‘Green Shoots’ in the Music Industry, or Just Thriving Trees?

Posted bySteve 2 Comments on ‘Green Shoots’ in the Music Industry, or Just Thriving Trees?

This article by Rory Cellan-Jones on the BBC site says that some new survey has told us that it’s not all bad for music…

I’m not sure it’s ever been ‘bad’ at all, to be honest… CD sales are declining, but digital music costs so much less to manufacture and distribute that the crossover point between lower sales but increased profits will hit eventually. Hard copies are still a desired way of ‘showing allegiance’ to a band, over just downloading. Merch is doing well, gigs are doing well, and the potential for new acts finding an audience without gambling a fortune is marvellous.

It also seems to me that the decline in bit torrent traffic for music may actually be that a lot of the early adoptors have filled in their catalogue with all the stuff they wanted to start with… Anyone wanting to ‘replace’ their vinyl collection may well have downloaded gigabytes if not terabytes of music to get all the Led Zep, Queen, MJ, Abba and Beatles they ever need – check out last.fm’s charts for more on how much music listening is ‘legacy’ based…

So, there are a whole range of ways that people find music, replace music, download music, pay for music things. They’re all happening, it’s mostly good news, and we can stop worrying, yes? 🙂

2 replies on “‘Green Shoots’ in the Music Industry, or Just Thriving Trees?”

  1. Yeah. I think there was nothing to worry about in the first place unless you are actually dependent on selling and then reselling records year after year like the record industry seems so stuck on.

    There has always been loads of ways to present music, not just records and it is a shame for those large companies who have been so lazy in the past who may or may not yet have realized that if they want to continue to thrive they have to find a new way to sell music.

    I have no problem selling my own CDs, although I am not depending on that alone to sustain me and it is easier charging for something that is of limited quantities and not available anywhere else.

    What is important is that people will pay for your music in whatever form or expression you present it if they feel compelled to. Perceived value.

    My whole experience of the music business (business is loosely speaking in my case) has improved since I dropped the need to have a record deal and become a rock star (or rather prisoner of the corporate machine).

    It reazlly is about making music for me first, so that is why I feel good about my situation.

    In short, look for the good news and yes, you will find that it is mostly good news.

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