{"id":473,"date":"2006-07-07T12:35:46","date_gmt":"2006-07-07T20:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/07\/07\/fear-of-the-future\/"},"modified":"2006-07-07T12:47:06","modified_gmt":"2006-07-07T20:47:06","slug":"fear-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/07\/07\/fear-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear Of The Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gnarls Barkley sold nearly 60,000 CDs last week.<\/p>\n

It’s not because people love the act, think it’s here to stay, believe that Gnarls Barkley is the next Beatles, but because they love the SINGLE!<\/p>\n

"Crazy" is one of the best tracks of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s nothing else on "St. Elsewhere" close in quality or hookiness.\u00c2\u00a0 So if we lived in a total digital tracks world, how much money do you think Atlantic would be taking in?\u00c2\u00a0 BUPKES!<\/p>\n

For the first time ever, the record industry is not forcing a new format down customers’ throats.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not making the CD obsolete, people are WALLOWING IN IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because they don’t know much better.<\/p>\n

To make it clearer…\u00c2\u00a0 How many people who bought "Crazy" at the iTunes Music Store still buy CDs?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say almost none of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, sometimes a file is an impulse buy.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes people will buy the CD if they want EVERY track.\u00c2\u00a0 But the point is, at some point in the not too distant future, people will only want files, and THEN what happens to album sales?<\/p>\n

Oh, don’t throw the fact that "St. Elsewhere" is number two on the ALBUM chart at the iTMS at me.\u00c2\u00a0 Because ultimately the iTunes Music Store only represents a SMALL FRACTION of the files acquired.\u00c2\u00a0 People buying there are early in their digital music acquisition phase, caught up in the euphoria of their new iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Read the reports, as time goes on, people buy FEWER tracks from the iTunes Music Store.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n

US Digital Track Trends Weakening<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, people are buying albums because it’s a hangover, they still BELIEVE in them.\u00c2\u00a0 But will they continue to do so?<\/p>\n

And what made "Crazy" such a hit anyway?<\/p>\n

Endless airplay (it’s number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100) and TV promotion created awareness.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s positively OLD SCHOOL!\u00c2\u00a0 Top down marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 And it works, if you want to sell tonnage.<\/p>\n

And THAT’S why the major labels are up in arms.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to see the old system go.\u00c2\u00a0 One wherein they control the means of promotion and distribution and only a few acts are featured.\u00c2\u00a0 Where the buy-in price is in excess of ten dollars.<\/p>\n

But that paradigm is crumbling.\u00c2\u00a0 Now terrestrial radio is not the only way to be exposed to music.\u00c2\u00a0 And many people are not even paying attention to the old forms of exhibition.<\/p>\n

In other words, the major labels are on their way to becoming marginalized.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all about collecting the mainstream and distributing it at a high price.\u00c2\u00a0 Where now the mainstream means less than ever and prices are going down, since people only want a single track.<\/p>\n

Oh, people will want more tracks if they BELIEVE in an artist.\u00c2\u00a0 But most people don’t believe in today’s artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Those old credibility and artist development saws have conspired to create this environment.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s mainstream acts are phony, made for the lowest common denominator\/casual buyer.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you’re going to the record store to buy complete CDs you’re positively old school.\u00c2\u00a0 The landscape is one of evanescent hits and Grateful Dead trading.\u00c2\u00a0 Either people want ONE THING or EVERYTHING!<\/p>\n

The everything business will be the gold mine in the future.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gnarls Barkley sold nearly 60,000 CDs last week. It’s not because people love the act, think it’s here to stay, believe that Gnarls Barkley is the next Beatles, but because they love the SINGLE! "Crazy" is one of the best tracks of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s nothing else on "St. Elsewhere" close in quality or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}