Chuck Klosterman weighs in on the decline of the music business but more interestingly chooses to focus on where did the money go – as in if the music biz is down $4 bil who is spending how much on what?
Even if you know nothing about the music industry, you probably know this: People don’t buy albums anymore. Everyone is aware of this, mostly because this phenomenon is reported on constantly. The soundtrack to High School Musical was considered a commercial success by selling 2.9 million units in all of 2007; seven years before, Britney Spears was able to sell 1.3 million copies of Oops! . . . I Did It Again in a single week. That disparity should be shocking, but it isn’t — by now, anyone who (even casually) follows the music industry is inundated with similarly grim statistics all the time. Interestingly, these stories tend to make music fans happy. People hate corporate record labels and love reading about how the industry is failing. As such, the media coverage of plummeting music sales almost always focuses on how labels are losing money. But this coverage usually ignores an economic element that is less tangible but more interesting: What is happening to all the money not being spent on music? It’s worth a read. [Originally posted at Social Cache]
Ok, so I agree with the reasoning behind Chuck’s arguement; “People stopped buying albums because they wanted the fucking money.” But I think that by making the assumption that it all went toward paying off debt (debt that was accrued by spending on, uh, music), he is brushing off the fact that 4.2 Billion dollars may simply not be part of the music industry economy at all, anymore.
We talk a bunch about the distribution of revenue as it is split between artists and companies, but if there is simply less cash to go around, then that can’t be a good thing for anyone. We need to “make the pie higher.”
April 10th, 2008 at 5:54 amI would like to see what Chuck Klosterman would make of my $59,000 in student loans which may or may not have financed my rock and roll lifestyle.
Also, I would like him to sing the answer.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:04 amFunny, Justin, I disagree, but reach a similar conclusion.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:11 amWhat fascinates me is NOT that record sales are down…but the LACK of reports on the potential or actual collatreral damage this might be causing in other sectors.
How have guitar sales been affected? Is there a domino effect from corporate labels getting their asses kicked and the musical instrument, stompbox and effects rack makers? Do these dots even connect? It doesn’t seem so–and that’s curious. People certainly aren’t making LESS music….the bigger picture is a fascinating thing even at its most murky depths.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am