Taylor Swift sold 592,000 copies of her new record making herself immune from the dwindling record biz. She is more than an artist, she is a role model and a figure head to a certain segment in this generation. Christina Aguilera ‘Keeps Gettin’ Better” came out just in time for the Christmas holiday but sold only 72,869. Old School marketing strategies cannot get the public excited to spend 10 bucks on a diva that graces the pages of tabloid mags and gossip columns. Pink’s ‘Funhouse’ sold 52,000 records this week. Metallica’s ‘Death Magnetic’ sold 31,000 records, can we say they cameback? Regardless, The Day That Never Comes is a classic song. AC/DC ‘Black Ice’ sold 105,146 with a total of 1,320,000.
Guns N’ Roses new release expects to sell 600k in its first week, which would make this one of the biggest releases of the year. Once again, where are the new artists?
Trends .. they rely on old time artists to dig us out of this mess.
Downloading is only part of the problem.
The main problem is artist development and discovery of new artists. Major and Indie labels are hung up on this “Prove yourself” method for ROI. If you haven’t toured, sold 100,000 cd independently, or been played on mainstream radio .. which labels should be doing artists .. not themselves .. then you’re not worthy of being signed .. which is BS. That is fine with me .. keep following this business model. It will be the death of everything.
StoneRider. these boys are going to be filling the shoes of some of these classic bands over the next few years. be on the lookout for them.
Completely agree realmad.
I think Christina Aguilera has done a really great job of minimizing & controlling her time in the public spotlight. I don’t pay all that much attention, but I don’t hear NEAR as much about her as I do Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Lily Allen, Vanessa whatits, etc. She’s certainly not out clamoring for attention. In that respect, I think she’s one of the classier pop superstars. I also think she’s more talented than the whole lot of them combined.
Keeps Getting Better just isn’t a very strong song, certainly not enough to move tonnage on a hits collection two years after her last release. And you don’t name a hits collection after the new single… that’s just retarded & completely undermines the concept. Plus it’s a Target exclusive… this is a WEAK holiday cash-in. It’s a bloated single. And it’s sad, too, because a Christina Aguilera hits collection could have a huge impact if she waited another year, released another record as good as Back to the Basics (though not as bloated), & then put out the hits collection six months later.
older artist appeal to an older demographic, one which is more likely to go out and buy a cd they heard is being released…
Brian: The younger generation once bought cds!!!! your point is invalid.
The younger generation also once bought bell bottoms. The point is valid.
Either way, new artists are stifled by market research, 360 deals, and indecisive label leadership. Trust me…I’ve been there. 2 years on a major with no release date. Labels don’t want to develop…and that’s the problem. It takes an artist 2-3 records to hit stride, but if the first one doesn’t sell, it’s back to living with mom and dad.
After a few years, it’s either:
keep waiting.
go back to school.
get a real job.
The advance was small, and not enough to last 2 years after taxes. Additionally, after a few years we aren’t as young as we used to be, and through no fault of our own we’re almost too old…but still signed.
Music is a real job..
Christina Aguilara? Really??????? Jon Cole…..wow. You have hit a new tasteless level even roping “talent” in with her. Vocal melissma’s over and over…and over and over…and again……I can find 100,000 little girls who sing into their hairbrush who practice nothing but that. The music should stand the test of time, and her stuff is just plain bad.
…only if you look at it as a job.
what?
Your ears are shot. For that genre C. Aguilera excels.
She was tearing it up as a pre-teen on Star search. Make your jaw drop that a 10, 11 year old could sing that well. You will be hard pressed to find a singer with that kind of range and control.
You are right on one account. At the end of the day its the song itself that matters most.
I heard Taylor Swift sing live on the CMAs and was in total shock. Sounded like any amateur. Not that its the most important thing but by God her technical ability as a vocalist was nil. I dont understand why Nashvegas is pushing her as a mega talented superstar.
realmad, sorry to break it to ya, but cd’s are a dying product. it is being dropped as a form of distributing data for software as well. the life lifespan is at its end. you can not expect kids to buy cds still, in 2008.
yet real music revenue still comes from cd sales. so the industry is going to keep its priority on “old” artists with a built in fan base.
any new acts are not artists. it is predictable crap. but large lables can not take the time and effort to build an artist career. they need their acts to generate big revenue fast.
labels used to sign music that scared parents… ac/dc, metallica, gnr. those bands lived the life they were on the edge.
how can you expect to sway the mass’s of youth with the safe crap they sign and push now? yet the money time does not exist for the risk of a modern day metallica.
sorry to sound kinda lefsetz in my comment, i guess i do agree with bob on a few points.
