So I was reading this VERY interesting article in class just yesterday. And in it, they had people trying to figure out just why have record sales, in general, been doing so poorly over the past like 5 years. Music executives love to blame illegal downloading for their industry's problems. But based on a recent poll, critics say that they might want to take a good look in the mirror.

According to the article, a recent poll showed that 80% of it's respondents consider it stealing to download music for free w/o the copyright holder's permission, and a whopping 92% say that they have never done it according to the poll conducted for the Associated Press and Rolling Stone magazine.

So what exactly is the problem? One may ask. Well according to this article, 3-quaters of music fans say C.D's are too expensive. But is that really it? Well, 58% of music listeners say that music, in general, is getting worse!....

AWWWWWW!!!!! I think we could possibly be on to something ladies and gentlemen! Could the reason why music sales are slumping be because less talented people are able to get a song out there and make a quick million, at the expense of the public! I mean, I'm not knocking the whole idea of illegal music downloads as being a possible cause. Millions of tracks are downloaded each week on peer-to-peer networks. But seriously people, music downloading is just a slice. We still have the entire rest of the cake to worry about.

Let's face it, the quality of music has been declining since like '99, maybe even sooner. The poll also showed that people ranging from ages 18-34, the music biz's target audience, say music is getting worse. So perhaps, if the quality of music increased, so would record sales? I don't know, but it's worth a thought!

All in all, the article reports that 33 percent of people blame illegal downloads as a main problem, 29 percent blame it on competition from other forms of entertainment, 21 percent, the declining music quality, and 13 percent, the rising cost of CDs

So what does ATRL think the problem is. And how could the music biz cope, or deal with this problem thats been going on for years now

I think that the quality of music has dropped. Especially on mainstream radio. I think that its becoming a lot more manufactured now, and there's a lot of good artists out there that can't catch a break nowadays, and thats sad.

Illegal downloading has hurt the music industry. I don't buy CDs anymore, really. I download it, and if i like it, I go buy it. Simple as that. So if an artist makes a crap CD, I ain't buying it.

Plus, theres not as much promotion nowadays too it seems. No one really cares about selling a CD anymore. Its more about getting that 1 hit than an album full, IMO.

I agree so much.
I really can't find any really good and recent song.

"But is that really it? Well, 58% of music listeners say that music, in general, is getting worse"


I really don't agree, as time goes on there is more and more music, and more good music therefore. There is such amazing music out there, from 60's to modern indie stuff that is hard to find. People tend to ignore older music and just complain about modern stuff. I think music as a whole is amazing, old and new.

I don't think music is getting worse. Infact, I was strangely offended by that line (don't know why really). I'm going to stick buy the illegal downloading of music theory, but....

I do feel that a quality album or an album with more than 7 good songs is hard to find now. Record labels have become very lazy with the albums they're releasing. They make sure there is enough single material out on the album and forget about the other 8 songs on the album, therefore making it "filler". All the albums I own that were released before 2000 have barely any or no filler at all (surprise, surprise).

Another interesting observation I made is that an album by a male artist is more likey to have filler than a female artist's release. I'm just hoping Ne-yo's album won't be filler-ful lol.

Bah.

Whether you like Korn's recent music or not, the fact of the matter is that piracy has hurt their album sales quite a bit. It's happened to pretty much every band, but I'm using Korn as an example because (cue the sarcasm) they sold so well during their peak, that now people talk **** about them for not matching the success of their previous albums. THEY NEVER EVEN SOLD THAT MUCH TO BEGIN WITH. Every band has had, or will have, that one album that will be the zenith of their popularity, and Korn's happened to be their 3rd album, Follow the Leader. 5× platinum. For some odd reason, and I've seen this plenty of times before, it's actually only sold 3.6 million...somewhere around there. Issues, their 4th album and 2nd most-popular, has sold 3.4 million. Okay then, they have 2 blockbuster albums, not just 1. Their first 2 have both sold over 2 million...but that took some time. Untouchables sits at 1.7 million right now; Take a Look in the Mirror 1.1 million, and Greatest Hits Vol. 1 1 million.

