Are you positive about the future of the music industry?

[leisuremuffin]

i just want to clarify something real quick:


I'm not saying being theatrical and having an image is a bad thing.

In fact, it's great, if it's added to great music.


It just sucks if its there to sell mediocre music.




.lm.

[leonard]

well, i think that the folks who leonard mentioned, who are putting out runs of a few hundred pieces and not really making very much money are the folks who are actually the remains of the music industry.
.

these releases I buy are of a rather esoteric an experimental nature. They have always been, and will likely continue to be limited pressings (probobly the most you'll see is 1000-1500 pressings). Like i said, it's a very niche market, and making thousands upon thousands of records doesn't make sense for this sort of music. I also don't think, from an artisti pointof view, that the particular style of music suits a digital download. It's mysterious almost, and having limited pressings adds to the mystery in a sense when they sell out.

[forge]

well, i think that the folks who leonard mentioned, who are putting out runs of a few hundred pieces and not really making very much money are the folks who are actually the remains of the music industry.
.

these releases I buy are of a rather esoteric an experimental nature. They have always been, and will likely continue to be limited pressings (probobly the most you'll see is 1000-1500 pressings). Like i said, it's a very niche market, and making thousands upon thousands of records doesn't make sense for this sort of music. I also don't think, from an artisti pointof view, that the particular style of music suits a digital download. It's mysterious almost, and having limited pressings adds to the mystery in a sense when they sell out.

I totally agree - and with your first post leonard - but I'm kind of "predicting" if you will, it will soon get too expensive for anyone on that kind of scale to do it. Very sad, for sure. But you talk about life and death cycles of labels, it's the same for formats - vinyl was only really ever kept alive by EDM - niche markets of audiophile Iron maiden fans would never have had the buying power to keep it going, but the technology has come a long way since Cds came out when everyone last thought it would die, now there are just too many reasons - everybody having a laptop or iPod being the main one.

incidentally, I couldnt count how many young enthusiastic entrepeneurial types I've met who wanted to start a label and do so until the harsh reality of business and economics sets in - I wonder how many of the new labels starting up are by people who really know what they're getting into and are prepared for the financial side of it...I'd definitely guess more are dying than being born - except for netlabels etc where the actual costs themselves are not high

this is what it will all boil down to. Money. When CDs came out, vinyl was competing with casette and CD. CD took under half a decade to catch on and from then business was booming, but coinciding with that Dance music was developing and vinyl was a great way of mixing and playing it - so it had that saving grace and survived.

Now just in Computer formats you have WAV, AIF, MP3,mp4, FLAC, OGG etc etc etc

then theres DAT, Minidisc, CD, Audio DVD, ADAT blahdy blahdy blah....

Then youve got good old ABleton Live - changing the face of live music and DJing - it's really catching on - still loads of people producing with it and just DJing old style, but it's catching on and soon it will be totally common in the clubs.

that's just the hard physical playback formats, then you have the issue of the distribution - 3G mobile is the thing now, they are already talking well beyond mere 3G - but with just 3G you can now already download a brand new purchased track to your mobile phone and play it on the internal MP3 player and copy it to you laptop via blue tooth or whatever, likewise a card for your wireless network straight into your lappy

these are just basic facts that probably dont concern most DJS, but that's the point - it wont be them that pull the rug out.

It will be the BIG companies that have BIG contracts with mobile companies etc etc - your Ministry of Sounds of this world - Apple has sealed the deal with music downloads - they've set the precedent - it wont be long before it's the way the business runs

as they all start jumping ship and washing their hands of vinyl as the profit margins shrink, then others down the line will follow, and the costs of producing will rise because the technology gets outmoded, not replaced, niche, materials from smaller runs - it just goes on and on.......and as the costs rise, those short runs of 1500 will be exclusively reserved for determined rich people who dont mind throwing money away, which wont be that common.

It wont be the buyers that kill it, it will be the manufacturers.

I would love for someone to give me some really good reasons why I'm wrong, but I really just cant see how vinyl and all that goes with it will survive another 5 years.

And when it dies the music industry will be a completely new thing, not even from the same ilk as the one that we all grew up with - as will the world be

I'm not even saying it's a bad thing, it just is.

it just feels like a really, really strange time to be alive.

[leisuremuffin]

sorry for waxing philosophical about the death of music in general.
i just had a moment there. (read: i was drunk)


if you want to talk about medium....


Vinyl isn't going anywhere.

Here's a couple reasons:

hip hop / turntablists
nut job collectors who are as much about the object as they are it's contents.


add to that the fact that there are plenty of zealots who don't mind losing money to release their pet projects.

I'd be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that vinyl will not disapear in our lifetime.


.lm.

[forge]

sorry for waxing philosophical about the death of music in general.
i just had a moment there. (read: i was drunk)


if you want to talk about medium....


Vinyl isn't going anywhere.

Here's a couple reasons:

hip hop / turntablists
nut job collectors who are as much about the object as they are it's contents.


add to that the fact that there are plenty of zealots who don't mind losing money to release their pet projects.

I'd be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that vinyl will not disapear in our lifetime.


.lm.

I'm not really saying it will disappear, I jst dont think new stuff will be pressed up - at least not in the way it is now because it will get too expensive



but maybe you're right, I hope you are - maybe there are enough "zealots" who are earning decent from their DJing/Live act and dont mind propping them up

and dont be sorry bout the philosophical, that's what I was after!

I was in a similar moment when I posted the poll

Actually, on the whole in alot of ways I'm very excited about the future of music

I think where I get disheartened are more life issues anyway - it's not a nice realisation when you start to get the feeling you could potentially be skint forever because of your passion