Worldwide music sales down again

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Post by @?,*???&? » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:13 pm

Believe it or not guys, good music is extremely rare. Amazing musicianship is extremely rare too. Just because you play an instrument does not make you good or a good songwriter or a good recording engineer or a good record producer.

Any trend or style has thousands of mimics or wannabes who are current, sort-of, but are Garbage.

I love Shirley Manson. I'd record her for free. Anyone seen Shirley?

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Post by Jeff White » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:23 pm

Good Music = Personal Opinion.
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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:25 pm

sure good music is rare. good anything is rare. but i still know tons of people who make awesome music. my room is littered with good records made by people i know. sorry you don't seem to ever hear anything you like but yunno i imagine that Good Music will carry on regardless of your appreciation of it.

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Re: Worldwide music sales down again

Post by JGriffin » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:56 pm

@?,*???&? wrote:Because less and less people are releasing 'legitimate, mastered and pressed' releases. That's my hypothesis.
Honestly, folks, I'm STILL trying to figure out what he means by this. I know it's the usual Hiero "the only music worth hearing is music that was recorded by PRO engineers for shit-tons of money" thing, but again, what has that got to do with the SoundScan numbers? You want unsigned bands to spend $15k+ on a CD, great. It could sound like fucking Dark Side of the Moon and still not blip up on SoundScan's radar.
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Post by rwc » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm

Music IMO is a direct reflection of, and response to modern society, how we socialize, and modern culture.

If the music is obnoxious, repetitive, disposable, and of low quality, what does that say for us? :?
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:18 pm

man, i tried to give him the benefit of the doubt when i listed some possible meanings for his post.

but dude don't know if he's coming or going.

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Post by RefD » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:53 pm

ipressrecord wrote:Good Music = Personal Opinion.
AGREED!
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Post by ballpein » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:19 am

Everyone knows that a band who can't come up with 15 or 20 grand to professionally produce and master an album doesn't deserve to be heard, or even call themselves musicians. After all, it's a well documented historical fact that until mankind developed modern recording techniques, humans barely had a concept of "music" beyond banging rocks together and crude, atonal grunting.

Lately, though, a lot of so-called "musicians" have been cheating us all by producing records on the cheap and even having the gall to distribute themselves! Some of these poseurs will even try to tell you that music is not about polished production or technical merit, but about "an artistic experience shared amongst community". This is, of course, the very basest form of hucksterism, a malicious lie that threatens to send us all back to the grunting, rock-banging dark ages our grandparents suffered through in the days before Dolby Noise Reduction was invented.

Obviously, what this all means is that real, legitimate music gets lost amidst the sea of under-funded crap these so-called "indie musicians" are flooding the market with.

Take, for example, the under-performing sales of the most recent Britney Spears album. With a production budget in the high six figures, this is obviously a highly legitimate recording, and any gifted engineer with a developed ear for legitimacy will tell you that, based on the mastering alone, this album should have gone multi-platinum. And yet, sadly, it has not - some would even say it has flopped, thanks in large part to all the unwashed, knuckle-dragging neanderthals who "record" "music" on meager budgets in "basement studios" and "distribute via community."

And who is the real loser in this sad story? It's not Britney, and it's not the Record Labels. It is all of us, the music-consuming public, who suffer, for we have lost our way, we've been seduced by the indie hucksterism, and we no longer know a legitimate record when we hear one. Frankly, we don't deserve Britney.

Our community has to mobilize if there's any hope of fighting this scourge. Write your congressman and demand full budget disclosure on all album covers! Just say no to regional "music scenes" and tell your friends it ain't cool to go to "gigs" that aren't in colosseums and/or don't have beer sponsors! And above all, always remember, "if it ain't charted, it's crap!"

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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:33 am

@?,*???&? - Who was that attractive young lady in your old avatar (until Kuchinich hacked your avatar?) Just curious

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Post by Smitty » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:03 am

*golf claps for ballpein*

P.S. and Tatertot - she makes the naughty on film, hence the background environment in that pic. Raven Riley I think (but only cause somebody here told me... I would never watch that garbage :wink:)?.
Last edited by Smitty on Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by comfortstarr » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:05 am

I think what would be interesting is some valid analysis of the amount of music that's available for purchase (by whatever means, I'd somehow include live performances in this). Clearly, I think, nobody feels like there's less music available these days. It's also clear that the majors are selling less through traditional means. It would be cool if some enterprising econ-grad student somewhere would take a more thorough look at this. What we might be seeing is sort of an economic democratization of the musical world's revenue pie: thinner slices, but a lot more of them. That can, only be a good thing in my opinion.

I have relatively no beef with the major labels (the beef I have is with their reliance on instant success, and that's something which I think you'll see them start changing). If someone sells a ton of records, good on 'em! Also, people should remember, there are real, live folk working at those companies who aren't anti-art, cold hearted excel jockeys. There are tons of people who you'd like and happily be friends with. These people are losing their jobs due to their management's poor decisions over the last 10 years. That's sad too.

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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:22 am

comfortstarr wrote:I think what would be interesting is some valid analysis of the amount of music that's available for purchase (by whatever means, I'd somehow include live performances in this). Clearly, I think, nobody feels like there's less music available these days. It's also clear that the majors are selling less through traditional means. It would be cool if some enterprising econ-grad student somewhere would take a more thorough look at this. What we might be seeing is sort of an economic democratization of the musical world's revenue pie: thinner slices, but a lot more of them. That can, only be a good thing in my opinion.

I have relatively no beef with the major labels (the beef I have is with their reliance on instant success, and that's something which I think you'll see them start changing). If someone sells a ton of records, good on 'em! Also, people should remember, there are real, live folk working at those companies who aren't anti-art, cold hearted excel jockeys. There are tons of people who you'd like and happily be friends with. These people are losing their jobs due to their management's poor decisions over the last 10 years. That's sad too.
The drummer from Semisonic wrote that hilarious book which I highly recommend, in which he pointed out that A/R people are nice and often even intelligent, but their key feature is that they really love their jobs and their expense accounts and such.

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Post by chris harris » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:28 am

Tatertot wrote:@?,*???&? - Who was that attractive young lady in your old avatar (until Kuchinich hacked your avatar?) Just curious
yeah... wicked sweet of Jeff to start supporting Kucinich THE DAY AFTER HE DROPS OUT OF THE RACE.

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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:51 am

subatomic pieces wrote: yeah... wicked sweet of Jeff to start supporting Kucinich THE DAY AFTER HE DROPS OUT OF THE RACE.
I've decided to endorse John Kerry in this race, effective immediately.

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Post by comfortstarr » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:58 am

Tatertot wrote: The drummer from Semisonic wrote that hilarious book which I highly recommend, in which he pointed out that A/R people are nice and often even intelligent, but their key feature is that they really love their jobs and their expense accounts and such.
But see, that's the thing, how many A/R people has he met? Let's say 20? How many people have that job? Now, I don't want to defend A/R folk... there's obviously bizarre compensation issues there that drive behavior. I just think we tend to malign major corporations and forget that they're made up of masses of people just trying to make a living the best they can--that doesn't forgive major corporations of their malfeasance, but it should inform our reaction to it.

I remember when Andersen Consulting was put out of business during the Enron mess. I was living in Chicago and saw one of the demonstrations from their employees in the loop. It was very eye-opening. It wasn't a bunchy of well-heeled partners, it was obviously normal, work-a-day folk.

I didn't mean to drag this thread off-topic. And I don't mean to be on a high-horse.

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