So just where is the recording industry heading? Guesses, anyone?
I wonder what is the sense among our community of what the immediate future will be for music recordings.
Norman Lebrecht's pronouncements aside, it seems that for commercial music in particular, announcements of the death of the CD have been exaggerated.
One recent report in Australia claimed that "aside from people actually wanting to buy the latest releases of the likes of AC/DC or Pink or the master recycler Andre Rieu, the global financial meltdown meant instead of people lashing out and buying big ticket items, the $20 CD was seen as good value"... That is, the economic downturn is actually good for the recording business, particularly if you are still trying to sell physical product, as opposed to just downloads.
But the nigh ubiquitousness of iPods and similar mp3-playing devices among the younger generations in particular can only mean that the gradual ascendency of music downloads is not, ultimately, likely to be threatened.
Or will we always want our prized music to have a physical embodiment?
Norman Lebrecht's pronouncements aside, it seems that for commercial music in particular, announcements of the death of the CD have been exaggerated.
One recent report in Australia claimed that "aside from people actually wanting to buy the latest releases of the likes of AC/DC or Pink or the master recycler Andre Rieu, the global financial meltdown meant instead of people lashing out and buying big ticket items, the $20 CD was seen as good value"... That is, the economic downturn is actually good for the recording business, particularly if you are still trying to sell physical product, as opposed to just downloads.
But the nigh ubiquitousness of iPods and similar mp3-playing devices among the younger generations in particular can only mean that the gradual ascendency of music downloads is not, ultimately, likely to be threatened.
Or will we always want our prized music to have a physical embodiment?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Louise on -
Martin this is incredibly important - thank you for alerting us all! Apologies if I'm the last to hear about this but - TONIGHT folks - first live concert in a series from the Berlin Phil streamed online... I'll be watching! See Martin's link above and follow through to the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall Site...
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Permalink Reply by Peter Tregear on -
If this is indeed true, then it is a sad day indeed for classical music. Though, from what Normal Lebrecht describes, Decca had been in effect dead for some time. And it may be that the record label, as traditionally conceived, cannot survive no matter how sentimental we might get about its heritage. But we should take his point about the loss of quality control in production and artist selection seriously. More reason why we need to develop new economies of music--preferably where artists themselves have much more direct access to their audiences, and vise-versa. MusBook, anyone? ;-)
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