General Music Chat

Is the future of the music industry leading towards a day when music is *mainly* a supplement to other forms of media (such as video games, movies, commercials, tv, other advertising, etc.), or do you think that buying songs/albums on their own will see more of a resurgence? Will the music fan of tomorrow see the value in purchasing music on it's own merits?

Basically, do you think album/song sales will ever go up again, or is it time to accept the fact that the main way to make a living in music is to write/record for other purposes?

btw, Hello all, I'm new to the board

Welcome to thr forum, Steve.

Frankly, what I'm seeing is pretty bleak. In fact, perhaps movies, games & TV will be the only venues available for music sales in the future, if the piracy, etc, keeps up.

Live music is even fading into dinosaur-land...

I have to agree with Phil...Music is so de-valued right now, and I really don't see resurgence coming. Technology has created easy access to basically any music a person would want, with little or no cost (which equals no income for the musician). The old saying about "Pop will eat itself" is being fulfilled. In order for a musician to reach an audience, and gain a following, he nowadays has to put his music "out there", where anyone can get to it-and they will-insuring all the while that said musician will not only never make a real profit from his product, but also (through that endeavor) never financially afford to turn his or her focus full time to their music.
In other words, the sun is setting on the day of the rock star (professional musician),

Joseph, i dont think the death of the rock star is the death of the professional musician. If you think about it, people will always be inundated with music as an accompaniment to their days, whether or not it's them popping in a CD or if it amounts to them getting down with some song they're hearing on TV.

It may strike you or I as being very unfortunate, but I think there's definitely another side of the coin to be examined. And one has to ask himself if he's willing or ready to take his/her music where it needs to go in order to be heard, and if he has the ability to make his music profitable,--by whatever means is necassary.

it's not ALL doom and gloom. Check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009 ... -crackdown

Steve, I think you are probably right, in the sense of where there's a will, there's a way. I also know what I personally would or would not do to get myself heard. I don't want my song to be someone's damn ring tone (not that people are begging me for it, but anyways). As stubborn and unyielding as it may sound, I do what I do.
In a way, it reminds me of my time dealing with TAXI. They would have a listing for a country song. I would submit one of my songs (not of that genre). They would say "great song!...but it's not country. Can you change it?"
"Sure, I'll jes' twang it up a lil for ya!"

My answer was no. You may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about (I'm starting to, myself), but the point being that I personally am not willing to sell myself out to make money. I do what I do. If the consumer doesn't accept that, so be it. Same goes for the business.
Someday folks will be discussing the extinction of the Josephsaurus. Fine.
As far as the crackdown on filesharing (in Sweden), that's fantastic. It's also kind of like peeing on a forest fire.
Man, I sure am a downer today. Sorry guys!

We need to go back to vinyl...and make it impossible for anybody to make an exact copy of your song. Also China needs to credit the United States for the umpteen billions of dollars of music and films that htey have pirated over the years. Maybe that would help east the trade deficit...

"We need to go back to vinyl"

can't ever put the gennie back in the bottle

Hello,
Well I am a drummer and have been around a long time. Remember music changes, BAD or GOOD. How it is coming to us is left to higher authorities. The people who play, buy, and go to concerts have to be the ones to make the big change.

No one listens anymore to the people. So we have to demand and tell everyone who does all the above to first drop the price of tickets. Only a hand full of bands today draw big crowds. And stop and think about this, we the people put these so call stars where they are and then they turn around and demand huge prices.

If we were to stop going to concerts, buying their music and down loading it say for 6 month's watch and see how fast the prices come down and we see a resurgence of how we buy the music and the bands themselves lower prices and most of all we start to hear old bands and music we loved COME BACK.

TJ, it's all supply and demand. If a band has enough fans to fill an A-level venue, they will charge the most that they can. If the band isn't capable of filling that particular venue it will drop to the B-level venues where prices are less, the capacity is less and they will subsequently make less, and so on to the C and D level venues.

As far as selling recorded music, there is now a common belief that you should get the music for free or close to it. Many people believe the record companies have made millions and can afford to give it away. But we all know nothing is free.

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I agree with much of what has been said, but would add...


1) The 2nd illegal downloading case, brought by the major labels, has now concluded, with the defendant being fined $675,000 (you saw that right) for only 30 illegally downloaded songs! As this kind of thing picks up, and more people become aware of the outrageous fines possible... who knows? It may taper off that practice a little?


2) There are more problems than just "free downloading" of music online. One of them, is the shorter attention span of young people today. They are growing up with technology that blows their socks off, from BIRTH, and they are used to being WOWED everywhere, all the time. Many of them just don't have the patience to listen to a new song all the way through, before something else grabs their attention. Even the movie industry has suffered until recently, when films like Avatar, which brought a totally new and unique experience to viewers, is already poised to become the 2nd highest grossing film of all time, behind Titanic!

3) Which leads to another point... Titanic.

Highest grossing film of all time. Not because of the digital work, but more because of "The Story". Let's not forget, that a memorable and moving STORY or EXPERIENCE, still captivates the heart. Think of who we were discussing on another thread... Susan Boyle... The UK Idol runner-up. Same with video games today... worldclass writers are being used to create great stories, trilogies, prequels, etc... People still love a good story!


So musicians and songwriters...

Tell good stories... Be creative and unique, and work to be the best at what you do, and there is STILL a place for you to find your dreams fulfilled, and make a living at it.

Not to mention... Something NEW will always come along.

The new 3D technologies that have been created, have propelled movies like Avatar to great heghts, and there are literally DOZENS of 3D movies coming out over the next few years. I've seen a list of them. It may actually come to be, that kids will ONLY want to see 3D in the movies before long.

New technologies will come along for music too, and everything will reverse, once again, to profitability and enthusiasm over music!

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Live with it. Change with it. It's just the same garment only on a different rack.

From what I hear the world ends in 2012.
So what the hell.

REALLY? Damn, folks! Please buy my CDs-I want to be rich before I die in 2012! (Maybe I'll still be here, just the world will be gone? Hmmm...)

REALLY? Damn, folks! Please buy my CDs-I want to be rich before I die in 2012! (Maybe I'll still be here, just the world will be gone? Hmmm...)

You'd be playing to an empty room then.

LOL

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