Music is Dead & You Killed It

Thanks a lot, music is dead and you have no one to blame but yourself. Album sales have been on a steady decline for the last decade or so, and this drop off is definitely positively correlated with the emergence of Internet-based programs, following in the footsteps of Napster, that made it easy for millions of people to illegally download music.

But, that was years ago, right? Downloading music illegally was the craze of yesteryears, am I right? Itunes and other pay-per-track programs were supposed to fix the problem. They did help to some degree. Instead of buying the entire album when you're only interested in one song, Itunes enabled us to buy the one track that we liked. It saved us money, as well as allowed the artist to be compensated for his or her musical talents.

What about ring-tones? Quickly, it became common knowledge that cell phones were here to stay, and as it stands, they are still on track to outnumber people by the year 2015. So, custom ring-tones became an immediate necessity for the “true” music lovers. Cell phone service providers and music labels came together to make it possible for consumers to buy their favorite song by their favorite artist and have it play whenever they receive notifications.

All of these innovations resulted in one thing: people stopped buying albums. Thousands of music stores closed down, even the big boys like Tower Records and The Music Warehouse. Both of these power-house firms had to cut back on stores due to such a large decline in sales. Thank heavens our beloved Amoeba Music was saved.

Albums still aren’t being purchased and it doesn't help that there are less places than ever to buy them. So, the artists and music labels basically came to an unspoken decision. The music didn’t have to be as high quality, because they weren't selling albums anyway. Labels began selling the artist's image. If they happened to sell a good amount of albums, great. High-five! Then, maybe the label will consider backing the artist with the right amount of money so he or she can put out something of substance. But, most likely with budget cuts everywhere, unless you’re the label's #1 guy, don’t hold your breath.

With US album sales down, artists are changing their music to cater to a broader audience, a more foreign/European audience. If US citizens won't buy it, chances are someone overseas will (i.e..Techno’ish, electonica’ish, dubstep’ish sound) (I.E. Beyonce-Who Runs the World, LMFAO-Party Rock Anthem, Kanye West-808s & Heart Breaks). They are selling their product to where the money is. Sell singles to the single song buyers and ring-tone buyers. Other then that, sell the artist enough so they can book shows. Over the years, show prices have gone up. It costs more to bring Jay-Z to your city then it did in 2005. And, since most labels have rights to a percentage of tour revenue, it works out for everyone: except the fans.

Have we really unintentionally changed they way artists look at making music? Have my “I don’t buy CD’s comments” really ruined the game? Will artists really have to rely on Youtube views and Twitter follows to register their labels worth? We really killed the music game, didn’t we?