Jimmy 3.0

Why is it that the data (yes data) has no indication whatsoever that the lost consumers of the failing record industry are stealing the music?  I am a little worn out of blaming p2p networks and people pirating music as the decline of record sales.

My take is based on real facts.

1. Music isn’t as good (in whole ) as it was pre-2000.  The proof is in the pudding. Sales of music have declined over 40%, but no one EVER mentions that the sale of digital singles has risen 65%!!   Hello, 65%?   Why?  Because a full record possibly contains one or maybe two good singles and the rest is fill music.  The industry has failed to look in the mirror and blame the poor eight songs on the album as the culprit of declining sales.  They continue to think consumers are idiots, even though consumers have been saying this for years.

2. The Internet.  Imagine life without it.  It is an entertainment that distracts time away from listening to music a la cable television did in the 80’s.

3. Gaming is now huge and young audiences aren’t stupid.  The value one gets from a full length record depends on the quality of songs.  You can spend $39.00 on a game and receive a return over hundreds of hours.  The ROI for a record is so risky these days that the younger audience will wait for the buzz until buying it, which brings me to this…

4. Great records still sell! Hip Hop bore the term “street cred” and if a record had big street credibility, people bought it.  In 2007, the high school hallways were filled with the same chatter for Taylor Swift.  I can name a dozen records that people talked up and resulted in great overall album sales.

I just don’t buy into the piracy stir as the reason the record industry is dead.  It might be a small percentage of lost  consumers, but not the totality of the problem.  OK, the oil’s changed and the tires are rotated.  Til next time.

This is how I stand on a hill.