Hi Richard:
The second graph:
http://richardhess.com/notes/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/USA_Sales_2001-2011.png
is just plain bleak.
The music business managed to lose about half its value in ten years! Aside from buggy whips and
wagon wheels, I can't think of too many similar industrial failures. The sad thing is, MUSIC is not
obsolete. And, as we're finding out with the dearth of talent and quality emerging in the "new
business model," sucking half the value out of a commercial machine that had produced 100+ years of
often good and regularly great entertainment has its consequences.
I guess a similar thing can be seen with mainline hand tools and other hardware items. I'm talking
about the kind of thing that used to be made in USA by Stanley and Sears Craftsman and sold for
reasonable prices at nearby store with a lifetime guarantee. The same with items like screws and
wall-hooks and the like. Now the quality is near-junk and everything is made in China. And, most of
it doesn't carry a lifetime guarantee. Sears is teetering on the brink of death, with its hedge-fund
owner having to keep pumping money in to pay suppliers and keep the lights on. And Stanley is a
legendary tax-dodger not even based in the U.S. anymore and not having made anything here for years.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2014 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mass-market tape duplication's roots
> Hi, Tom,
>
> While not answering all of your questions and with the RIAA database currently behind a
> membership/pay wall, we are left with the data I teased out of a post a few years ago and re-cast
> in graphic that hopefully shows the ebb and flow of formats in the USA.
>
> The first graph must be tempered with the second and all the blather below it, as we really don't
> know what we're looking at, but, over short stretches of time, I think we can glean something from
> it as far as format popularity went.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> http://richardhess.com/notes/2013/04/10/us-music-media-statistics/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> On 2014-10-05 1:29 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
>> In the U.S., there was loud media praise for pre-recorded tapes,
>> especially the 1955-56 stereo introductions (combined with Ampex's
>> 2-track home player, this was the way an older generation of audiophiles
>> discovered stereophony). However, given the fact that they sold for 2x,
>> 3x and even 4x (per musical content minutes) the standard mono LPs, I
>> have to think the market was very limited. I also base this on the crazy
>> prices gotten for 2-track duped tapes on eBay. Surely they are rare if
>> people are willing to spend that on them. Quarter-tracks were more
>> common in the U.S. market. I would say, however, that cassettes were the
>> first true mass medium on magnetic tape. Some might argue 8-tracks but
>> I'd like to see sales figures vs. LPs, even in their heyday. Meanwhile,
>> come the Walkman Revolution in 1980 and soon, for a brief time,
>> cassettes were THE mass medium in the U.S.
> --
> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>
>
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