The State of the Industry
 

As i was going looking through my library to see what artist to listen to i noticed that i have a lot of japanese music. Now i do not mind this but it just got me thinking about how dissapointed i am at the music industry here in america -_-. I am from the Dominican Republic and so my first language was spanish but i have no spanish music. It is a poor country so most of the music that comes out of there has been the same for many, many years. The same music my parents heard when they were young is basically the same that is out now, except more commercialized. You need money to take risks and since they dont have it, they cannot innovate or else the artists will starve if their new music is not a hit.

Now, the reason i am dissapointed in the music industry here is because this is not a poor country and the money is there. Musicians get paid a ridiculous sum of money and instead of coming up with new material, they ride their singles as long as they can and do not do anything with their careers. The corporate side is also to blame because they have turned it into a hit-driven industry, and do not like to give musicians enough space for creativity.

Now most people who feel this way turn to indie bands and such because they experiment more but i think they are not very good, some are ok but nothing that I would like for long. I usually do not like them more for the low production value, but I guess they cannot do any better. I guess this is more or less of a rant, but maybe some of you feel the same way as well. <_<

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you. Almost all of the music I listen to right now is either Japanese or underground American stuff.

The industry is experiencing a day of reckoning and they are helpless and stuck. They don't know how to end piracy, they don't know how to drum up sales, and they don't know how to treat artists who are equally confused about piracy, sales, etc.

The movie industry is about to experience the same thing.

Yea, it is sad. I guess alot of the problems do come because of piracy, since people are afraid that since their music will be downloaded for free anyway, then there is no room for risks. So I wonder how much of it is the people's fault for downloading music. But at the same time, I still think for whatever reason, there is a drought of talented musicians right now. Because regardless of how much of a problem piracy is, that doesn't stop people from making good music so its hard to say who is at fault.

Piracy doesn't encourage people to make buy the same crappy music.

And who is really being hurt by piracy? Not the artists directly, who make dust off their records anyway, its the record companies.

We're entering a very interesting age espescially for music. No longer do you need to shill and bend backwards to a recod company to get your music out there -- or even competently produce it. Artists make their bank off shows anyway, thats as true for the bar band as it is the Foo Fighters (discounting selling the rights to songs for movies/ads.) And as true for them as it was for (my gods) The Beatles.

Piracy puts studios in defensive mode, and the technology is moving too fast for them to react creatively. They are going to figure it out, but in the meantime, music will be produced, sold, and distributed the same old stupid way, and with diminishing profits. And then when they *do* figure out how to protect their copyrights, and sell their products at a reasonable price, it might be too late. The more consumers get broadband internet, the more they will be used to getting everything for free.

They can't stop the technology, they can't stop the hackers, and they can't stop consumers' desire to save money. Who loses? Well, the studios. Stockholders will be pissed, jobs will be lost....but eh, who cares about them? Artists lose, they won't make enough profits for the studios to justify multi-million dollar contracts....but eh, who cares about them? Consumers lose, because as sales drop, royalties drop, making it pretty damn hard to sustain a successful career, meaning there's less music recorded and available....but eh, who cares, etc. etc.?

Like I said, the movie industry is on the verge of the same scenario.

The only reason the book industry isn't dead is that no one's figured out how to digitize all books and pirate them. (Google Books is trying damn hard though....) Nobody wants to read books on a screen, and nobody wants to spend the time, money, and ink to print out whole books on their dinky little printers at home....or become a book pirate and take retyped whole books to CopyCop and sell bootleg Stephen King on a street corner.

I remember speaking with a friend of mine about how japanese artists release their albums faster, and more albums than the american artists and I thought it was just because they were more into their music. But then he reminded me that the yen is worth alot less than the dollar so japanese musicians cannot afford to sit on one album for a very long time. And now that you mention record companies giving out huge contracts, I think that is part of the problem. If the artist just got paid less, I don't think there would be so much pressure on them to try to make the same kind of hits over and over again. But then again, who wants to get paid less when they know another company will be willing to pay more just to have something that will sell? It's quite the dilema.

As for a solution for piracy, I remember reading an article about a conference that major record companies were attending where they would discuss possibly putting up the music for free online and try to make money off of advertisements, depending on how many hits they get, etc. Now this seemed cool at first but how much sense does it really make? If the music is free, then everyone will be flooding to the sites and so people might still continue getting their music illegally from wherever else they got it, so they dont have to deal with slow download times etc. And it is highly doubtful that many companies would go this route, its amazing how much some companies still underestimate the internet.

I dont see where this "huge" contract stuff comes from. The only people that get huge signing bonuses are established recording stars that ran out their last deal and the label knows they'll bank back.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not wat the spirit of the arguments over -- new fresh acts. New acts get squat or next to it. Its an honor for them to get signed supposedly. If these band get any money, its money to produce the album, not cash to their pockets.

And the later thing Hedo mentioned, I'm 100% positive Glath will find flaw in that ;)

Exactly. That is the problem, I think if they would give out less bigger contracts and help out the fresh acts more, they would end up benifiting in the end because there are many people tired of the same old thing.

And for the piracy "solution" that I read about, of course there will be flaws with it, the one I pointed out was just my first reaction to it but its definately a HUGE risk for companies to do that. I like free music, but I also like the actual album, that's why I wont buy music from itunes, but a way to mix the two i think would be the best. I heard walmart was going to try this thing with the Superman dvd (i believe) where if you buy the dvd, you also get to download it (or stream it, i think) from your pc with a key you get when you buy the dvd. I thought that would be an awesome idea for music as well. It would be awesome if when you buy a cd, you also get permission to get a high quality version on your pc for buying, or some other incentive like that to make people want to buy it. I mean, it would still be pirated but I think something like this would raise sales anyway. Although some people could care less for hi-quality :blink:.

Unfortunately, business-wise its straight silly to spend much money on new acts cuz you really dont know if you'll get that money back. Theyr unproven, tiny fanbase if one exists. However, Madonna or Aerosmith - you know they have fanbases that will buy anything, these acts have sold before. Youre fairly confident not only that you'll break even but make bucks. The more you spend, the more you can get (is the logic, you dont necesarily have to buy it, cuz i dont)