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MTV: 2007 Borked the Music Industry
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Dec 26, 2007 07:03 AM
from the what-about-the-poetry-and-love-industries dept.
from the what-about-the-poetry-and-love-industries dept.
Sockatume writes "MTV thinks 2007 was the year the music industry broke, and provides a hefty pile of examples to justify it. Unsurprisingly, most of them revolve around the collapse of CD sales and the rise of digital distribution (authorised and otherwise). Be advised that many of the examples are the continuations or repercussions of old favourites (RIAA suits, the Sony rootkit fiasco)."
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it's swedish. (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, so that explains the hit song, "drup it like it's hut".
"Vhen my peemps in zee crib, mun: drup it like it's hut! Sveedeesh Cheff be peempin on 4-fo's!"
It's American (Score:3, Insightful)
It's alright, many of the /. readers today don't really know the term "Borked" and those that come up and post to say they do will have run to Wikipedia first to find out what it means.
On a side note: Many of the things that /.er's complain about the government gettting mixed up in would have been slammed hard by Robert Bork. If he were on the court today he'd be telling Bush and Congress that neither have the authority to do a lot of what they have done.
I think the use of the term "Borked" in the headlin
Re:It's American (Score:5, Informative)
Actually there are two meanings -- the political jargon (which you seem to be referring to), and the nerd jargon [catb.org] (which *does* make sense in this context); given that this is slashdot, I would think that the nerd version is the accepted standard.
Or perhaps you're too young to remember the jargon file? :P
Parent
Re:It's American (Score:5, Funny)
Damn kids, get off my lawn!
Generation whine, with their "jargon files" and all and their epods and blobs and whotubes and "oh we have to save the planet" and damn it, the word is "porn" not "pr0n". Why in my day we have perfectly crumulent words like "groovy" and "far out" and "stick it to the man" wasn't an invitation for gay sex.
Parent
Re:It's American (Score:5, Funny)
You mean petroleum-on-the-hoof?
Parent
Video Killed the Radio Star (Score:5, Funny)
MTV itself is helping with the decline (Score:5, Interesting)
Why should they care? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Why should they care? (Score:5, Funny)
It's not M for music, it's one of those text message/license plate thingies; MT is an abbreviation for "empty" like sk* is an abbreviation for skate. It's "empty-v" as in "no vision". I remember the time when empty-V came on the scene and started confusing rap with rock and tried to fuck up rock and roll forever.
Fortunately it was unsucessful as the empty-V decade (1980s) saw some great rock and roll, little of which got air play on empty-V.
Parent
Re:Why should they care? (Score:5, Funny)
Spoken like a true nerd!
Parent
Re:MTV itself is helping with the decline (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact is, all those "inane" reality shows you deride are there because that's what the audience actually wants.
MTV has a high churn rate, and that's be design. Quite some time ago, they had the decision to keep things "old & friendly" and thereby stick with their founding audience from the time they wore spandex and Jordache jeans in 1985 until they're old and blue-haired. Or, they could evolve every few years, and remain relevant to the teenagers of the day.
And, to be fair, the decision has worked out pretty well for them.
Parent
Re:MTV itself is helping with the decline (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:5, Interesting)
Generally, I do my best to avert my eyes during transfer of customer data but this was a little more involved and I had to verify the integrity of many of the files. With the customer's permission, I played a lot of the music and suddenly began to feel very old: I hadn't previously heard of most of the artists/songs that were recovered.
I'm glad to see that the kids aren't taking the radio monopoly. In my day, we didn't have these mechanisms to stick it to The Man (not that there isn't a problem with having all these files locked up in DRM...)
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:4, Interesting)
What would help music sales, cd or otherwise, is a decent way to find the music people wants to hear. I like classical and spanish guitar. Just the guitar with minimal back round instruments. Try to find that! I was in a borders and a woman asked the sales girl for classical guitar. She pointed the hapless woman over to the classical section. I knew she would find what she was looking for (I was just there and there is not "classical guitar section"). I suggested she tell the customer to pick up some John Williams or Segovia, and the sales girl looked at me confused, and said they were over in classical. NO shit! I know that but the customer doesn't.