“any new acts are not artists. it is predictable crap. but large lables can not take the time and effort to build an artist career. they need their acts to generate big revenue fast.labels used to sign music that scared parents… ac/dc, metallica, gnr. those bands lived the life they were on the edge. how can you expect to sway the mass’s of youth with the safe crap they sign and push now? yet the money time does not exist for the risk of a modern day metallica.”
brian is so riiiight! You can’t expect anyone to develop lame predictable artists.
Of course I’d love to hear her do a stripped down, to-the-point, Berry Gordy style record. But for over-the-top, extravagant pop, she & Mariah Carey stand alone. And lately she’s gotten worldss better production than Mariah. Come On Over, Beautiful, Candyman, etc… classic songs. Most of that last record was really really good.
there’s a whole generation who spent age 13-20 getting free music and never having to buy music they listened to. that’s a pretty fat bottleneck.
“any new acts are not artists. it is predictable crap. but large lables can not take the time and effort to build an artist career. they need their acts to generate big revenue fast.”
My response: Then you can pretty much kiss music goodbye.
DIY doesn’t work, 360 deals do not work, CDs need to be the driving force. Artist development needs to be the driving force. Singles do not work .. purchasing single tracks on iTunes does not work .. for crying out loud .. I wish Jobs would pull that machine down.
BUT .. keep “updating” your ways to fit “technology” and do not solve the real issue at hand .. TRUE TALENT
The idea isn’t & has never been to update your ways to fit technology. It’s only about consumer demand. There are more technologically advanced mp3 players than the iPod. There are more technologically advanced formats than the cd, nevermind the mp3. It’s simply that consumers have chosen the way that they want to consume, & the cards are in their hands.
The customer is always right. That’s just the way it is. Which isn’t to say “allow yourself to get walked all over,” it’s to say “find a way to run your business that satisfies the customer but also keeps the company happy.” The demands of the consumer construct a box within which you have to work… if you can’t work within that box, well then it’s time to hand the reigns over to someone who can. Because there’s always someone who can.
Jon,
Apparently the consumers want physical copies of Metallica and other name brands who sell big .. there is a formula behind it. PUSH NEW TALENT = ARTIST DEVELOPMENT = CDS
Guys .. is this really rocket science?
“Sell big?” Really? 1.3m is big? And this is Metallica’s huge comeback?
The Black album was released in August 13 of 1991. It was triple platinum by November. Death Magnetic was released in September 12 this year & will have to see a gigantic spike in sales (a triple digit percentage jump) to sell half of that by December. And after that it will continue to peter off… there’s not a chance in hell that it will go on to sell 13m. Five years from now it will be extraordinarily lucky to be triple platinum.
Of course this record isn’t nearly as good as the Black album, which isn’t even a Metallica record that I particularly enjoy, but I digress… the fact is that they’re seeing a gigantic sales drop just like new artists.
Music isn’t as good these days, sure. But that doesn’t stop kids from downloading every Led Zeppelin song off of Limewire. It doesn’t stop kids from uploading their dad’s AC/DC cds to rapidshare. We’re so stuck on monitoring cd sales that we miss the GARGANTUAN amount of file sharing (i.e. INTEREST IN MUSIC BOTH PAST & PRESENT) that is going on day & night. Why not monetize that?
And I’m not against artist development, I’m a gigantic proponent of artist development, but I think that even developing genuine talent isn’t going to bring the physical sales that it used to, nevermind the revenue potential that belies molding our model to consumer behavior (which is to say pricing digital music relative to the storage capacity of the iPod & encouraging impulse buys, not discouraging them).
It’s not rocket science, but it is a new landscape & new behavior that requires a new model. There is no question about that.
Jon,
Maybe Metallica and other artists would push more albums if there wasn’t a lack of artist ingenuity and development
And maybe bands would sell more records if they all converted to Christianity & God reached his hand down from the heavens & pushed folks through the doors of Best Buy.
How can you get more developed than Metallica? And ingenuity? Lameness of the new record aside (this doesn’t seem to be the consensus, after all), they are running their ship near to perfectly. They do a great job with livemetallica.com, their merch is bitchin’, their fan club is really active, there’s ALWAYS something going on… they’re releasing the Black album on vinyl this Friday. The hype building up to the record was great… I was really excited to hear it (I grew out of listening to hard rock years ago but I found myself watching 2 hour long interviews with Lars the week before it hit stores). They even recorded the type of songs that their fans wanted.
