I disagree about the increase. Sure, it was happening with cassettes, but making a cassette copy required investing in a tape and spending the time and effort to make the copy. And multi-generation copies weren't good and weren't done too often. Now you stick a CD in the computer and burn an absolutely perfect copy in five minutes. And once you've ripped it to your hard drive (or gotten it as a download) it takes a couple of clicks of the mouse to email it to as many people as you want simultaneously. I got very few cassette copies from friends back in the day (and I'm 51, I was prime-time for the cassette thing) because I was always particular about SQ and preferred to have LPs that I would care for and play on decent equipment. Now there's no reason in the world (other than legal and ethical ones) for me not to copy all my friends' CDs. I think my 19 year old daughter gets most of her music from a friend who's much more interested in exploring both new and old artists. I don't know how many songs she sends her, I bet it's over a dozen a month. I think the ease of making perfect copies - either high quality copies of the original CD or perfect copies of MP3s - has really hurt legitimate sales much more so than cassettes ever did. It's kind of ironic that the industry made the push to digital and digital - IMO - has caused the near-demise of the traditional music industry.
okay, perhaps there is a little more trading volume going on with the advent of the mp3, but more music is being consumed by young people than ever, be it through indy labels, online CD purchases, MP3 purchases, etc. artists have the opportunity of far greater global exposure than ever in history
I am of the age of the walkman, and I had hundreds of copied cassettes, as did most of my friends, mixtapes, and direct copies of tapes and CDs...
the amount of copied music I consumed during the nineties, including most of the people I knew was no different than the number lets say my nephew traded in MP3 format at the same ages in the last 4-5 years.
sure its easier now, but I don't think the volume has changed that much.
we were doing easily 2-3 tapes a week in my circles of friends during the 90's. each person. and we all had 50-100 bought CDs and tapes.
for birthdays and Christmas my parents always got me tapes by the bucket load, usually bought in bulk by the dozens.
at 51, you were born in what, '59 or so, that means you were doing your tape trading in the 70's and early 80's. mostly copying LPs, or tapes.
at that time double casette decks were not too common.
almost daily someone we knew got a new album, and it did the rounds to sometimes dozens of people to be dubbed.
I know my house was the spot for quite a number of my group because I had a double tape deck, and a CD player. I think we used the high speed dubbing feature on my deck too, so it often didn't take that long to copy music.
in the late 80's, and early 90's everyone I knew had a walkman, and a good number, maybe 1/4 to 1/3rd of my friends had CD players and double tape decks at home.
sure, my nephew, and his friends had 4-8 gigs of traded music on their MP3 players, and maybe a music library of double to triple that on their computers.
but we had music libraries of cassettes that were at least equivalent in size.
1 cd averages about 80 megs if ripped in high quality MP3s, thats what, about a 100 albums worth of songs on and 8 gig ipod?
I don't disagree that napster and later kazza and limewire were feeding frenzies in the last decade, but during that time, my friends and I were downloading like ravenous beasts, but also buying tons of music too, even more than before because we had access to so much more variety that we didn't previously have access to, but just had to own.
in my early 20's I was buying an average of at least 10 CDs a month, and downloading maybe 20 CDs worth. half of the CDs downloaded directly contributed to it being purchased.
and most of my friends were of a similar mindset when it came to downloading and buying.
my nephew 12 years my junior is no different, nor are his friends.
so this whole argument about the digital age killing the recording industry due to piracy is BS in my opinion due to my experience.
I think its just a scapegoat because the piracy is more out in the open, out from the bedrooms and basements of 15-20 years ago.
I blame the industry being shortsighted, just like they were when the cassette came out, just like when VHS became popular, just like tivo and PVRs, CDRs, etc.
the industry is shortsighted, and fear any new technology that *may* interfere with their current business model, instead of embracing new technologies and adapting to them.
*edit*
Just discussed this with my GF a bit.
I think the big thing that is killing album sales is the ease of access to the single tracks.
this became a part of the consumer mindset, by playing the hit singles on the radio, over and over again.
this shift began in the 80's when less and less of popular albums were entirely composed of great songs. in the 60's and 70's, most popular albums were awesome in their entirety.
you bought a stones or led zep album, it was worth every penny, you bought a whitesnake album, it was half crap filler. that trend got worse.
when P2P arrived on the scene, people downloaded those singles, and gave up on buying albums that were mostly 3-4 good tracks, and the rest was meh.
now itunes sells songs for 1$.
and when the latest eminem track is the hit of the week, it sells millions of copies on itunes, sure, it probably sees almost as many torrented copies as well.
how is his newest album selling, maybe a couple million copies?
why? because the rest of the album is crap in comparison to the 3-4 hit songs off it.
(not that I condone listening to eminem, but it is a good example of current popular music).
the recording industry needs to change the way they do the statistics of music sales, and count the single tracks.
instead of a gold or platinum record, it should be a gold or platinum song.
by not including the numbers of single songs sold in itunes and equivalent places, they are essentially lying about their losses, in their ever continuing feeble attempt to stack the deck against consumers and artists to cling to a dead business model.
the market has changed. people consume music differently, and consume more varied media.
most people are decent enough folk, and just want to embrace easier methods of consuming music.
if the easiest way is to download, a business model needs to be put in place to take advantage of that. sure, itunes showed up, but it was a little late to the online distribution party.
but once it became popular, people embraced it.
I don't deny that the internet and P2P were a catalyst in this drastic market change.
just a case of market demand vs available supply. when napster came on the scene, it basically beat the industry to the punch.
had the industry embraced the potential of the internet as a distribution method early in the game, we would be having a different discussion right now.
allow me this opportunity to reiterate the industry's shortsightedness.
the internet as a distribution method is a big deal, think printing press big deal. its a game changer.
sure, a bunch of scribes lost their jobs, but an entirely new industry and business model evolved out of the printing press.
this is what we are seeing now.
in the long term the recording industry as we know it will die, to be replaced with a leaner, and more productive replacement, that will give different employment opportunities, and will be more democratic. music for the people, by the people. where artists and fans will connect in ways previously impossible, making the experience of music consumption better, more rewarding, and more personal for everyone involved.
and hell, having the artists directly get paid for their music is a helluva lot better than the industry sucking the life and creativity out of artists.
the publishing industry is a fair one for the content creators. authors get paid REAL royalties, and keep the rights to their work.
the recording industry uses shadow accounting practices and legal loopholes to screw their artists out of royalties, and the rights to ther IP.
F the recording industry, let 'em die, bring on the new.
