Declining Record Sales: What's Really to Blame?

Back in the 1990's, Napster was launched, allowing people all over the world to share music through their computers. People embraced this new technology and soon it became so popular the music industry took notice. Today, music executives and fans continue to battle over the legalities of music downloading and law suits are still being filed. Now, I don't really agree fully with music downloading. I don't necessarily think it's a huge deal to make mix Cd's of favorite tracks, but I fully agree that it's wrong to just download full albums instead of buying them. I also completely disagree with unreleased/unfinished tracks being made available without the artist's permission. I just don't think that it's single handedly killing the music industry as some claim. I think to really find the source of lagging record sales, we need to look at other factors I feel are more significant.

This isn't the first time the industry has seen a sales slump. This happened in the 1980's as well and, like today, it was at least partially blamed on technology: blank audio tapes. People felt that the introduction of these tapes encouraged others to copy tapes from their friends rather then buying them themselves.It didn't last long, though. Soon MTV came along and introduced a mass audience to a variety of new artists and record sales climbed dramatically. The difference between then and now is that MTV isn't what it used to be. Instead of music videos, concerts, and other similar programming we now are faced with full days of the Real World, Punk'd, and True Life. Even TRL, the one video program left standing, doesn't focus on them anymore. Audiences spend the time voting for their favorites only to have the videos cut off after a minute or so (if they're lucky).What little video is shown is combined with clips of screaming fans who totally drown out the song. Hardly the showcase for new material it once was. With such a powerful and popular venue no longer as relevant, it's little wonder artists are having a hard time selling units. They can't even try and depend on VH1, either as that channel is almost as bad. It's difficult to catch a show that's not Celebrity Fit Club or The Fabulous Life of... marathons. This is hardly the only thing that is, IMO, responsible for the music industries troubles. It's the quality of product as well.

It seems that there's an emphasis on style over substance today in music. For every Alicia Keyes, there's a Ciara. For every Christina, you have a Britney.... and a Jessica.... and a Willa Ford... you get the idea. What happened to pouring your heart into your music? People like Britney and Jessica show up and do what they're told to do with little input into the music they perform. Ask Britney who produced her last hit and she'll look at you like you just spoke the question in German. Fans can see this lack of passion and respond with a yawn. That's why people like Alicia and Christina can keep going, even if they don't have the same sales of their peers: because you can tell they care. There's a love that comes across in the delivery. That's why it is so shocking to me that someone like Kelly Clarkson, for example, had such a hard time getting her CD released. Isn't it better to release a CD that really matters to the artist, then to have a CD full of "guaranteed" hits people just produced to cash in on some new musical trend? To cover the lack of skill and substance, the powers that be concoct stage spectacles designed to distract the audience from the fact the "artist" in question isn't even singing. Many people are beginning to see through that now and are less willing to spend their hard-earned money on a sub-par product. Instead, they scour the Internet looking for music they can not only enjoy, but connect with.

Finally, I feel radio is somewhat responsible for the industry's troubles as well. How can a really talented and original artist find a place on a play list in between the seemingly endless stream of R&B divas who are practically indistinguishable from each other? Especially when it seems only a select group of songs gets played on an endless loop. It's gotten to the point I can't even listen to radio anymore, because I'm tired of hearing the same song 10 times in a matter of hours and I see and hear comments from people every day saying the same thing. Yet another powerful promotion tool that is being destroyed.

The bottom line is, while it is perfectly reasonable to stop the downloading of full albums and unapproved tracks, there are other more important issues that are contributing to small sale. The only way to truly fix the problem is to look at all the factors and try to make changes now while their are still fans left to buy their product.