We are all dinosaurs but we still stomp around pretty good :)
AA
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> On Apr 15, 2015, at 3:37 PM, Louis Hone <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hi Tom
>
> Interesting point you bring up. I see two factors related to this decline:
>
> 1- I recently met a man in his late 60s who was very proud to tell me that
> he has downloaded for free thousands of tunes that he keeps in different
> ipods in his house. It was his son (aged 40) and his grandson (aged 18) who
> showed him how to get the free downloads. They have no guilt whatsoever for
> not paying for music that they listen to. After all, the elder grew up
> listening to music on the radio and on TV, and it was all free then and it
> should still be that way (his words - not mine). No argument from my part
> could bring him to change his point of view.
>
> 2- I'm in my early 60s and I have roughly three thousand CDs and a thousand
> vinyl LPs. Considering this "vast" amount of music at my disposal, I rarely
> feel the urge to buy another CD. Sometimes I feel like I need a new CD like
> a hole in the head. Some CDs get played once every five years. So over the
> years, my buying has gone from two CDs a week, to one per two months. OK
> I'm not considering my Mercury sets in this equation :-) So I'm certainly
> part of the decline in sales.
>
> When I was a teenager, there was only so much music available. After all,
> recorded music was still in its infancy (even though it had been around for
> fifty years). The 78 era was dead and the LP was taking off. Plus I
> wouldn't have been caught dead listening to my parents' music. Whenever I
> got a new album, I would sit for hours in front of the stereo enjoying it
> and trying to capture all the small details that had gone into the
> performance, production and recording. When SACDs came out, there was no
> other way to listen to them except plop myself in the middle of my speaker
> array. Most people don't have the luxury of time to listen properly to
> music. Even those who wear headphones or earbuds are, for the most part,
> not really listening to music but rather trying to disctract themeselves
> from the mundane task of being on the bus or subway. The paradox is that
> today, teens have access to decades of good recorded music that they enjoy
> (a luxury that I did not have). And at the same time, every kid on the
> block is putting out a CD. So there's tons of new music coming out every
> year. But maybe music is not what drives people nowadays.
>
> Serious listeners (who buy music) are a rare breed and I must face the fact
> that I am a dinosaur. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
>
> Louis
>
> On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 1:59 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Reported in today's Wall Street Journal, with an equally depressing
>> graphic:
>>
>> 1. 1996 global music sales as reported by International Federation of the
>> Phonographic Industry: $40 billion.
>>
>> 2. 2004 global music sales as reported by IFPI: $21 billion.
>>
>> 3. 2015 global music sales as reported by IFPI: about $15 billion.
>>
>> 3a. World population in 1996 was about 5.8 billion. In 2014, it was 7.2
>> billion (U.N. figures)
>>
>> 3b. 1996-2014, global gross domestic product from about 40 trillion US
>> dollars to over 100 trillion US dollars (economywatch.com)
>>
>> 4. In 2015, for the first time, downloads and streaming sales total was
>> higher than CDs and other physical media: $6.9b vs. $6.8b. (the remaining
>> $1.3 billion in sales came from radio airplay and songs licensed for movies
>> and video).
>>
>> 5. Net-net, phyiscal media is now about 45% of total music sales, and
>> still losing ground. Streaming/subscription is the growth area. Downloads
>> are also sliding. The world of artwork, physical product and ownership of
>> one's purchased music is slipping away. Furthermore, recorded music appears
>> to be of declining value to an increasing world population with increased
>> spending power.
>>
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