Is It The End?

[princeoftides]

Maybe it's because people don't read like they do anymore. I used to enjoy buying record albums because there was usually something to read, and usually lots of it. Then they sort of quit giving you the literature with the records and there was a downside to that. Some of us liked getting a not very small article with the album. We could take it home or to the dorm and if our roommate was studying or mom and dad were watching the television, we still had that literature to read before we even listened to the record. I thought it was an excellent way to market the records. But now all you get if you buy it off the internet is the song. Nothing else. No one wants to put any content other than music and some of us want to read things - interesting things - about the song and the artist and how it all came to be. Or at least something to read about what we were going to listen to. Maybe the RIAA will get smart and start including a nice pdf or one of those downloadable books with every song. Sure its more work and they'll have to hire more people but the cost would be negligible if it means many more sales. CD's were never enjoyable because a record album was the right size for text. Some of us old timers in our 40s and above can't even read the inserts that come with a CD. The writing is too small and the photos are too small to be enjoyable or to see something unique. That's what I enjoy about the early albums. Sometimes, when records were a nickel or a dime I would spring for the sleeve only even if the album was missing. Because the content was worth it.

Same when records were $3.98 or something like that but I stocked up on LPS when CD's came out. It was so much more affordable and I never thought the CD sounded like perfect songs forever. Many of them were just awful. Still are if you don't get high resolution sound. They need to hire writers and copy editors and spend the extra to bring that written material back. It sold records. Lots of records.

 

[princeoftides]

Oh, I forgot to mention. There was the occasional little extra that came with the record too. How many of those awful Cheech and Chong (they were quite enjoyable in the right circumstances) albums sold because they had that giant rolling paper in the album. I suspect millions sold because of that. It was a novelty item that sold the record.

 

[Cadillac Kid]

Clear Channel Communications. is the Devil that has ruined the popular music industry. The last time I checked they owned 95% of the radio stations in the states.

You number is WAY off. They own around 900 stations. There are about 11,000 radio commercial stations in the US.

 

[Mr. Lin]

That's a good looking cat btw.

Thanks, that's Mr. Pussy.

[Downloading that one song]... is what is killing the industry. The kids today have re verted back to what it was in the 50's,the single. Instead of buying a full length recording they just download the one song they like and add it to all the other stuff "they like" and live in a mixed world. Slap on your ear buds and crank up your ipod and enjoy their crappy compressed sound.

I might be wrong about this, but I thought I read an article a while back that discussed the one-song-download phenomenon and mentioned that it's revived the "b-side" in a new way. Even though it's not actually a side, that would be kind of cool. I'm a big b-side fan; some of my favorite bands have b-sides that match and occasionally exceed the quality of their album material. Just a thought.

The point is, non-album tracks can be a lot of fun. It seems the British were more into this than we in the US, since over there b-sides sometimes topped the charts. One example, XTC's "Dear God," which was a b-side, blew up on British radio and came to be one of the band's most well-known songs to the general public. A little off-topic, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

 

[JohnVF]

Nobody ever really bought much of the music I enjoy. And when it goes away, my friends and I have the means to make our own music. I am not worried at all.

 

[Mr. Lin]

Nobody ever really bought much of the music I enjoy.

Yeah I know what that's like.

 

[JohnVF]

You number is WAY off. They own around 900 stations. There are about 11,000 radio commercial stations in the US.

While the number may be off the effect is not. Clearchannel killed radio. It was already dying and they took away the one thing it had...a unique regional flavor. That combined with nationalized, payola-dictated, playlists with focus-grouped selections made radio completely worthless.

BUT...it means nothing. You can listen to whatever you want online and you can find any of 1000 new bands. There is more music out there that I want to listen to now than at any time in my life. I can't keep up with it, it is so abundant. The death of the music industry is causing life to return to creativity and originality. Pardon my french but **** the music industry, managers, producers....give me poorly recorded inspiration over well produced schlock any day. We are not at the end we are at the beginning.

