I make, and I am far from saying that I have a better music taste than anyone else. I do not think that I like my music for "better reasons." I just feel like people need to actually sit down and realize what they are supporting. The public needs to realize that there is so much more out there.
For instance: do you like two piece blues throwback bands? Check out the Lullaby Arkestra. A couple from Toronto who cross blues with a bizar gospel-esque feel. Fantastic live performance, and they just have so much fun doing what they do. Actually, I think that would be a really neat pairing. Lullaby Arkestra opening for The Black Keys. I would pay for that.
This is the part that I could start going on about how horrible record labels are for the music industry, but I really do not agree with that idea. Do I think that labels are pumping out the same shit every year? Hell yes. Do I blame the labels? Hell no. If they thought that they could make money on something different, then I am sure they would release something different. With proper interest from investors they might fund it in such a way that even mainstream radio stations would bother to play it. I don't even know if I believe the idea that labels are bothering to carrel public music tastes as a whole as to make one sound popular. The music industry is a strange beast. An artist like Gotye could be made famous Canada wide thanks to a cover done by a pop group based out of Burlington using one guitar. The time gap between that video and Walk Off the Earth's major label début (January 6, 2012 - March 19, 2013) leads me to believe that this was a genuine social find as opposed to the idea of it being set up by a bunch of dudes sitting around a table in a board room on the moon.
-END-
Now; some recommendations.
Winston's Essentials
Look into the bands on this list. Polyvinyl is this strange beast where you really do get the impression that they will release anything as long as they think it is awesome. This collection of bands are stupid fun and rather great. Check some out.
EDIT: the Half Life 3 thing I read was false. Sorry about that!
Today I think I heard the same compact disc four or five times. I think I have discovered the art of completely ignoring the music that plays up above. We have great freedom to play what we wish, but after seven years your mind compacts everything you once loved into the categories of "Store Playable" and "You will enjoy this when you get home." It can be rather depressing when you realize that you have actually started to not listen to favourite bands based on the very idea that you can listen to them when you work if you really need your fix. As I write this, I am listening to Beggars by Thrice.
I picked this album up shortly after its release back in 2009. Though I am not normally a Thrice fan, they destroyed all my expectations after they released the four part Alchemy Index just a couple of years prior. My point for referencing this album is that, for the first time since 2009, I am listening to this album outside of work.
Who else has fallen into this trap? Our Lady Peace, The Cardigans, The Foals, The Tea Party, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sigur Ros, The Stills, Coldplay...
What I am trying to say is that I think I can finally go back and listen to bands that I tried to avoid for quite some time. Maybe the next time someone asks if I would be okay listening to some Death Cab for Cutie I will reply with "Yes sir or madam, I would love to!" Instead of the standard "only if it's one of these two albums that never come through my work because of reasons."
It also amazes me how, working at a CD shop, fans can ruin everything. I used to like the Black Keys until I realized why everyone else liked them. Now I can't listen to them through the general popular opinion. This may sound like the standard record store employee bull shit but please, hear my plight.
All people talk about is how "innovative" and "unique" The Black Keys are, but all I hear is a cross between The White Stripes and Robert Johnson. Do I take great pride in relating bands to one another? Only mildly. El Camino sounds like Brothers sounds like Attack & Release.
Of course, I am not aloud to say such things at work, even though they love to do it to other people in the news. The fans become irate and they feel like they have to defend this friend who takes all their money to release the same album over and over and over.
You are aloud to like what you like. I am not saying that The Black Keys do not deserve the career that they have. I am not saying that if you like The Black Keys that your opinion is less valid. I am not saying that I am immune to the comments I make, and I am far from saying that I have a better music taste than anyone else. I do not think that I like my music for "better reasons." I just feel like people need to actually sit down and realize what they are supporting. The public needs to realize that there is so much more out there.
For instance: do you like two piece blues throwback bands? Check out the Lullaby Arkestra. A couple from Toronto who cross blues with a bizar gospel-esque feel. Fantastic live performance, and they just have so much fun doing what they do. Actually, I think that would be a really neat pairing. Lullaby Arkestra opening for The Black Keys. I would pay for that.
This is the part that I could start going on about how horrible record labels are for the music industry, but I really do not agree with that idea. Do I think that labels are pumping out the same shit every year? Hell yes. Do I blame the labels? Hell no. If they thought that they could make money on something different, then I am sure they would release something different. With proper interest from investors they might fund it in such a way that even mainstream radio stations would bother to play it. I don't even know if I believe the idea that labels are bothering to carrel public music tastes as a whole as to make one sound popular. The music industry is a strange beast. An artist like Gotye could be made famous Canada wide thanks to a cover done by a pop group based out of Burlington using one guitar. The time gap between that video and Walk Off the Earth's major label début (January 6, 2012 - March 19, 2013) leads me to believe that this was a genuine social find as opposed to the idea of it being set up by a bunch of dudes sitting around a table in a board room on the moon.
-END-
Now; some recommendations.
Winston's Essentials
Look into the bands on this list. Polyvinyl is this strange beast where you really do get the impression that they will release anything as long as they think it is awesome. This collection of bands are stupid fun and rather great. Check some out.
EDIT: the Half Life 3 thing I read was false. Sorry about that!
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