The Death Of Recorded Music Industry (Britney Related)
This was written by Darren Hayes on his myspace blog, a brilliant man, he was a part of the group called "Savage Garden" (I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You & Truly Madly Deeply) if you dont remember him.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys because its a serious issue that have been causing huge problems in the music industry.
The Death Of The Recorded Music Industry - Darren Hayes
"If you want evidence that file sharing has destroyed the recorded music industry, look no further than at the disappearance of studios. You'd have to use sophisticated archeologists because many of them don't exist anymore.
The recording studios where I recorded and mixed my last album, 'This Delicate Thing We've Made' have vanished. These were studios where seminal albums by everyone from Coldplay to Tears For Fears. From Kate Bush to the Gorillaz. Gone Gone Gone.
The studio where I recorded 'Spin' and Savage Garden's 'Affirmation'? Broke.
The studio where I mixed 'The Tension and The Spark' ?
Dust.
They went broke because they weren't getting any clients.
They weren't getting any clients because not many people could afford to spend the kind of money it costs to record
in a quality recording studio facility.
Those people couldn't afford to record in such spaces because record companies weren't offering the kind of budgets
that used to allow for such costs.
Record companies aren't offering those kinds of budgets because the sale of records doesn't earn enough money to
pay back the investment.
The investment is not being made because the sale of records are so low.
The sale of records are so low because it has generally become the consensus that music is 'free'.
Records sell so few copies these days that major record stores are closing down.
When I was in L.A, I couldn't find the Virgin Mega Stores I used to love. 3 used to exist within a five mile radius of my
hotel.
They're gone now.
When I was in San Francisco, I went to hang out at my favourite Virgin store where I bought 5 years of music, DVD's books
t shirts etc.
It used to be open until midnight most nights.
Then it used to have reduced opening hours.
Then one day, it closed.
Now it's a massive building with nothing in it.
Because the building used to sell music.
And now the general consensus is that music is 'free'.
People think that music is free because you can get it for free if someone gives it away for free.
Giving it away for free really means that someone takes a copy of it, either before it is released or after one person has paid
for it, and puts it online.
When someone 'finds' it online, they're not 'stealing' it. They're 'taking it'. It was offered for free. And besides, they want it.
Surely we should be allowed to have, for free, anything we want in life, no?
So who takes responsibility?
If someone steals a car (which costs about the same prices as say, making a cheap music video these days) and tried to sell it
on ebay - all sorts of people would be held accountable.
But if, say, someone takes the new album by artist 'X' - and posts it on rapidshare - and a hundred thousand people take it - it seems
no one is really held responsible.
They might say, 'well the record companies are making a fortune' (they're not)
or 'The artist is rich (not anymore or possibly they never were)
or maybe they'll point the finger at the person hosting the link - the third party. The 'pimp' in the transaction if you will.
But you can't. Not really.
What happens is the album eventually comes down, after a hundred thousand people have taken it - and the world continues.
Without record stores.
Or great sounding albums.
Or music videos that look amazing.
Or with recordings no longer created in amazing recording studios on incredible equipment that no longer exists.
Without record companies willing to develop new artists and spend money to promote them or allow them to grow.
Because music is, apparently, free.
Would it be so crazy to suggest that an internet provider, a person who might describe their service as providing an ISP -
are actually the ones responsible for the death of the recorded music industry?
Would it be so ludicrous to suggest that if ISP's cancelled the accounts of people who were identified giving away
albums - that this whole problem might be less grim?
Ironically, try to catch a glimpse online of the recent Michael Jackson tribute at the VMA's.
What's that? You can't?
That's because youtube are terrified of Viacom. The minute any 'illegal content' appears from MTV it's immediately
removed. The same can't be said for entire CD quality rips of music over at any number of file sharing web sites.
Music, is apparently, free.
I say it all the time - but what is music worth to you?
I paid for music when I was dead broke.
And when I became wealthy from making a success of my career, I almost went broke making sure I could make
music the way it should sound, in the way it deserved to be presented. So please don't accuse me of being in a position
of privilege. I've always been about putting my money where my mouth was when it came to this issue. Most of the money I earned
from my success in the past has been used to fund my own independent releases.
So my rant is really directed at Governments around the world to come down hard on ISP's. And protect the recorded
music industry. Successful albums mean jobs - band members, crew, designers, directors, manufacturing etc etc etc.
Retail Retail Retail. All soon to be Gone Gone Gone.
This is not about popstars. It's about an industry that is falling apart ironically when the world's interest in music is
at a peak."
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=510369585
Now, this very much relates to our beloved Britney. "...Baby One More Time" has sold more than 13 MILLION COPIES..ever since then her albums have sold less and less, and I hardly doupt that its because she wasnt as good, or her music wasnt as good, or people got tired of her, its because in these past 10 years, people BUY less and less music, I mean more than 13 million in sales of her first album, compared to the 3.5 million Circus sold...and the reason I think its not because she is not as good as when she first started, is because that is happening to every artist...I mean can you imagine someone, anyone selling more than 13 million copies of their first CD TODAY??? Not a chance. Because no one bothers to spend 15-20$ on a dam CD, that the artist worked so hard on.
This is something to think about for all who have downloaded "free" music...soon, we'l have nothing to listen to & no where to actually buy music.
