What do Handel and Eminem have in common?

[House of Mustard]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/19/offbeat.handel.apple.ap/index.html

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

They both have claim on being misunderstood in their own time?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I knew it, I've been listening to the edited Messiah for years!
Sign me up!

[EUOL]

Well, maybe mix ups like that explain why we still don't have a PC version of I-tunes.

(Grumble grumble.)

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Yeah, I think I've started to come around to EUOL's side. I'd stop pirating if I could use a service like i-tunes, pay 99 cents and get a decent version of the song I wanted on hte first try. What the RIAA probably doesn't want to hear is that I'd stop buying CDs altogether. Not that I buy many now unless they're at $2 on half.com, but still...

[EUOL]

They're going to have to get used to it.  This is the way people are probably going to buy music in the future, and the RIAA is quickly growing to be an outdated beast.

[Lieutenant Kije]

So what do you think this portends for the album format as we know it?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't have many bands i follow, but for example, I still want to pick up Rush's albums (even though I'm a big fan, I have few of their albums) and I'm slowly getting them. So I think you've got a few things preserving an album format:

1) people who like bands. They want to own everything Depeche Mode did and they want to cover art and the liner notes too.
2) people who aren't tech-savvy. They'll buy CDs because they don't understand downloads or don't know how to make their own CDs
3) people who just want a separate hardcopy
4) art albums: There are a number of people who design the album as a cohesive whole. If that starts getting advertised, they may sell a regular CD

All that said, I think a lot of dead weight will fall out of the recording industry, because sales will continue to drop. On the other hand, you'll have some people trying to do something intelligent with hybrid formats: putting extra CD-ROM content, or even going the Green Jell-O format and doing a "video only" album on DVD instead. Video still takes a while to download, and would coast more than $.99. I'll bet you could still sell a DVD of 14 music videos cheaper than you could sell downloads of it over a web site.
If the recording industry wises up to how people want their music soon, and they're interested in preserving hard copy CD sales, they'll find a way to make buying a CD attractive. Which frankly, is something they should have been doing all along instead of trying to sue their way into industry viability.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

What the RIAA doesn't get is that cutting out the production, distribution, and packaging will save them a bundle.  Sure people will still buy CD's, or holocubes or whatever format the recording companies come up with but the format of the future is song by song.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Incidentally, it should not be ignored that by cutting out manufacturing and simplifying distribution, there will be a noticeable effect on the economy as a whole, not just the industry.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

True, very true,... but also a noticable jump in pocket money as people who spend $ for CD's  will have more in the pocket.

But will hard copys of music go away? Nah...

For instance Did you know that Betamax was alive and kicking in just about every TV station in the world untill about 4 years ago? Its true, untill it was supplanted in the majority of thoose stations by the High8 format.  And I cant begin to tell you how long reel to reel was around.  CD's will still be important to the recording industry for a long time to come.  At least untill someone makes a portable mp3 player so small and inexpensive that you just plug in your headphones to the album and go. Kinda like a ultra light Apple Ipod.

Yeah a lot of people will lose their jobs, but since 99% of the manufacturing jobs are in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, I could care less about them.
As for the distributors, I could care less about them too, UPS and FEDEX will get by, and so will other trucking companies.
No, the people I do care about are the record store owners, and not the corperate ones, the stores like Crunchy Music in Georgetown and Record and Tape traders. While these stores have obviously begun to depend on music collectors, Im not convinced that the dramatic downturn in record sales will be enough to keep them in buisness. Especially since Virgin, Sam Goody and Tower Records have the cash to stay afloat.
For a good long while.

But hey, Kemp Mill just wet out of buisness so screw em!

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

At least untill someone makes a portable mp3 player so small and inexpensive that you just plug in your headphones to the album and go. Kinda like a ultra light Apple Ipod.

uh... you do realize that there are quite a few mp3 players that are smaller than your standard portable CD player, right? This already exists

Yeah a lot of people will lose their jobs, but since 99% of the manufacturing jobs are in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, I could care less about them.

Erg. that sounds a little... calous... I think you'll see an impact on the US economy as well.

Virgin, Sam Goody and Tower Records have the cash to stay afloat.
For a good long while.

The point is not that the companies will go out of business, the point is that those companies will cut employees and expenses (thus giving much less fuel to the economy). Companies that have to spend their cash to stay in business are not healthy companies. They LOSE money, and therefore LOSE investors. Depending on your spare cash to stay in existence is just as frightening and eventually destructive for a business as it is for an individual.

But hey, Kemp Mill just wet out of buisness so screw em!

And you don't think that has anything to do with the decline of CD sales? They were cheap and they catered to niche tastes, as well as making more mainstream titles available. Ie, they were what you wanted in a store. They even dealt in used CDs. To me that says your favorite stores don't have the bright future you imagine for them.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

And to coerce point #1, iPods are already really light. Or at least last time I held one at CompUSA they were. Inexpensive is another matter though. Until those babies drop in price its just a small piece of... stuff.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

The price drop is just a matter of time. It's pretty much an inevitability as the technology becomes more common. Plus you can figure in all you save (in time and money) by having only the songs you want. It's also much more feature rich than CD players.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Yeah but Im talking a price drop from 299 bucks a player to 10-15 bucks a player.


And so what I have a right to be callous, sure some of the impact of lost record sales will be felt here but the day Taiwan pays its manufacturing workers more than 30 cents an hour is the day I care about them.