Game, DVD Sales Hurting Music Industry More Than Downloads [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

Aguazul writes with this excerpt from the Guardian: "The music industry likes to insist that filesharing — aka illegal downloading — is killing the industry; that every one of the millions of music files downloaded each day counts as a 'lost' sale, which if only it could somehow have been prevented would put stunning amounts of money into impoverished artists' hands. ... If you even think about it, it can't be true. People — even downloaders — only have a finite amount of money. In times gone by, sure, they would have been buying vinyl albums. But if you stopped them downloading, would they troop out to the shops and buy those songs? I don't think so. I suspect they're doing something different. I think they're spending the money on something else. What else, I mused, might they be buying? The first clue of where all those downloaders are really spending their money came in searching for games statistics: year after year ELSPA had hailed 'a record year.' In fact ... games spending has risen dramatically — from £1.18bn in 1999 to £4.03bn in 2008. Meanwhile music spending has gone from £1.94bn to £1.31bn."http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&op=image&style=h0&sid=09/06/12/2043209 (http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/06/12/2043209/Game-DVD-Sales-Hurting-Music-Industry-More-Than-Downloads?from=rss)
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[Push Upstairs]

I looked up "RIAA" under Google Images and this is all that showed up:

http://cornerstork.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/crying_baby.jpg?w=298&h=298

[Ponyone]

Artists make cents on cd sales. They get all their moniez with concerts/merch

[Sonicwolf]

Artists make cents on cd sales. They get all their moniez with concerts/merch

There is also the final solution of World of Warcraft commercials and Guitar Hero game releases based off your band. LOL

[Ponyone]

So true. How are videogame sales hurting artists these days? Most games include licensed music and some games are all about licensed music. and movies have licensed music.

What is up with this zany article?

[Sonicwolf]

So true. How are videogame sales hurting artists these days? Most games include licensed music and some games are all about licensed music. and movies have licensed music.

What is up with this zany article?

Its called writing articles for the hell of it. Next thing you know "Video games will be stopping people from buying books", then "video games cause womans to get abortions". Sensationalism. Lets all worry about nothing now. Lets all stop buying video games and give the rich idiots more money.

[Rob2600]

People can blame video games, DVDs, downloads, or whatever they want, but what's really hurting music sales the most is the horrendous state of music.

Where I used to work, my coworkers would leave the radio on all day and I'd hear the same dozen, terrible, annoying songs over and over. Mainstream music shouldn't even be called music anymore. There's no musicality to it. There's no dynamics, no inventiveness, and the singers all try to sound like each other.

Dear record labels: Stop releasing improperly mastered, me-too garbage. Instead, release well-crafted, creative music and people will buy it.

[Sonicwolf]

People can blame video games, DVDs, downloads, or whatever they want, but what's really hurting music sales the most is the horrendous state of music.

Dear record labels: Stop releasing improperly mastered, me-too garbage. Instead, release well-crafted, creative music and people will buy it.

Everything music wise has been going down since the 1990s. I wish 70s and 80s music would come back instyle. Now there's quality and creativity

[guitargary75]

It's stealing, plain and simple. If you don't mind stealing, go ahead! Pizzas cost about $1.50 to make, but they sell them for about $14.00 to $18.00. Same idea, only you can't download pizza for free. But, try and justify it if you want to?

[guitargary75]

People can blame video games, DVDs, downloads, or whatever they want, but what's really hurting music sales the most is the horrendous state of music.

Where I used to work, my coworkers would leave the radio on all day and I'd hear the same dozen, terrible, annoying songs over and over. Mainstream music shouldn't even be called music anymore. There's no musicality to it. There's no dynamics, no inventiveness, and the singers all try to sound like each other.

Dear record labels: Stop releasing improperly mastered, me-too garbage. Instead, release well-crafted, creative music and people will buy it.

I agree!

[Nature Boy]

People can blame video games, DVDs, downloads, or whatever they want, but what's really hurting music sales the most is the horrendous state of music.

Where I used to work, my coworkers would leave the radio on all day and I'd hear the same dozen, terrible, annoying songs over and over. Mainstream music shouldn't even be called music anymore. There's no musicality to it. There's no dynamics, no inventiveness, and the singers all try to sound like each other.

Dear record labels: Stop releasing improperly mastered, me-too garbage. Instead, release well-crafted, creative music and people will buy it.

I disagree. The quality of music really isn't any better or worse than it's ever been. Think Sturgeon's Law.

Radio stations program their music that way for a reason: it gets them the most listeners. They're not there to sell you CDs.

[Fuzzball24]

People can blame video games, DVDs, downloads, or whatever they want, but what's really hurting music sales the most is the horrendous state of music.

Where I used to work, my coworkers would leave the radio on all day and I'd hear the same dozen, terrible, annoying songs over and over. Mainstream music shouldn't even be called music anymore. There's no musicality to it. There's no dynamics, no inventiveness, and the singers all try to sound like each other.

