The Music Industry

The music moguls have been smart in the past. They signed up certain good artists and paid them well to produce music and keep them in the fold. They then produced albums with one or a few good hit songs, and filled the rest of it with music of variable quality. This led to big money making and the music lover had to take it or leave it. I realised what was going on early, so waited patiently for greatest hits albums to avoid being ripped off.

Well, the worm has turned. Along came digital music and the internet. The music companies could have run with this new technology. Imagine had they promptly set up machines in music stores where you could create your own CDs off lists of songs. Once selection was complete, you paid and walked out with only music you wanted. They could have provided you a cover that you chose, and printed the song titles on it for you.

The problem is, that would hurt the bottom line. The system of fleecing the public outlined above would be over. Mind you, better to make some money and keep better control. But in trying to protect the existing order and do nothing, sites popped up on the internet offering cheap or free music. It has now devalued what people expect to pay to the point that no one is going to make money from the industry like they once did.

The music companies worked out how much downloading was done, and said that is what it was costing them. However, this ignores the fact that the vast majority of free downloads would not have been purchased in anything like that quantity if they had to be paid for. It also ignores the fact that talent within the industry has been drying up. Where are the artists of the talent of The Beatles today? The music industry would be on a slow but steady decline anyway without the same quality of talent.

No, the music industry, blinded by greed, failed to act with new technologies and now sits back and bewails the current situation. At least artists who would have been shut out of the old system can now use these technologies to get out into the public awareness.

The old system is dead, long live the new one.