Look, it's the digital age. If perhaps record companies spent some money employing people to music knowledge to classify music in a variety of ways, the less musically educated like myself, might actually find what I am looking for and, *gasp*, purchase it.
Parent
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:5, Insightful)
Then they decided that knowledge was not valuable and they could push music through mass market without any sales assitance.
That worked for a while-- but eventually, a new crop of potential customers comes along and you have no contact with them.
It's true of many industries. They decided they only want "top level" people and don't way to pay to train people up any more.
They would use untrained labor or outsourced labor for the low level positions.
Mistake.
Parent
The "Radio Shack" effect (Score:4, Insightful)
Many years ago (probably before most of you were even born), Radio Shack used to employ salesmen who actually knew about electronics. They could read a resistor color code, they could solder; heck when you brought in something to repair (from the "REALISTIC" brand), they would actually fix it in the store. As you might expect, this type of help commanded more than minimum wage.
Some president of Tandy said "Gee, why am I paying so much for sales help. I could offer high-school kids minimum wage and save $millions this year!" which was true, but also eliminated a lot of reason people went to radio shack. So they fired the guys who could actually help you, and hired kids who could find the battery section if you helped them.
So here's where the "Radio Shack Effect" starts... You have customers coming in looking for expert help that is now gone. It takes customers a while to catch on fully, and so over the next 6-36 months, customers don't come back. You're reduced the reason for people coming into the store for parts.. But not before the CEO just added to the bottom line of year 1. Never mind that years 2->forever will have negative growth... that's the next CEO's job to worry about.
And by the way... for some unknown reason, Radio Shack could no longer sell electronics parts. Funny how that worked. So they got rid of the parts, too. I went in the other day looking for fuses; they only had a handful and suggested I go to "Home Depot". Ouch. Tell me again why people go to Radio Shack these days?
Parent
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:5, Funny)
Yea, I hate to SEARCH for music. It would be nice if I didn't have to SEARCH so much, like if there was a webpage which could help me SEARCH for music. Heck, you could even imagine a company making money by offering a SEARCH service of some sort. Like when people SEARCH for airline tickets travel agencies do the SEARCH for them. If there was only some sort of SEARCH company which could help me SEARCH for music in a similar way. Maybe if there was a way to combine SEARCH with ADVERTISING. Do you think anybody could make money that way?
I'm still waiting for gTunes.
Parent
You feel old... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes I think, if new music and movies stopped being created today, but I could legally download all movies and video ever created prior to today, would I care that no more new content is being created?
I don't think so.
Parent
Re:You feel old... (Score:4, Interesting)
I get the chance to instruct young people (18-24) for 16-week long classes a couple times a year, and I always bring up music debates for fun during our down times. With every class, good music that will stand the test of time falls on deaf ears. I often ask them, which song will still be listened to in 20 years, "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Insert Crappy One Hit Wonder Song Here"? Most of them actually think Fall Out Boy will have more playability in 20 years.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
90% of the music I bought in the 1980s when I was a teen went to the trash.
Re:You feel old... (Score:5, Interesting)
They are deathly afraid of "perfect digital copies" of works in
the public domain. Without the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension
(and others like it), companies that make up the MPAA and RIAA
would have to compete against their old classics that could
legally and freely be transfered by everyone across bittorrent.
The net would become one huge version of WGN or TBS and it would
all be perfectly legal...
Parent
Happens every generation, deal with it (Score:5, Insightful)
And even when younger people listen to older music, they HEAR it differently. When I listened to Black Sabbath in the 80's, I wasn't hearing Vietnam protest music (like my uncle heard it). And when a kid listens to MY stuff today, he hears it as "classic metal" (not the way I hear it).