Dear record labels: Stop releasing improperly mastered, me-too garbage. Instead, release well-crafted, creative music and people will buy it.

There is, you just have to search for it...

Listen to indie, there are always creative bands coming out that are literally trying new stuff. Weird stuff sometimes (in a good way), but definitely enjoyable.

[Rob2600]

I disagree. The quality of music really isn't any better or worse than it's ever been.

So The Supremes were no better than Katy Perry? The Beatles were no better than Coldplay? The Who was no better than The Killers? Donna Summer was no better than Pink? Hank Williams was no better than Toby Keith? Stevie Wonder was no better than Gnarles Barkley?


Listen to indie, there are always creative bands coming out that are literally trying new stuff.

If they're "indie," then they're not on major record labels...and if they're not on major record labels, then they don't get as much radio play or marketing.

I was referring to mainstream music in my previous post. Mainstream music - music played on the radio a lot - used to be The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, The Police, Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Prince, Nirvana, The Cranberries, etc. The songs were creative and catchy and the musicians and singers were talented.

Now, all of the songs are produced to sound alike and are over-processed and stripped of any dynamic range. The mainstream music industry is pumping out garbage.

If record labels want me to buy CDs and download new songs, they need to hire better producers and stop hard-clipping and distorting the waveforms.

[unwinddesign]

Hendrix wasn't super popular when he was alive. His legend grew like ten-fold once he died. He was acknowledged as the best guitarist (or one of the best), but people were still latching on to his sound when he died. More college radio/underground/hippie movement (still sold a shitload of records) than mainstream a la the Beach Boy and the Beatles.

People always are critical of music/games etc. in the timeframe. Led Zep's first album got slammed by critics, as an example.

"Pop" music may have become poorer in general, but I think there's some mainstream stuff that's worth listening to. U2, for one, although some people hate them. I don't think Coldplay is that bad, to be honest. I don't know why everyone shits on them so heavily. Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Incubus. I'm just naming rock acts because my tastes cater towards that.

I think it's unfair to compare 2000s era music to the 1960s. Way different political climate, way different social climate. Music is a lot about feeling...almost all of it is feeling. Expressing your emotions, your thoughts via drum beats, guitar riffs, vocal lines etc. etc. It was a hectic time period, as was the seventies, and I think that reflects the music. Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds, Electric Ladyland, Zep IV, Exile on Main Street. All that stuff was in your face, controversial, for one reason or another. The Beatles singing about LSD trips and the Stones singing about not getting any satisfaction was RIDICULOUS for the time period. Now, it seems, nothing fazes us. I mean, shit, if there's 2 Girls 1 Cup and 1 Guy 1 Cup on the 'net, how can music really one up that?

Point being, I think there's *plenty* of quality mainstream music. It's just different. You're not going to get another Hendrix, or another Beatles. But we have Mayer and DMB. Do they compare? Different periods, different vibes, but the main idea is still there... Obviously, the Beatles are in a league all their own (by society's standards, not my own), so comparing DMB to them is impossible, but I think it's a similar type of songwriting flow (early Beatles), at some basic level... Is it all good? No. But were the Monkees good? No, but they sold a shitload of records. Was Poison actually good? No. And on and on. Do you *honestly* believe Pat Benatar was that good? C'mon. Even pop on a Nirvana record. It really doesn't hit you like it did in 1990 (or the first time you listened to it); some of the tracks are still good, but a lot of them, it was the time (grunge baby!) and teenage angst gen-x rebellion. What about Henry Lee Summer in the '80s? He had some hits. He sucked. But there will good "mainstream" acts from this era that are remembered fondly and respected in 25 years.

Rose tinted glasses are nice, but they hide the shades of color from our current world...or something. Yeah, Katy Perry and Lady GaGa really aren't my bag, but they'll be gone before you know it. Those that enjoy that stuff, let them. But there's stuff on the radio that's good, and there's more music, readily available, than there has ever been. I'd suspect, though, if you listened to a top 40 station in 1968 you'd have heard a ton of shitty music along with your Cream, Elvis and Beatles.

[Push Upstairs]

If the RIAA thinks things are bad now, I wonder how the future will play out for them.

I think all they have really done over the last 10 years is make the people they should be selling to (teens/twentysomethings) hate them.

[Nature Boy]

So The Supremes were no better than Katy Perry? The Beatles were no better than Coldplay? The Who was no better than The Killers? Donna Summer was no better than Pink? Hank Williams was no better than Toby Keith? Stevie Wonder was no better than Gnarles Barkley?

My opinion? Directly comparing artists is about as useful as directly comparing athletes: it's fun for the media, but in the end it's meaningless. Every artist stands on their own.

Everything changes. If there were a modern day version of the Supremes you'd be bored with them because they were just the Supremes.