The Music Buying Experience Has Changed
The music buying experience isn't what it used to be. As soon as Napster and other services helped usher in the age of the download, things began to go down hill for the industry. It's gotten to the point where some people don't even buy their music anymore.
One of the effects this has had on some bands is they don't even attempt to record much new music these days. There was always an emphasis on touring and promoting their music that way. That's how bands really made their money, and it's still the case today.
With the radio driving record sales, the more hit songs that got played, the more records that were sold and the more fans would show up to concerts. Many of the acts that don't record much these days are classic bands. This is largely due to the fact that they can't get new music played on radio anymore, but their hits play on those classic rock, country and soul stations.
Popular downloads have eliminated most of the record stores from existence. There are a few, but big chains like The Warehouse and Tower Records are gone. The places that still exist near me deal with new stuff as we'll as used albums in record, tape and CD format. The artists that get pushed these days have CD's on sale at places like Wal Mart and Target, but it's dying fast.
Knowing what they now now, I wonder how hard they would push for CD's to replace cassettes back in those days. CD's were converted to a downloadable format so easily, and suddenly sales started dropping. People got the music for free. It didn't help that the industry increased the price with each new format.
Records were the cheapest, and ironically, vinyl records are making a comeback. The price went up for 8 Track tapes and then Cassettes. By the time CD's came along, people were complaining about it being too expensive to buy. The sound may have been better, but it seemed like a money grab.
It didn't help that by then people started to figure out how little the artist was actually making per sale. The money went to the people in the suits, and they kept pushing for more from each artist until sales slipped. Then, they were yesterday's news. Some groups rebelled, but the genie was out of the bottle.
A music buying experience used to be about spending time at the record store, listening to what was playing on the speakers. You'd look at the album and the art work. What songs were on it. Packaging made a difference and helped sell a lot of copies.
When you got home, you'd eagerly take the album out of the wrapper and play it. The better albums had liner notes and lyrics to the songs you could follow along with. You could look at all the pictures and thank yous and all of that. People don't care about that stuff now, but I liked it.
Now, new music is just a click of the mouse away. If you like a band, you can find most of their work on the internet and concert footage as well. You can support them if you want, but it's easier than ever not to.
It's a shame, but everything about the music industry is messed up. Who knows if we'll ever get it back close to what it once was. It used to be about the art form, but more value is being placed on star quality. I suppose one good thing about how things are now is you can easily find just about anything that suits your taste online for free.
