here are some depressing numbers about the music business =(
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jensenmann
Well-known member
Don´t worry, as long as you are not on the left side of the pictures ;-)
It seems there are a few even more notable disconnects between talent and commercial success but this is a very old theme that has been around for about as long as there have been commercial record sales.
It seems a little contorted to compare beetle's single sales, as they sold lots of albums, and many songs after the first few albums were not AM radio airplay friendly. Album oriented themes (Sgt pepper anyone), results in lots of album sales, not a bunch of hit singles.
There may be some actual disturbing trends in the music business to think about, but this reads like just another disgruntled muso, crying in his cornflakes..
or not...
JR
It seems a little contorted to compare beetle's single sales, as they sold lots of albums, and many songs after the first few albums were not AM radio airplay friendly. Album oriented themes (Sgt pepper anyone), results in lots of album sales, not a bunch of hit singles.
There may be some actual disturbing trends in the music business to think about, but this reads like just another disgruntled muso, crying in his cornflakes..
or not...
JR
Kingston
Well-known member
JohnRoberts said:
I thought so too. Reeks of elitism. I mean, why is it depressing Creed has sold more than Hendrix? Who is that guy to say Creed sucks to those millions of people who could not care less about Hendrix? Same goes for just about all of them, I mean come on, not all Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand fans are complete idiots. And the fact Justin Bieber was saved for the last as the "worst thing ever" just tells me the writer is still in his teens.
pucho812
Well-known member
Kingston said:
obviously there is some tongue in cheek to the who list
Ptownkid
Well-known member
Kingston said:
Because even those who liked Creed will tell you it was in a moment of weakness, a dark time in their lives...they are awful, lol.
kepeb
Well-known member
Ha Ha.
I think the quality and musicianship has been in steady decline since the 'industry' began tbh.
but this is only because popular music is usually disheartening to actual music aficionados.
Regular 'People' (read-consumers...as we all are nothing more) haven't the time to discover what else is available. they just let the big bucks heavy rotation radio stations choose for them.
I worked in music/video dept of a superstore for 4 years, we would get 10 or 12 copies of some new releases and about a fuckload of another on Sundays. guess which one would mysteriously be number one in the sales chart come monday morning... having had no previous sales! anywhere!(by the way, research for yourselves which outlets shifted more audio CDs in the last 15 years minimum)
the 'Music Business' has been more Business than Music ever since they put the two together.
And thank goodness. otherwise there would never have been so much invested in recording tools or research, all the gear we love to DIY.
I think the quality and musicianship has been in steady decline since the 'industry' began tbh.
but this is only because popular music is usually disheartening to actual music aficionados.
Regular 'People' (read-consumers...as we all are nothing more) haven't the time to discover what else is available. they just let the big bucks heavy rotation radio stations choose for them.
I worked in music/video dept of a superstore for 4 years, we would get 10 or 12 copies of some new releases and about a fuckload of another on Sundays. guess which one would mysteriously be number one in the sales chart come monday morning... having had no previous sales! anywhere!(by the way, research for yourselves which outlets shifted more audio CDs in the last 15 years minimum)
the 'Music Business' has been more Business than Music ever since they put the two together.
And thank goodness. otherwise there would never have been so much invested in recording tools or research, all the gear we love to DIY.
> compare beetle's single sales
> Creed has sold more than Hendrix
In that Fab-Four day, a 45 (2 tunes) cost 69 cents, and that was a lot of money.
More recently one tune is 99 cents, per-tune price almost triple..... meanwhile hamburger beer and pot are 5X while gasoline and cigarettes are 10X the price back then. Compared to other inflation-adjusted vices, music sales are likely larger than ever. There are also 1.5X more people today (US used to be 200Meg, now 300Meg). Tunes with "identical commercial appeal" should sell larger numbers in 2005 than 1965.
> Creed has sold more than Hendrix
In that Fab-Four day, a 45 (2 tunes) cost 69 cents, and that was a lot of money.