 

[Mr. Lin]

The death of the music industry is causing life to return to creativity and originality. Pardon my french but **** the music industry, managers, producers....give me poorly recorded inspiration over well produced schlock any day. We are not at the end we are at the beginning.

Seconded, I fully agree.

 

[JohnVF]

Seconded, I fully agree.

I was reading "under the radar" this morning over breakfast and can't believe how much new music I missed this last year. It was an issue with top-10s by artists, for favorite albums. I have some purchasing to do.

 

[ducati_EL34]

While the number may be off the effect is not. Clearchannel killed radio. It was already dying and they took away the one thing it had...a unique regional flavor. That combined with nationalized, payola-dictated, playlists with focus-grouped selections made radio completely worthless.

Please Explain to me how a corp. owning less than 10%, killed radio. It seems to me the owners of the other 10000 stations followed the same business model as clearchannel did. So there is plenty of blame to go around. There is no need for a scapegoat.

 

[JohnVF]

Please Explain to me how a corp. owning less than 10%, killed radio. It seems to me the owners of the other 10000 stations followed the same business model as clearchannel did. So there is plenty of blame to go around. There is no need for a scapegoat.

Where are you finding these other 1000 stations and how big were they? I'm not going by some statistic I read somewhere. I'm going by what I heard, with my ears, in the four different markets I lived in in the years since 96 or whatever it was when they began their takeovers. All of the major stations were all the same, with the same DJ voices and the same interstitial advertising promotion...they just changed out the letters. They were all clearchannel stations. And if Clearchannel started it, and changed the model..they are still to blame.

 

[ducati_EL34]

Where are you finding these other 1000 stations and how big were they? I'm not going by some statistic I read somewhere. I'm going by what I heard, with my ears, in the four different markets I lived in in the years since 96 or whatever it was when they began their takeovers. All of the major stations were all the same, with the same DJ voices and the same interstitial advertising promotion...they just changed out the letters. They were all clearchannel stations. And if Clearchannel started it, and changed the model..they are still to blame.

Au contraire, just because one company starts a trend, doe make them the fall guy. It is the lemmings who should be blamed for following blindly.

Of course in the market area that I live in, Top 40 radio today, sounds much like Top 40 radio in the 70s. Same song different day...

 

[JohnVF]

Of course in the market area that I live in, Top 40 radio today, sounds much like Top 40 radio in the 70s. Same song different day...

We had a few stations that were worthwhile but not enough to get me to stop making my own CDs and tapes for the car. You're right, radio's death began a long time before Clearchannel. People just don't like to be told what to listen to anymore and with iPods that are able to carry 10,000 songs....who wants a radio station playlist with 20 songs repeating over and over and over when you can make your own 'station' with 500 times that amount, made up of songs you personally selected? Its no contest, and hasn't proven to be in the market, either.

 

[tybrad]

That's true, the 70's-X0's comparison, and I am having a hard time disliking CC on that rational ground. But there is something that I cannot put a finger on... Perhaps it is the crassness in advertising- it IS more frequent, and worse than I recall. DJ's that are cut with the same cutter. And that is probably the result of CC homogenizing it all into a nationwide corporate environment. I am thinking of the three hardware stores in my growing-up hometown through the 70's. Each had a "flair" of their own. Now we have WalMarts. And so it goes...

 

[Mr. Lin]

I was reading "under the radar" this morning over breakfast and can't believe how much new music I missed this last year. It was an issue with top-10s by artists, for favorite albums. I have some purchasing to do.

It's overwhelming, but in a wonderful way - it truly is my passion in life and most of what I think about all the time. And when I have expendable income, virtually every last penny goes towards buying new music, or audio gear. Nothing like receiving one of those lp or CD sized boxes in the mail! Especially when you've ordered so many you're not sure which one it is until you open it.

And that is probably the result of CC homogenizing it all into a nationwide corporate environment. I am thinking of the three hardware stores in my growing-up hometown through the 70's. Each had a "flair" of their own. Now we have WalMarts. And so it goes...

And so I get nauseous. uke2: