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Subject: [IP] Music Quality (forwarded from Thane Tierney)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 12:07:43 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Music Quality (forwarded from Thane Tierney)
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Dave,
A record industry friend of mine (who has been having e-mail problems with
comcast) asked me to forward you the item below, relating to the "music
quality" discussion from IP that I forwarded to him.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
------- Forwarded Message
From: "Thane Tierney" <cauchemar@comcast.net>
To: "Lauren Weinstein" <lauren@vortex.com>, dave@farber.net
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: music quality
Hi Lauren,
This is an interesting question, and one that has obviously occupied a
significant amount of processing time in the cranium. I think there are
several reasons for the downturn, creating a sort of musical "perfect
storm."
1) The vinyl replacement boom is finally over. The industry had an
artificial boost for many years as a consequence of the compact disc.
That's done. The only things yet to be issued on CD are things that geeks
like me want, and there's not a significant enough number of us geeks to
make an economic impact.
2) Radio blows. How do people hear new music? Mostly from the radio (from
word of mouth and press also, but largely radio). With razor-thin formats
and tick-tight playlists, radio has raised a generation of consumers that
never had to develop any taste outside the music that immediately resonated
with them. In the golden "boss-hitbound" era of AM radio, the Temptations
were cheek-by-jowl with the Rolling Stones, and things got even more diverse
with the advent of underground FM. Any listener willing to participate in a
bit of a musical experiment would be exposed not only to the Beatles, but
also to Dan Hicks and Osibisa and Pentangle. No more, unless you happen to
live within the listening range of a Vin Scelsa or Tom Schnabel or Rita
Houston or Jody Denberg. There aren't many of them, and their number
decreases annually. From a musical standpoint, I believe there's probably
more interesting music being made now than at any time in history, thanks
to the dramatic reduction in the cost of producing CDs. Now anybody with a
$300 computer and a mic can manufacture his/her own CD; that's opened up the
floodgates to a massive amount of music that would never have been available
in the past. [Check out CDbaby.com for examples by the dozen.]
3) Competition for the entertainment dollar. Twenty years ago, for all
practical purposes, home computers didn't exist. Video games were still in
their infancy. Home video was just getting its sea legs. All of these items
are now major competitors for disposable income (along with the more
traditional things such as movies and books and concerts and the like).
Recorded music will never again enjoy the role it once played as the #2 home
entertainment medium (after television, of course). It just has too much
competition, and we humans have a limited amount of money, and more
importantly, time.
4) The singles format has disappeared. For much of the time in the history
of the record industry, singles were available for people who didn't want to
buy the whole album. The break-even point, from a consumer's point of view,
would be just over two hits. If you were going to buy three singles off an
album, you probably may as well get the album. Of course, you could also buy
the whole albums from your favorite bands straightaway. In fact, there used
to be a distinction in the press (and the minds of many consumers) between
"singles bands" and "album bands." The demise of the commercial single
(which appears to be on the verge of rebirth as a consequence of
file-sharing and the record industry's belated response in the form of legit
mp3 sources such as iTunes and the like) led to more consumer discontent
than the record industry was willing to acknowledge.
A study commissioned by Sony and WEA (my former employers) said that, of
self-identified "heavy downloaders," 45% were buying less music in 2002 than
they did in 2001. Of people who self-identified as "non-downloaders," 38%
said they were buying less music in 2002 than in 2001. That says to me that
downloading, while not entirely overlookable, is a comparatively trivial
issue.
The record industry is currently in a position analogous to radio
broadcasting in 1948, with the onset of television. It needs (and will
undergo, whether it likes it or not) a radical reinvention, and by the time
it's done, it may not look like the thing it once was. Think about it: in
1948, radio drama was the top home entertainment medium, and by 1962 (when
"Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" broadcast its final episode) it was dead as Bob
Hope. Radio, as a medium, survived handily. But most of the functions
performed by radio personnel in 1948 didn't exist anymore, and neither did
their jobs. Well, that sort of change is happening now in the record biz,
and I think it will ultimately be a boon for the consumer, if not for the
industry itself.
With hundreds of millions of files available (or soon to be available), how
will the music consumer decide what to buy? The won't have time, interest or
energy to listen even to 30-second snippet of any more than an infinitesimal
fraction of what's out there, so the function of a "record label" as
gatekeeper/taste arbiter will be perhaps even more important than it is
today. In the future, "brands" such as Vin Scelsa or Jody Denberg (or Amazon
or iTunes) may become as useful or as valuable as Warner Bros. or Sony. It
would be a great relief to me personally if there were someone (whose taste
I clicked with, of course) who was willing and able to sift through the
dross and expose me to things I might want.
Maybe that will be my next gig. Care to subscribe to my newsletter?
Cheers,
Thane
P.S. For Dave & Barry's benefit: I'm Thane Tierney, currently unemployed
--er, consulting-- record industry vet (WB, Enigma, Rhino, Hannibal,
Rykodisc, WEA) who has produced greatest hits packages by both Zachary
Richard and Gordon Lightfoot, and who has contributed liner notes to dozens
of projects.
------- Forwarded Message Ends
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