Music is being played on a "broad spectrum" on streaming services and the artists are getting paid squat. Meanwhile, sales of new vinyl albums selling for $28 have grown 1000%.
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Albums Are Dead - Ola Englund's Thoughts
- Thread starter monsterthompson
- Start date
Music is being played on a "broad spectrum" on streaming services and the artists are getting paid squat. Meanwhile, sales of new vinyl albums selling for $28 have grown 1000%.
I have around 1200 copies of CDs in my basement, representing two album releases from the originals group I was in from 2006 to 2012. The bandleader was old-fashioned and insisted that we record complete albums, pay for album art, press the CDs, everything. I think we sold or gave away a total of 300 CDs across both releases.
The way I think about it, an artist can better control buzz by releasing singles anyway. Why let all the water out of the dam at once, you'll flood the cities below. Let it out at a pace where it can be well consumed and will last longer.
Albums are neat as compilations of art representing a period of thinking by the artist. We all love to talk about how different any Rush album is from all the others. I will miss albums, but they are over.
The way I think about it, an artist can better control buzz by releasing singles anyway. Why let all the water out of the dam at once, you'll flood the cities below. Let it out at a pace where it can be well consumed and will last longer.
Albums are neat as compilations of art representing a period of thinking by the artist. We all love to talk about how different any Rush album is from all the others. I will miss albums, but they are over.
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I guarantee my stereo system sounds objectively better than 99% of computer monitors, earbuds or Beats by Dr Dre.
Beware of "% increase" statistics. I can sell 2 albums on Monday and 4 on Tuesday. That's a 100% increase, but I'm still not making any money.
Media and it's consumption are the mirror that defines and guides a generation which spends much of its time consuming media and comparing peer response to said media...
Vinyl is literally the only sales growth in the music industry:
"The RIAA released its 2017 year-end revenue report on Thursday, showing that revenue from digital downloads plummeted 25 percent...
The outlook for digital downloads is bleak. This is the third year in a row they've posted double-digit declines...
CD shipments continued their years-long decline, falling 6 percent...
But vinyl sales were up 10 percent to $395 million — a 'bright spot among physical formats,' the RIAA noted. It's a tiny fraction of the industry's overall sales, but it was enough to Link Removed last year to start pressing LPs again after a 28-year hiatus."
I think public interest in listening to full albums died out way before the current period. Even before streaming was a thing. But now as was then, there are still folks who appreciate listening to a full album of music, even if not in a single sitting. But streaming has definitely taking things a step further since you can now digitally package music however you want. Single, EP, album, or something in between. The cost of manufacturing and distributing a physical medium is no longer in the equation and does not need to factor into how you release your material. I see it as a good thing...less barriers to get the to music.
At the end of the day, artists i like are still producing albums and i am still listening to them. Not sure what is "dead" about that.
At the end of the day, artists i like are still producing albums and i am still listening to them. Not sure what is "dead" about that.
The artists are grumbling about the revenue model for streaming. Not sure their arguments are very well thought-through. They compare $10 in revenue for a CD sold at the merch booth at their show to $.001 for a single song stream on Spotify and stop there.
I'm not saying the artists' share of streaming revenue is as fair as it should be. I am saying that people have to fully consider all the variables. For example, with streaming services:
- The artist has global distribution capability, instantly.
- The artist has no cost for physical production of album media.
- The artist's work will appear in searches, which can improve exposure (though some SEO capability is needed).
Taylor Swift has no need for streaming services. She can still press CDs, sell them at Target and Best Buy, and make enough money just doing that so that ten subsequent generations of her family will never need to work. There are maybe 30 or 50 bands globally like that.
For the rest of us, I'm not sure. The massive fixed cost of pressing CDs alone really skews the analysis. If you pay $1500 for 1000 copies of your CD (made-up number) and you sell them for $10, you sell 150 before you clear out that fixed cost. And there's much, much more cost to be considered.
