CD Availability Nearing It's End And The Consequences

[Albrecht]

On 4/10/2020 at 11:27 AM, TubeLover said:

I owned turntables and vinyl based systems exclusively from 1968 through 1990, and have been involved with vinyl in one way or another, for 50 years? How about you? 

 

JC

I hear you on your OP. I agree and lament the loss of CDs. I also lament the loss of all the new music.

 

I am (i guess i have to now say) a former songwriter/musician/producer who made music from mid 80s through about 2007. This was the end of the CD era, - destroyed by the greed of the Recording Industry, and their desire to get every 1/2 penny from everyone. This ended up killing creativity, and diminishing the amount of music. Plus, and even more insidious, - it completely ruined the ability of artists to invest the time to make new, good music: (recognizing the terms "new" and "good" are somewhat relative).

 

My main point to make is that there are many reasons, (some more significant than others), that have put this "state of the music recorded event" in the terrible state that it is in. No one can make a "fair wage" from being a full-time artist anymore, and that is really sad, - as the talent is still there, - but unfortunately, the hard-work of REFINING that talent is dead as we live in this "one hit song for $.99 or $12 a month streaming" world. 

 

My answer is to grab my fav nostalgia and pick up re-mastered recordings of early 90s to mid 2000s CDs where I can. Listen to French and International radio on the Internet for music that I like, and then try to buy the CDs on Amazon. And, go to BandCamp and download FLAC when there are no CDs. 

[Albrecht]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I think we see very different on this one. I believe there is more new music than any time in the history of the world. I could be wrong and would enjoy seeing stats. 
 

Nobody is stopping artists from making new music and selling CDs. Consumers have spoken, not the music industry, and selected streaming. 
 

 

Hi,

Thanks for your comments. I could be wrong as well, - and I too would like to see some stats. I would be particularly interested in knowing how many artists out there have more than 50 or songs generating significant streaming revenue.

 

The old model, - (when I was playing), - was that the live shows/tours supported record/CD sales and lost tons of money. 

Now, - "groups" artists have to make money off of touring because they loose so much money by selling downloads. Again, - more stats are needed, but there is testimonial after testimonial of artists like Adrian Utley of Portishead where he stated that their latest recorded got more than a million + plays and he received all of $43 for that...

 

The Tidal model seems to me really mirror the Netflix model of eliminating music that doesn't have a certain level of popularity: this homogenizes everything.

 

But to your point, - I would need to present some statistics to support the above. It would be very interesting to know how many "working bands" are out there these days, and how many of those achieve sustainable incomes and enough compensation to make multi-song "albums" on a regular basis.

Cheers,

 

[Albrecht]

50 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I'm with you, stats would be great. The world has certainly changed. I've seen the testimonials as well but I don't think they are a good guiding post as to where the market should be. Portishead likely signed away its rights to everything, thus makes pennies for streaming. I would love to see what the rights holders made off Portishead. Then the discussion moved to those who make the money compensating those who create the content. I think going out it any other way is very backward. 

 

Money is being made by the labels / rights holders that's for sure. Artists must look at the labels and demand more rather than claiming streaming is the reason for their lack of income. Just my thoughts on this one. 

Really appreciate those comments. I come from "the industry" and my experiences as well as my fellow songwriters makes me sensitive to the exploitation of the majors; wherein, - it's the very tiny minority who are not exploited. I see this perspective as somewhat indistibutable, from MC Hammer, Madonna, Courtney Love, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello, Robert Fripp, Joe Strummer etc. 

Besides the two (types) of citations above, - I am closely connected & associated with the Counting Crows, Cake, and Camper Van Beethoven. Some of the tales border on the comically absurd....     

 

But hey, - you are ultimately correct, - we need current stats. When we released our first CD, we got 17 points split between two songwriters which brought me close to $1.25 per every CD sold. And that was back in the day when it still cost the labels nearly $3.25 to manufacture each CD, - all told. Later, (in the early 2000s), - large CD runs & cuts in recording and publicity went down below $1.

 

As for Portishead, Adrian didn't sell his rights. Portishead had "reformed" and were considered a "working band." Yeah, - it would be interesting to see how much Radiohead are making right now. I would love to know to, for the sake of comparison, how much Beyoncé is making as opposed to commeasurate acts from late 90s. 

 

I remember hearing about Elvis Costello getting dropped by his label. Unbelievable.