No one likes to think of themselves as out of touch and no longer young and hip. But it eventually happens to us all. Trying to fight it only makes you look pathetic (think Warren Beatty trying to rap in "Bullworth").
Parent
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:4, Informative)
No. No re-downloading at all. A semi-recent development (with iTunes 7.x and up, I believe) is that you can pull purchased music off on an iPod on to another computer. But there is no re-downloading, no matter how you lost your files.
Parent
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:4, Informative)
Just took a phone call, and they re-authorized re-downloading of my pre-purchased music. All it took was my account information (which didn't change) and about 10-15 minutes on the phone. I also seem to recall that that was my "one-time" that you can use in the instance of catastrophic loss in regards to iTunes. I personally loathe anything having to do with the Apple Philosophy, but their customer service was spot-on in this instance.
Parent
Re:The Kids Aren't Taking It (Score:4, Informative)
Sharepod [sturm.net.nz] is what you are looking for.
Parent
It's not the year. It's just a gradual development (Score:5, Insightful)
The music industry's old business model is outdated. Yeah, I know, if there was a "deadhorse" mod option I'd be modded into oblivion now, but maybe if we keep telling them long enough, they will finally listen.
Now, I don't want the MI to die. No, really. I don't want them to go keel up and drown. Yes, we'd still find a way to get our music through the internet, we'd go to artist pages, pay them directly and download our songs. But what about those people who don't have the net? Music is part of our life, would you really want them to do without?
Not that I'd miss American Idol nonreturnable stars, hyped today, forgotten tomorrow, but people want them and want those songs, they want those shallow, hollow feelgood crap. Who am I to dictate they should listen to good music?
So what the MI needs to find, and soon, is some other revenue stream. Personally, I could well see them turn from distributors to marketing assistants. They have excellent connections to TV and radio, so why not become the marketing and PR people for artists who think they can't market themselves?
Yes, that's probably less profitable than the current way. But this way is leading into a dead end, and the longer you run on it, and the faster you do, the more it hurts when you hit the wall at its end.
Re:It's not the year. It's just a gradual developm (Score:5, Insightful)
My company has an informal motto, Adapt or Die. Every 5 years or so we change directions slightly to keep competitive. Mainframe Service -> Sun Service -> Unix Development -> Application Programming no matter what the OS is -> Who know what will be next IT Project Management, Infrastructure Support... But the point is when technology changes so do we, When we feel that the area we are specialized in is dieing or we cant be competitive in then we move to a new area based on what we are good at to a new one that we have skill set to compete in and have potential to be really good at.
The Radio Industry needs to do the same. What happened in the past 10 years or so is technology improved to a point where Music can be shared in perfect condition. In the when Copy Analog to Analog there is a drop in the quality, and every other copy will in turn be worse copy. So from Beginning to Early CD (When most people harddrives were not large enough to cary the information, and they havn't found a way to personally burn your own CD Cheaply) and Music Pirates were limited to rather big operations (At lest the size of a small company) so They could Fight them off and the Fines for Copyright infringement was just. But now technology makes it too easy to copy music, and people want to share music. The industry is holding onto the old ways of doing things... And the need for them in their fashion all may be outdated in a few years, where higher quality Audio recording technology improving and the current High Quality Stuff is dropping, and getting easier to use... So people can make their own high quality music themselves with the Radio Companies Now Musicians will actually need to make their money the old fashion ways Traveling to different locations and sing, and royalties on public/commercial performances of the song. Yes they may not be huge millionaires unless they are cream of the crop, but it is back to the people to decide what they like and dislike.
Parent
Re:It's not the year. It's just a gradual developm (Score:5, Insightful)
If the major-labels and entertainment conglomerates were to disappear tomorrow, radios would still be everywhere, including (especially) in the homes of the poorest. Instead of playing the latest hits from Britney Spears, broadcasters might have to find the music of local artists to play (or get their music from the Internet). There's no way that will provide enough revenue to support the incredibly top-heavy structure of the current entertainment industry. It would be better if they just started looking for real jobs.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In American i buy music online from European bands directly. my friend buys his music right from the artists.
