I agree with most of the above. A few other things to consider...
The labels and radio created an atmosphere that feeds on the one-hit wonder phenomenon to a huge extent. Their acts are almost all singles acts, not album acts. Why should any customer be expected to buy an entire album to get that one single? Yet, that's exactly what they expect to happen. They expect their audience (mostly teens and adolescents with limited budgets) to pay $17-$19 for the whole album, or pay a premium for the single CD version. Naturally, that same computer savvy group is going to download the same song for free if they can. This is where the labels really goof. They complain about the "theft", and make futile legal efforts to stop it, when they should be spending time and effort to find a way to compete with it and regain that same market. They offer no alternatives to people who download music. Why don't the labels have websites where it would be possible to download the latest single for fifty cents?? There would be absolutely no packaging or distribution costs, and the technology is already available. In my opinion, they don't have a valid complaint until they offer a reasonable alternative.
The music-buying public seems to be more fractured than ever before. The rich white guys that run the record labels and radio stations don't really know how to handle it yet. They're still trying to maintain some sort of "Top 40" mentality, and I don't think we're ever going to see that format become popular again. They've tried to divide the market into Latino, Urban, Alternative, Country, and chick music (or Triple AAA, adult, or whatever you want to call it). As Ben mentioned, there are many more untapped markets out there that the labels don't understand or acknowledge. Most of the people I know buy CDs released by independent labels or the artists themselves...artists who have very little (if any) radio support, and very little (if any) advertising budget. I *think* that group is somewhat large and a choice advertising demographic, yet it goes ignored by the large corporations. I assume they ignore it because they want to put their time and effort into the creation of huge superstars that sell millions of albums. That superstar phenomenon is slowly dying as the market splits into smaller and smaller groups. I think that explains the recent outbreak of Latino superstars. It's one of the few remaining large markets that the new global labels can successfully target.
One other aspect to consider...companies like Sony (who also happen to be one of the largest record labels, owning Sony, CBS, Columbia, Epic, etc) complain about the piracy, while their electronics division cranks out the portable MP3 players and feeds off of it.
I blame all of their problems on poor management. The labels have been extremely lucky for the past three decades. They had a huge boom due to the baby boomer/rock & roll bubble and the various new technologies and formats, but now that boom has levelled off. It's not really all that different from the dot com phenomenon...it just lasted longer. It's time for them to learn how to manage their companies and sell their products in today's market. Of course, they could always adopt a new format, spend two more decades re-selling their back catalogs, and not have to worry about their ignorance. Hmmmm...which will they choose?? :-)
The labels and radio created an atmosphere that feeds on the one-hit wonder phenomenon to a huge extent. Their acts are almost all singles acts, not album acts. Why should any customer be expected to buy an entire album to get that one single? Yet, that's exactly what they expect to happen. They expect their audience (mostly teens and adolescents with limited budgets) to pay $17-$19 for the whole album, or pay a premium for the single CD version. Naturally, that same computer savvy group is going to download the same song for free if they can. This is where the labels really goof. They complain about the "theft", and make futile legal efforts to stop it, when they should be spending time and effort to find a way to compete with it and regain that same market. They offer no alternatives to people who download music. Why don't the labels have websites where it would be possible to download the latest single for fifty cents?? There would be absolutely no packaging or distribution costs, and the technology is already available. In my opinion, they don't have a valid complaint until they offer a reasonable alternative.
The music-buying public seems to be more fractured than ever before. The rich white guys that run the record labels and radio stations don't really know how to handle it yet. They're still trying to maintain some sort of "Top 40" mentality, and I don't think we're ever going to see that format become popular again. They've tried to divide the market into Latino, Urban, Alternative, Country, and chick music (or Triple AAA, adult, or whatever you want to call it). As Ben mentioned, there are many more untapped markets out there that the labels don't understand or acknowledge. Most of the people I know buy CDs released by independent labels or the artists themselves...artists who have very little (if any) radio support, and very little (if any) advertising budget. I *think* that group is somewhat large and a choice advertising demographic, yet it goes ignored by the large corporations. I assume they ignore it because they want to put their time and effort into the creation of huge superstars that sell millions of albums. That superstar phenomenon is slowly dying as the market splits into smaller and smaller groups. I think that explains the recent outbreak of Latino superstars. It's one of the few remaining large markets that the new global labels can successfully target.
One other aspect to consider...companies like Sony (who also happen to be one of the largest record labels, owning Sony, CBS, Columbia, Epic, etc) complain about the piracy, while their electronics division cranks out the portable MP3 players and feeds off of it.
I blame all of their problems on poor management. The labels have been extremely lucky for the past three decades. They had a huge boom due to the baby boomer/rock & roll bubble and the various new technologies and formats, but now that boom has levelled off. It's not really all that different from the dot com phenomenon...it just lasted longer. It's time for them to learn how to manage their companies and sell their products in today's market. Of course, they could always adopt a new format, spend two more decades re-selling their back catalogs, and not have to worry about their ignorance. Hmmmm...which will they choose?? :-)