The Real
Reason Record Sales are Down
Record sales are down...at least traditional record
sales. Downloads are up. It's not hard to go up when you're starting so low
though. Just a few years ago, we didn't even have downloadable music.
It's not because of illegal downloads. It's not
because current music sucks. It's not because of anything we did wrong.
If your band was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
you'd probably be pretty happy about it, right? You'd be exposed to millions
of people and chances are that you'll sell a few albums because of it.
If you'd been on Johnny Carson's version of the show
30 years ago, you would have been exposed to even more people...and sell even
more albums.
If you'd been on the Ed Sullivan Show 20 years before
that, you'd do more than just sell albums-- you'd be able to tour the
country...and assuming you could keep up your level of performance, probably
have a long career after that.
What's the difference?
Choice.
When Ed Sullivan was on the air, we didn't have 400
channels to choose from...and that's how we was so big. Johnny Carson has a
similar situation.
Record labels were once like that. Acts were able to
sell millions of albums because consumers didn't have thousands of choices to
pick from.
That's good news for you. The "old school" system
was great for the people who were on top. If you were Frank Sinatra or Elvis,
you got tons of attention. There was no "middle class" though. You were
either getting the attention of record labels or you weren't.
Today, you can easily release an album. In fact,
it's so easy, you could literally record something today and have it available
to the world by tomorrow.
That means more albums are being released...which
means consumers have more choice. Add that to other entertainment choices,
such a video games, satellite television, and home video. These things
weren't a factor 30 years ago.
But they're a big factor now... And strangely enough,
there is music involved in every one of them.
Because of this, I'd argue that while album sales
might be down, music sales are not. People are simply consuming music in a
different way. No longer do we have one format-- we can get it via our phone,
a portable music player, video games, movie rentals, satellite radio,
streaming online stations, and any number of ways.
This means that artists and songwriters are being
paid in a different way. They are getting paid though.
We might not have the "superstar" artists of the past
and even the "Tonight Show" type of television shows might not mean as much as
they once did, but there is still a ton of money to be made in music.
Personally, I'd rather have it this way. The
consumer wins because he has more entertainment options and musicians and
songwriters win, since they'll have more options to be creative and be paid.
Here's a link to a list of all time best selling
artists.