The Music Industry

I think the music industry is a tricky business. Even more so it has plummeted to an all time low. If a single does not work, the artist or band will be doomed. It's hysteria. Just a few glimpses as to why the music industry isn't doing so well: out of the 30,000 albums put out every year only 100 are hits, the sales have fallen from 40 billion to 28 billion, 85% of all records fail. Corporations would burn artists out, use them and abuse them and then throw them away. But enough of that now.

I believe that it is true, that way back when the record labels were started, they were run by people who loved records and loved music. It is even shown in the example of David Crosby, that he does not let music run his life, he loves music. It has to be said that the music business was never accessible to everyone, it has always been a challenge to enter this industry.

One way that the record business can be flawed is in the case of the Hudson Brothers. They're freedom was stolen from them when they showed up on TV. They were no longer credible. TV thought they were rock and rollers trying to act. Instead of their picture on Rolling Stone, it appeared on TV Guide.

The music industry was then hit with a crisis in the 70's when the baby boomers bought less and the pre-recorded cassette was brought about. Although all of this was saved by the compact disc as it was able to replace vinyls and people invested in this method. Yet this was not reflective of selling new artists, it was a false indicator. This covered up major problems in the industry. Now conglomerates wanted to have a strict deadline which led to the production of terrible "art." When you went to a meeting with a record label executive, he did not want to know that you wrote a new song. Rather he saw you as having sold 40 thousand units, but had no idea units of what. Even the last great influx of art, rap, was corporatized, packaged and has brought about processed people.

Through these two cases, we can see how tainted and ruined the music industry has become. Take Sarah Hudson, an inviting, strange, but cool, one who did not get all the guys, an "every girl" basically. Sarah was quite unlike the processed Britney or Jessica Simpson. She found her own voice and worked hard. Even then she still needed to appeal to the public. Her song, "Naked Truth" was probably better written and sounded better. However, she chose "Girl on the Verge" because it sounded more like a hit, more radio friendly and more attention getting. In the case of Velvet Revolver, the group thought this "revival" could be amazing. They were older now and a lot smarter music players. People's jaws dropped at their show and they felt like, "Oh yeah, this is what it's all about, I forgot." Their album brought about another flaw in the music business. 50% of R.C.A.'s sales are to stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy, but R.C.A. is nothing to them. Wal-Mart is very content restrictive. Velvet Revolver was asked to create a clean version, which would in turn increase sales by 20% just because of this clean album. In the consumer's mind, if it is not at Wal-Mart, they would not drive another 30 miles to go and find it.

The business of the 90's was great until the emergence of the internet phenomenon because it led to alternate methods of getting music, and free music at that. I agree that downloading is not the problem. It is because artists stopped putting out quality music. They stopped giving the public something to believe in. They fed them all the terrible music, but the people caught up and responded by finding alternative ways to find good music. People have been deceived and disappointed. They want to buy an album because they heard a great single, yet now they have to pay for all of this "junk". This creates a business which only cares about the hit singles. The public will go and buy good music when you give them good music to buy.

To become a hit you need a great story and a great single, much like the acts of Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez to name a few. MTV is a great example of the downfall of music. MTV is a powerful force. It is the beginning of the end. They exulted marketing over substance. It became only about the three minute single and what they looked like. MTV is visually appealing. In David Crosby's words, the meaning of Britney's songs is equivalent to about that of a bird bath. For radio, it becomes hard to squeeze 32,000 records into a "needle," when you have to accommodate 4 or 5 new ones a week. Radio is only going to add a few songs, the same as with MTV. Record labels only have so much time and so much money to spend. If you don't go boom, then bye.

My relationship to music and artists is very strong. I truly love music and was brought up with a great deal of exposure to music. Nowadays I get my music from torrents, which allows one to download an album or a discography at a time, thus, saving a lot of time and effort. Yet from time to time I also purchase the occasional CD. This could be due to the facts mentioned earlier. People are not really willing to purchase poor quality music. If quality music was put out, people would definitely buy it.