Wednesday, October 8, 2008

How will the Economic Crisis Effect
New and Used Records???

The fundamentals of the music economy are not strong - though they have not been strong for some time now. I knew that when I started this label. This current financial crisis we are in, however, is somewhat ill-timed considering that we are putting out four new albums this fall. Then again, hard times are when I need music the most, so perhaps indie fans will still want to pick up albums and attend cheap shows. I didn't get into this for the money, so this doesn't throw off any financial predictions I had. Still, I figure this is going to effect the music business as a whole. Jason Gross at PopMatters sees the situation as pretty dire:
What that means is that people will buy less and may migrate even more to the unauthorized download services to get their music when they want it. Even Apple won’t be immune- less money flowing means less money for iPods, which is where they’d ideally be cashing in. It may also mean that the big retailers who sell almost as much physical product at their stores will cut back on CD’s even further with less demand. It may also signal even more music stores (big and small) closing down which were already suffering from the digital competition.
That doesn't sound good - and that is just what he had to say about "Music Sales."

So what does he suggest - "It’s obvious- you should break up and join a more lucrative business immediately, if there’s any left."

OK, he's actually a bit more optimistic:
Most of all, don’t throw in the towel. In bad times like this, we need good music more than ever. And for you consumers, try to support bands as you can and when you can. You’ll miss ‘em and you’ll need ‘em, trust me.
And that is the philosophy I am operating on.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do people actually still buy CD's all the time still? I would prefer not having ANY hard copies of CD's.

The only time I actually buy a CD is when I buy a musical, because I need them for an archival reason. I don't even like getting press CD's in the mail. They just waste space on my desk and I don't know what to do with them.

I 100% prefer digital. If for whatever reason I need a physical copy, I make one quickly in iTunes and that's all. Done.

I don't know if it's necessarily the economic crisis that is the problem here for the music industry. I think the problem is that there is SO MUCH music and SO MUCH access to it. I spend hours every day listening to new music and there's still a TON out there that I never get a chance to listen to. So, the average listener doesn't listen to radio anymore, doesn't buy CD's, so what do they look to: TV commercials, TV Shows and Blogs for new music.

It seems that everyone has a new favorite song every week.

The music industry is changing and changing fast. The only people who will survive, will be the people who adapt, change and innovate.