
Good News! CD Music Sales Down 20% from 2006 - veritas
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/21/good-news-cd-music-sales-down-20-from-2006/
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domp
I disagree with his outlook on the music biz. I think that recorded music does
have a value. Although there is a small cost to produce it these days every
musician dreams of making money off of it. No musician enjoys giving their
music up for free. They assume that it'll pay off in the long run(whether that
be buying tracks on itunes, getting a cd or a tshirt at their show). Just
because the current model for selling music isn't working and piracy is a
popular alternative doesn't make music worth nothing.

Also, any band already relies on live concerts for their means of money. This
is nothing new. What is happening is that major labels are getting a bigger
piece of the pie when it comes to merchandise(which used to go straight to the
band). I just think a new means of selling music must be created that benefits
all parties.

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far33d
Digital content "wants" to be free. That's the problem for industries that
have historically generated revenue by artificially restricting access to
content: when content distribution (and even production) are without cost or
restriction, revenue must come from other sources. This is glaringly obvious
for music, and we're headed that way for film.

The film industry will do it's best to stay ahead of the bandwidth: 3D
projection, better surround sound, etc, but will also need to adapt to make
formerly secondary revenue streams (product placement, franchise merchandise,
etc) more primary. That and they're going to have to find ways to get their
costs down, significantly, to compete with a fast approaching internet and
independent film community.

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domp
I completely realize that. 1000 bucks for an album is not reasonable though.
At this point it's around 10 grand for a solid album with an okay producer.
That's still a big investment for a small band.

Production costs will never reach zero. It makes no sense. You're always going
to have good producers out there, better engineers, a genius mastering person
and great studios that people will pay for. Anyone right now could make their
own movie with a home camcorder but I'm sure they'd rather go with some
professionals.

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far33d
my point is that the quality level of the two ends (what you get from the
world's best producer and what you get from a mediocre or inexperienced one)
are quickly approaching each other, at least in technical quality.

The point is that what you could do at home for free (or with some help from
smart people for cheap) now is orders of magnitude better than 3 years ago,
and is still improving.

Some people will always be willing to pay. But everyone else won't HAVE to.

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domp
Yeah I agree. The amount of money is no doubt going down. I mean my brother's
studio can make a recording that sounds close to the 50 grand ones by just
putting triggers on the drums and doing all these other tricks. Would a big
musician pay to record with a 20 yr old? No chance in hell.

I wish I was going to the startup school. It'd be nice though if I was cause
I'm sure this conversation would have been much better. I didn't realize it
was a free event until it was too late.

