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Is 2006 Going To Suck Musically?
As a dedicated music fan I tend
to pride myself on the fact that in the course of a year I tend to buy more
music than the average consumer collects in their lifetime. But here we are at
the third month of the year and I haven’t really bought more than a handful of
CDs and most of the ones I’ve purchased are ones released in previous years that
I’ve either missed out on when they were originally released or I wasn’t
interested in buying at the time.
As it stands the only physical
CD I’ve purchased so far this year that was released in 2006 was a Kenny Rogers
hits collection entitled “21 Number Ones” and the most recently released song on
the set is from 1999. Not exactly a burning must have in 2006, but a nice hits
package that had a bunch of songs I wanted for my iPod for those rare occasions
when I want a little variety in my listening.
And I’ve also purchased an
online exclusive album, which is part of the iTunes Originals collection, which
takes a featured artist, interviews them for several tracks interspersed with
songs and exclusively recorded versions of songs just for iTunes. In this case I
selected the iTunes Originals collection for the Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian
group I enjoy. I’d prefer to buy a physical CD with artwork than to buy online,
but as an iTunes exclusive, it’s only available online.
The music industry has spent a
fortune trying to sell the notion that online downloading is killing the music
industry. They’ve also fought tooth and nail with Apple over their single price
point plan of 99 cents US per download in the US and $9.99 US for an album.
Somehow they’ve managed to get iTunes to relent on the album pricing and there
is now a scale of price points, and the iTunes Originals which would have cost
me $9.99 originally with the single price point plan cost me $11.99, two extra
dollars and I have to provide my own CD to burn it on and waste my own ink and
my time to create a layout if I want to create some artwork to go with the CD.
Maybe it’s time for the record
labels to wake up and smell the coffee. Record sales are declining because they
aren’t putting out anything anyone wants to buy, and then they’re getting greedy
about how much they want when someone wants to buy a download. Somehow I don’t
think the Barenaked Ladies are getting any extra from the two extra dollars I
had to pay for their downloaded album. It’s all extra profit for the label. And
the costs to supply the music as there is no physical product are no different
than when it was $9.99 to buy.
And another thing the labels
aren’t taking into account is that even though I’m not spending my money on
music in the capacity I once did, I’m still spending a good portion of that
money…just not on CDs. There are a number of alternatives available that are
competing for my attention and my money. The most obvious of which is DVDs. Sure
I’m buying some music ones here and there, but mostly I’m buying up season box
sets for favorite television shows, many of them shows from years gone by. And
so many I’d like to own are getting released I can’t keep up with them. I’ve
even switched from renting movies to renting episode discs of shows I’d like to
see but don’t really want to buy or just don’t think there’s a chance in hell
I’ll want to watch those episodes again.
I used to look forward to
Tuesdays as New Release day for music but now I usually look to see what DVDs
are being released instead of what music is getting released. The true irony of
it all is that my life is so much busier now than it was when I was buying CDs
by the handful each time I went in the store that truly music is the only form
of entertainment I can take with me everywhere and anywhere thanks to my iPod,
but the content I most like to fill it with is what I am buying the least of at
the moment.
I hope the labels are able to
pull their heads out of their rear ends long enough to know they need to win
back both me and many others and as customers or our entertainment dollars we
usually reserve for music are going to be spent elsewhere.
Ryan |