That's where people start to speculate that the quality of Korn's music has gotten worse. Why, because of album sales? Oh please. Like I said before, all bands have had or will have that one huge album, and chances are they won't ever top it. I bet some of you don't know that Green Day's best-selling album is NOT American Idiot--it's Dookie with 12 million? 311's best-selling album is 311 with 3 million copies; every other album of theirs, aside from Transistor, has only gone gold...sometimes BARELY. nine inch nails and The Offspring each have 3 best-selling albums in their careers. For NIN, Pretty Hate Machine is 3× platinum, The Downward Spiral is 4× platinum, and The Fragile is 2× platinum. With Teeth is the only full-length that isn't multiplatinum, let alone platinum...but give it time. The Offspring's record-breaking 3rd album Smash has sold 11 million, Ixnay on the Hombre 4 million, and Americana 8 million. All of their others are either gold or platinum. Dookie, 311, The Downward Spiral, and Smash were all released around the same time period, when P2P networks didn't exist. People had no choice but to buy CDs. So next time you diss Korn because their new albums aren't "up to par" with the previous ones due to the "OMG LACKLUSTER" sales, just shut the f‘ck up you stupid son of a bitch. Times have changed, it is a proven f‘cking fact that CD-Rs sell a shitload more these days, and you should be lucky Korn even go platinum anymore. There are very few bands like them that can even do that. Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Orgy. When was the last time they sold--or even SHIPPED--1 million albums? See You on the Other Side is doing great, it's going to go over 1 million by the end of the season, and it is definitely an improvement from their last few records (even though some of you...not mentioning any names...think it's "not all that great." If you don't like the album, then I don't know what to tell you. Find another band to kiss ass to, and then betray them in a few years when everyone else around you stops listening to them, like trendy little f‘ggots...)

People need to realize that just because one album sells more than the other doesn't mean it's BETTER than the other. People also need to realize that album sales don't even matter anymore--have I even bought the recent nine inch nails album? No, and this will surprise the lot of you--the recent Korn album? No. I have my reasons for being late on purchasing them, but I'm going to eventually. You don't have to own Korn's albums to be a fan. It's just very difficult for ANYONE to top their best-selling album, especially when everyone downloads.

Oh, and for the record, CDs are very expensive...it's ridiculous, they need to lower that **** down like they said they were, um, 5 years ago? Stupid ****s. And I quit listening to the radio a long time ago. The music has gotten so bad, yes, but that's not even close to why album sales are down. It's downloads, no God damn exception. I would say a tiny percentage of the CD prices being as high as $20 has to do with it, but not nearly as much as downloads. Instead of suing people for "stealing" music, why not just track the free downloads and add them to the charts? Full albums would be hard to do, but songs that are singles...I don't know, I don't care.

Eh. One more thing. The reason the albums you people are listening to have so much filler tracks is because you're brainwashed by the mainstream. There is so much more out there besides what's "hot," you just have to dig deep and ignore what those jackasses at Rolling Stone have to say. The recent Korn and NIN albums have no filler whatsoever, but that could be because they're rock albums. It doesn't matter--even if an album is absolutely flawless, it still won't do good on the charts these days. As long as there are various ******* sites and Limewire, album sales will never go up.

I don't have anything to add to Johnny's post, other than to say..

Damn straight, mofo.

Johnny's Post Is Dead On....

Is it really?

It seemed all over the place to me...but yeah, I have a lot to say right now, especially to people who think Korn are even remotely close to throwing in the towel because of...album sales.
Only the weakest of the weak do that, the ones who can overcome the so-called "flop" of their career and the criticism from MTV that "rap-rock/nü-metal is dead" are going to have the last laugh at all you skeptic, bandwagon-hopping shitheads (I'm talking about Papa Roach and their critics. I'm not the biggest fan but who would've thought they would have a Top 5 hit with "Scars" after Lovehatetragedy bombed?)

Not just rockers either. Mariah Carey. Everyone thought she was finished, but what happened last year? Exactly. If it takes Korn 5 more albums to get the respect they aren't getting right now, that's fine. If not, then people need to quit being so narrow-minded and move on.

It's a combination of the two.. because pop music these days is of a lesser quality, people burn out on the songs faster, and the overexposure on radio and TV also makes people sick of the artists that are supposed to sell most. But of course piracy also contributes to the decline in sales, people just download everything to their ipod, it's easier than walking around with a bunch of CDs.

it looks like someone has a lot of built up animosity towards Korn's decling record sales, lol

But anyway, I think the article was referring to "commercial" music in general. Not necessarily to a particular genre, or to one artist specifically. I mean, I don't think any of us need to be told that an artist best selling album is not necessarily their best quality album. I myself have witnessed the falsity of that on many different ocassions. And I know that that is almost never true!

You made some good points however Johnny (that is your name right?). But it all seemed so... how can I say it.... So anger driven. Almost on the verge of being sort of psychotic!

the same industry is the responsable, they just give the hype to the wrong music and they just distroyer to main artist to another, can't blame downloads, was so much easy when were cassettes instead of cd and people bought more albums those days

I think its a combination of the two..... I mean Music is **** these days...... unless its really good i wont buy it and just prefer to download it.....

before back in the days we only had the option to buy it even if we tought the song was just OK.... .... now we have the option to listen and buy what we really like...... the rest we download eather illegal or itunes ....

music now days is so segragated you have no idea..

Or maybe you're just an idiot.

(Another dead-on post right there. Thank you and goodnight.)

Or maybe it's because your essay just didn't make any sense