If Metallica’s sales are kaput (relatively speaking), there just plain isn’t hope for a future where the industry relies on cds.
Should there be more artist development? Absolutely. But that’s not going to save the cd.
No .. my point being .. it will save artists’ perceptions to come in the future. Therefore everyone will not be so negative .. taking these lame “DIY” approaches. As much as the major labels are to blame .. we need people that want to partake in the industry and artist development. Its like the economy .. you don’t buy .. demand is thrown off and everyone is in a slump. Lack of artist development gives a bad perception to artist. Digital sales give a bad perception to artist.
BTW: I think the new Metallica cd is good for its space in time. I would say its “lame”.
Wouldn’t *
This is cute. Some people still think that the industry is suffering from one problem that can simply be fixed.
So…
1). Illegal downloading
2). Competing public interests (You Tube, ps3, blue ray, etc…)
3). Improper label accounting
4). Homogenization
5). Pro Tools
6). Technology
7). 360 deals
8). Shareholder demands
9). Like, ten thousand others
It’s not just that more cds need to be sold. What’s the one thing you’d change about your ex girlfriend? Clearly she had a boatload of problems if you jumped ship. Same thing with consumers: they left the labels. They won’t take them back. Some things are really over when they’re over. This isn’t a “how to avoid a nuclear holocaust” discussion, it’s a “how to survive the fallout” discussion.
Change the perspective and it could be more constructive.
Then how do u explain a music industry without labels and pure DIY marketing? I can’t nearly see it possible. There is no distribution and marketing power. Online marketing medium = spam. Without the right people behind your product .. what is there left?
I think you’ve got it backwards. I think perception dictates what kind of purchases that are made, not the other way around. The perception is inherent to the music… if something’s seen as cheesy or gimmicky, like the Katy Perry single, people are only going to download the single. But if they see an artist as more thoughtful or if they have a stronger connection with the artist, if they feel like the artist is quality enough that they aren’t taking a risk buying the extra songs that they haven’t heard, as with an artist like Wilco, then you will likely see more album sales, proportionally.
Most people I know don’t have a perception of how many records most bands sell, nevermind the format they’re selling. It’s all going to end up on the iPod or iPhone anyway. Most people I hang out with judge the success of an artist by which venue they’re playing & how packed the venue is.
Spending is the back side of the economy, if everyone is just spending spending spending, we go into debt & then we end up where we are & our dollar goes down the shitter (which isn’t quite as bad if we take everyone else down with us). Economic growth revolves around developing products or technologies & turning them into cash. That’s real wealth, not handing out a $500,000 loan to a gardener who makes $15,000 a year & betting on that house to turn into profit. We should be developing products & technologies that people want & need while keeping production costs to an absolute minimum. When you do that, when your economy isn’t dependent on dot com or real estate speculation, you see real growth & wealth that will defy a recession like the one we’re in.
But there are a lot of parallels between the economic crisis & the “recorded music crisis.” Both lost sight of the needs of the consumer, instead convincing themselves that they could manufacture the numbers. Lenders dropped their requirements for loans in an effort to hand out more & then sell them to investors, ignoring the longterm needs & the financial position of the home buyer. Home builders started developing neighborhoods left & right, expecting the values to keep rising to outrageous numbers that completely defied the true demand. In the same way, the labels dropped their requirements for bands, opting to push lowest-common-denominator bullshit, ignoring the longterm needs of the consumer to be touched, to be affected, & to be bettered, expecting first week sales records to keep being broken week after week. Just like a gardener can be easily convinced to take out a loan for a gigantic house, a music listener can be convinced to buy a Fergie record if you put her in the right clothes, hype it up enough, & repeat it enough. If you tell the average consumer that something is good for them enough times, they will believe you. But these cheap sales come back to bite you in the ass. When you lose sight of consumer wants & consumer needs, when the manufacture starts making the rules & credits themselves with their own success, you’re heading down an unsustainable path & when consumer needs catch up with you, you’re going to spend more than you profited trying to dig yourself out of the hole.
In that way the music industry drove consumers to Napster. I was attracted to Napster because I could download Dave Matthews bootlegs… I was looking for authenticity, & it took me a while but I’ve found it in acts like Blitzen Trapper, Jenny Lewis, and Shovels & Rope, artists that I connected with via the internet. But you can’t find authenticity going through tracks at $1 a piece. The landscape has changed, & I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. I’ll download dozens of records over the next six weeks as I go through all of my friends’ year-end lists & I just can’t afford to pay $1/ea for those songs. There’s a possibility that I’ll just download them all illegally & then go back & buy the ones I really enjoy. But instead of spending $150 on 10 cds, what would be so wrong with me spending $150 on downloading 50 albums ($.30/song @ 10 songs/record)? That reflects a change in consumer behavior & the transition from cds to the iPod. It blows my mind how wildly disconnected the price of music is from the medium of standard consumption (the iPod).