Streaming is here now. Grumbling about it is probably counterproductive. Smart businesspeople will figure out how to use the change to their advantage, as smart businesspeople always have.
I'm not saying the artists' share of streaming revenue is as fair as it should be. I am saying that people have to fully consider all the variables. For example, with streaming services:
- The artist has global distribution capability, instantly.
- The artist has no cost for physical production of album media.
- The artist's work will appear in searches, which can improve exposure (though some SEO capability is needed).
Taylor Swift has no need for streaming services. She can still press CDs, sell them at Target and Best Buy, and make enough money just doing that so that ten subsequent generations of her family will never need to work. There are maybe 30 or 50 bands globally like that.
For the rest of us, I'm not sure. The massive fixed cost of pressing CDs alone really skews the analysis. If you pay $1500 for 1000 copies of your CD (made-up number) and you sell them for $10, you sell 150 before you clear out that fixed cost. And there's much, much more cost to be considered.
Streaming is here now. Grumbling about it is probably counterproductive. Smart businesspeople will figure out how to use the change to their advantage, as smart businesspeople always have.
I see that vinyl sales were about 15 million in 2017. Not sure whether that's units or revenue, but it doesn't matter. The album "Hotel California" has sold over 40 million copies ALONE. That's one album, compared to the entire industry. It was released in 1976; let's arbitrarily call that one of the industry's best years for vinyl sales.
The current resurgence of vinyl sales is cool, and as you point out it is notable on a % basis because that part of the industry had essentially disappeared. Compared to where vinyl once was, the current sales levels are microscopic, and I don't see them continuing to increase at the levels they have been lately.
Don't get me wrong - I agree with you about the superiority of vinyl. I grew up with it; my dad was a $1200 cartridge guy. I love vinyl. I also love BMWs with manual transmissions and mechanical sport suspensions, and those are also hard to find now.
To me, this ^^^^ boils down to "in the past we knew more about less, while today we know less about more."
OTOH, I have been wrong before...
But if you were a record company head, would you put your resources into every other medium with sales falling by double digits?
I think the irony is we are getting back to more grassroots movements with music where everything is not corporate controlled(yet folks who hated the corporate control are now complaining about the new environment). A local band now has a portal to be on an international stage without a record deal. Purely through DIY efforts. The environment now for an artist to get their stuff out there is way better then it was in the 90's.
The "smart businesspeople" at the record labels are making 360 deals. That means they're now taking a cut of ticket sales, too. So artists are making less on record sales AND less on touring.
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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The problem is YouTube and facebook are also dying … so how's a poor starting up band going to get their music to the people?
Streaming is the medium replacement. The profits are extracted through advertising spot sales associated with the various streaming platforms. Unless a new medium that has constant pop-ups and targeted advertising gets invented, all physical media is done.
A few months ago, I found several big bags of CDs in the cases at our dumpster. Seems like a lot of people are pretty much regarding them as garbage, since resale has become impossible. I picked them up and donated them to Goodwill. Better than going in the landfill (for now).
As a guy in my mid-40s, I don't really listen to music anymore. I've had a Spotify Premium account on a few occasions, but I spent more time scrolling through the options than listening to music. The "millions of choices at your fingertips" concept definitely contributed to my lack of interest in listening.
As a guy in my mid-40s, I don't really listen to music anymore. I've had a Spotify Premium account on a few occasions, but I spent more time scrolling through the options than listening to music. The "millions of choices at your fingertips" concept definitely contributed to my lack of interest in listening.
I think the belief that most people enjoyed a full album experience prior to streaming is a bit off too. Ten minutes after the CD was invented the multidisc changer with random capabilities came out. People could not wait to put 5 bands on random. I think the liner notes and album booklet stuff was not actually valued by many people aside from gearheads and fan clubs. I used to like seeing what guitars a person was endorsing or whatnot but I never noticed anyone else caring too much. That's why I think the transition from physical media to streaming has been pretty flawless for most people.