For $500 you can set yourself up to make a few thousand cd's daily, ad in a website and an account at UPS or the post office, and mail away.
The bands that take the time to sign cd's before stuffing the cd into an envelope generally have a much more loyal following, who will pay more for music they perceive to be good.
the Music industry model is outdated. Mus
Re:It's not the year. It's just a gradual developm (Score:5, Funny)
Global warming is killing the RIAA? Yay global warming!
if there was a "deadhorse" mod option I'd be modded into oblivion
Naw, this is slashdot. +5, dead horse
But what about those people who don't have the net?
The only one I know not on the internet is my 76 year old dad, and he hasn't been a music fan since they stopped playing Willie Nelson on the radio. You might as well ask "what about those people who don't have radios".
Parent
no longer offer anything of value (Score:5, Interesting)
Nowadays, most of those functions can be bought-in by the artist themselves. Record companies are now recognised as a barrier rather than the "necessary evil" they once were.
If their demise means more poeple start producing music, themselves, then good luck. As always, some will suceed and some will fail. However the failures will only fail because of their own shortcomings, rather than industry politics, greed, marketing and (lack of) promotion.
If there's anything us normal people can do to help bury the record companies, just let us know
Burying the record companies (Score:5, Insightful)
1. SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC. Go to concerts/pubs/etc., buy self-produced CDs.
2. Buy from non-label-affiliated, artist-friendly Web sites, not fronted by megacorps. Google is your friend here, even if you're not buying from them.
3. When permitted by the artist or by "fair use" in your jurisdiction, share samples with friends or play a few tracks you're partial to for them. Word of mouth has been the greatest aid to supporting musicians since music was invented.
4. Write to your local radio station (in the US, undoubtedly ClearChannel, alas), as well as to their advertisers. Tell them that you support independent music, and won't be buying overpriced Big Label CDs any more. ClearChannel might not notice, but chances are much better that your local grocery chain or even some non-music-industry large advertisers *will* make adjustments if they've got a couple of thousand unique letters and emails coming in every week.
5. Listen to and support independent Internet radio stations. Their costs are going up way beyond orbital, thanks to the megacorps and the Bush-league "Copyright Royalty Board". While you're at it,
Yes, it means we, the fans (customers), have to put in some effort. We're going to have to break old buying habits, and actually pay attention. That's the price of living in a world where you're a customer, not just a consumer. Remember the famous quote by Jerry Michalski: a consumer is "a gullet whose only purpose in life is to gulp products and crap cash." We can do better than that. If we're going to move beyond being told what to listen to, what to think, by the megacorps, we HAVE to do better than that. visit http://www.savenetradio.org/ [savenetradio.org] and stay informed. Fellow Americans, write (not email) your Senators and Congressperson to remind them that you care about this - and when they vote for bills like the Internet Radio Equality Act, write them thank-you notes. Congressional staff *notice* when a few hundred (or thousand) non-fill-in-the-blank letters come in on an issue... that's votes talking.
Remember, the megacorps are counting on the likelihood that you won't do anything, that you'll just continue to "crap cash" on schedule - THEIR schedule. They're counting on the "I'm too busy" or "I'm only one person" naysayers to tamp down enthusiasm, and let them carry the day.
You are personally, individually, solely responsible for the world around you. If you don't like the way things are being done, get involved. This is one relatively easy, open, effective way to start.
Parent
It takes less than 1,000's of letters (Score:3, Interesting)
We did modify what we were doing if a score or more indicated a trend. In one or two cases,
Re:Burying the record companies (Score:4, Funny)
Is this off the root directory?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, the MI isn't stupid and has long realized that the need for expensive studios and their distribution isn't really the big selling point anymore. So their other angle is it: "With us, you get to number 1".