The way to correct the fault isn’t to force people back into a place they were forced out of, it’s to get back in touch with the consumer… what they want & what they need. And to deliver that.
*standard medium of consumption
they can’t get in touch with the ‘consumer’ if there is crappy music/talent out there. Lets focus on what is front of us.
lmao! I swear to god. Napster was in front of us a decade ago. That’s still an issue that should be addressed later on? Is that really what you’re saying? Are you fucking kidding me?
Putting out the greatest record of all-time on cd is like putting a greatest jockey of all-time on a deadbeat horse.
Developing true talent is quite necessary, yes. The industry has lost touch with what people need out of music… they’ve abandoned the Bob Dylans, the David Bowies, & the Neil Youngs for Fergies & Britneys & whatever. But fixing the talent issue alone isn’t going to save the industry.
You’re just as out of touch as anyone if you think physical media has any place in the future.
Jon,
I have worked for majors, I was signed, I have been in bands, I did the whole DIY at one time, and I have my masters degree in Business Administration. I am not “stupid” if that is what you’re alluding too. I am also not a “bitter” musician who has been dropped arguing on message boards/sites. I am trying to shed light on the issue and argue my opinion from what I have experience and have dealt with in the music industry. I don’t mean to throw around credentials like some pompous a-hole, but apparently you think I am “out of touch” when I really am not.
Just because you played bass in Dexter Freebish or something doesn’t make you in touch. Doug Morris has more credentials than you’ll ever have, & he’s operating Universal like a def, dumb, & blind monkey, throwing shit against a wall & hoping it sticks.
Your long list of illustrious credentials puts you in a boat with thousands upon thousands of others… that’s the story of pretty much everyone I know. I don’t see how you expect that to validate your hunch that CDs will sell again if the right acts were to be promoted.
It’s a natural progression, consumers gravitate towards more convenient forms of media. It’s not like we “arrived” with cds & that would be the format for recorded music forevermore.
Think about it… when was the last time you saw a Discman? They’re about as prevalent as Walkmans were when I bought my first Discman. The people who do still buy music only buy it out of habit, & they rip it to their computer & put it on their iPod. Older automobiles are the one thing truly driving cd sales, & as those are replaced with newer models that have iPod integration we’ll see a rapid dissipation of physical sales. At this point there is absolutely no turning back.
Music quality dropped throughout the 90’s as sales numbers skyrocketted… quality was at it’s lowest when sales were at their highest. Physical sales dropped, instead, along with the proliferation of the soft format. The more people started using Napster, the more people started using Kazaa, the more people started using Limewire or eMusic or iTunes or Audio Galaxy or Soulseek or whatever, the less CDs sold. These are CONVERSIONS, these don’t revert. Period. This is an unstoppable phenomenon with a decade of momentum, there is no fighting it.
Is iTunes the answer? Of course not. The real solution has to involve pricing that reflects the storage capacity of the iPod. And it has to revolve around bundled (ie album) sales, not cherry picked singles. And it has to be an environment that blows the illegal competition out of the water. But the solution is digital. This isn’t up in the air.
I’m not saying you’re stupid. You might be, but I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that all you seem to be going on is a hunch. I’m just saying that you aren’t providing any data, backing up your statements or providing any convincing arguments. You aren’t bringing to light any trends that might suggest a resurgence of physical sales. Likely it’s because all of that data and all of the trends suggest the opposite. But you could at least give it a go.
As a music consumer, my wish list is:
1. A way to filter-in the great stuff I’ve never heard (e.g. “book of love” by Stephen Merritt). Non-profit radio helps, but I don’t have tons of free time to listen. It would be nice if I could feed some favorites (Beatles, Bach, Chairlift) into a program and it would spit out a few thousand songs to check out. If I liked a song, I’d then buy it (see #2).
2. A way to buy songs, as was suggested above, for a reasonable price like 30 cents each. I’d also like the “ownership” to be permanent like a CD, not “copy to 3 devices then it’s gone.” These days I’m not buying anything – CD or download. I’m also not downloading free stuff because I find that painful – just occasionally ripping a friend’s CD.