More recently one tune is 99 cents, per-tune price almost triple..... meanwhile hamburger beer and pot are 5X while gasoline and cigarettes are 10X the price back then. Compared to other inflation-adjusted vices, music sales are likely larger than ever. There are also 1.5X more people today (US used to be 200Meg, now 300Meg). Tunes with "identical commercial appeal" should sell larger numbers in 2005 than 1965.
benlindell
Well-known member
I bought a Creed album.
leadbreath
Well-known member
did you hear the terrible news about justin beiber??!!
he was found alive in his hotel room...
he was found alive in his hotel room...
sahib
Well-known member
Kingston said:
I for one and I don't even know who Creed is.
Yeah, so, what? Obviously Plant's tools did not had the same impact as Rihanna's ass and that's not her fault.
I do not normally have the need to hate anybody but I can't stand that REM either. Extremely overrated and totally average music and singing.
I loved Beatles but once more tits beat the bad hair cut.
And so on...
Ptownkid
Well-known member
benlindell said:I bought a Creed album.
It's ok Ben...we won't hold it against you, we all make mistakes.
3nity
Well-known member
Always thought Creed was an average band...but have you heard their last album?? it sounds good.
RIhanna has a great ass but her music sucks..her music videos are better!
RIhanna has a great ass but her music sucks..her music videos are better!
PRR said:
According to Wiki the Beatles sold something like 15 million records (singles and albums) in 1964
The business has changed so much since then I find it hard to make simple comparisons.
Looking at this chart
The charts show dollar sales not units, so I will speculate that the peak and decline in dollars around the mid 70's was the surge in cassette recording (copying) instead of buying personal copies of recordings. I sold kit tape noise reductions back then and cassette recording was very popular.
In the mid to late 90's we saw an up trend in dollars as CDs eclipsed cassettes, and this was further enhanced with a one time phenomenon of people actually replacing some vinyl that was already owned with CDs for the better sound quality (while this opinion is not universally embraced by some).
The peak and fall after 2000 probably coincides with the file sharing trend where people pretty much shared music for free or almost free. Any technical stock chartists will recognize the head and shoulders pattern, and we may be near finishing that trend.
There have been numerous competing models for how we will receive (buy) music in the future. As technology continues to drive the distribution cost down for music, it is unclear (to me ) which model will dominate, or if only one will emerge as a winner. I-tunes and similar web based sales have made some inroads, while another trend is rent or subscription based service (pioneered in GB IIRC). I am not smart enough to predict the future, but I suspect another vector that may emerge is listeners having complete access to personal digital libraries from anywhere in the world, if you can listen to your personal music library from your car or cellphone as easily as in your living room, that could change dynamics too.
Watching the music industry evolve over the years has been interesting. Music videos had a huge impact making visual appeal of artists even more merchantable. The dynamic of live concert performances to support record sales, has at times been a more significant revenue source than the music sales. Where this ends up, nobody knows. It is cheaper and easier these days for anybody to make a recording with decent sound quality, the hard part is still the merchandising, which is why we get (sour grapes) winner/loser lists like in the OP.
Or not...
JR
kato
Well-known member
Pick any decade:
The Turtles sold more than the Mothers. (1967)
Bay City Rollers sold better than Nick Lowe. (1977)
Tiffany sold better than Husker Du. (1987)
Third Eye Blind sells more than Dandy Warhols (1997)
That's just the music business as we know it. It's not really depressing.
The Turtles sold more than the Mothers. (1967)
Bay City Rollers sold better than Nick Lowe. (1977)
Tiffany sold better than Husker Du. (1987)
Third Eye Blind sells more than Dandy Warhols (1997)
That's just the music business as we know it. It's not really depressing.
bruno2000
Well-known member
leadbreath said:
baaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa
mulletchuck
Well-known member
Side note, it seems that article just compares soft/pop music with Rock music.
Emperor-TK
Well-known member
kato said:
I'm sure I could find a much better example than your 1997 one.
kato
Well-known member
Emperor Tomato Ketchup said:
Go for it - I was going by memory - trying to remember what I was listening to at various stages of life. '97 was the first one I had to think hard about. On my turntable was a lot of either mainstream alt rock stuff like Alice in Chains, Our Lady Peace (not discernably better than Third Eye Blind or Matchbox 20 really) the last Urge Overkill album (which I love but Urge fans seem to hate), Veruca Salt, Weezer, the first Semisonic album (my bandmates were influencing a lot of my music listening at the time...) - or else just too obscure to mention. (I bought "The Philosophy of Momus" that year which was my favorite record for a few months.) So what was your '97 like?