And face it, that's how it is. No artist on this planet has the necessary ties to radio, TV, music newspapers and magazines. No artist could possibly create the hype.
That music quality plays no role anymore can easily be seen in the charts. Take a look at whatever random moment you want to an
Re:no longer offer anything of value (Score:4, Interesting)
I almost completely agree. I think that the big record companies as they are now are unnecessary. However, I don't think we'll see record companies go away completely. Instead, they'll change into part-record company/part-ad agency. An artist will sign with Record Company X to promote their new music. The record company will be able to recommend places to record, etc, but the artist won't be contractually bound to use those services. (At most, the record company might get a kickback under the table for promoting those services.) The record company also won't take ownership of the copyright on the music. What the record company will do mainly is promotion. They will arrange for the radio airplay. They will get articles in magazines about the band. They will arrange for the band to play on the hip new TV sitcom. Whatever it takes to get the band's name and music out there, the record company will do. And if the band doesn't like how the record company is handling promotions, they can dump them and sign up with a new record company. (Similar to how any company can dump their ad agency and go with another one.)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You have always needed a label to be a "big star", but it's only recently that you could actually make a living on your own, and that
Good riddance... (Score:5, Interesting)
They've resisted the changes because the money's so good. Even when it's still as bad as they claim it to be, there's still a lot of execs and Producers and underlings driving BMW's.
It's no longer the 70's and they can't sit in the back room snorting blow and not expect everything outside of their little party to have changed.
They should have backed iTunes more vigirously instead of having to be hauled into the 21st century like a 2-year old that doesn't want to go to bed. They should have backed a DRMless format. They should have coupled with a tech source to make the benefits of an offering where the DRM would be acceptable to the listener. The should have comprehended that the entertainment dollar is now split between them and video games and the internet and everything else.
2007: the year slashot rebelled against spelling (Score:4, Insightful)
They broke themselves (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny (Score:4, Interesting)
And we care because? (Score:3, Interesting)
TV? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
bad music? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulja_Boy [wikipedia.org]
He recorded his song and posted it on the web, got popular with people, published independently, and was only picked up by a major label after he'd already established himself on his own.
I concur, I hate the song too, but it's not a viable example of how the music industry pops out bad music, it's an example people liking music that I hate.
Funny article from the company who ignores music (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is greed. (Score:4, Insightful)
But they have made the "official" channels very painful in their lust for the last dime of profit.
For example, this morning during my 25 minute drive to work, one of the radio stations never had a song on. I kept switching to it because I like the style of music but never got a song. They wanted money so much that I ended up not listening to any adds for more than the 3 seconds to determine.. yup.. still no songs. If I could count on 30 seconds of ads and then another good song- I might actually stay through the ad. but once the ads start, I know it will be a few minutes so I skip on over to other radio stations.
Same thing for TV. We've gone from 8 minutes of ads to 20 minutes (some times 22 minutes) of ads per hour. And we can skip the ads by touching a button. They have to be insane to think we are watching the ads. Sell fewer ads for more money. Have shorter ad blocks so we won't leave.
The music industry has a great potential for a lot of people to make six figure salaries. But that's not good enough for them. So they keep pushing until it becomes so unpleasant that we go elsewhere.
I can easily spend an evening on YouTube or watching DVD's (Mission impossible season 2 for christmas so another 20 hours there without commercials).
If they are the most expensive entertainment possibility, they are the most likely to be cut.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So maybe the big labels declined, but my guess is that the smaller houses are growing...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think so. Pop music was always driven by the under-25 demographic, which also happens to be the most price-conscious. It makes sense that when a relatively risk and price free method of gaining music became available, this demographic would jump on that to the detriment of CD sales.
>I've stopped buying CDs ages ago. I'm not downloading music either.
You told me your singular (irrelevant) experience, so I'll tell you mine. Out of all my friend's kids, not one asks f