This Week In Music Business Stupidity

From Tony Sachs, Huffington Post:

The first-week sales total of over 700,000 for Long Road Out Of Eden is certainly healthy even by old, pre-Napster standards. And because the Eagles must all be pushing 90 by now, they could care less about the future of music retail, as long as they get the big payday today. But getting in bed with a retailer which doesn't have a real investment in the music business is going to come back to bite the biz on the ass. A music-based behemoth like Virgin or F.Y.E. has a real interest in keeping physical music sales as healthy as possible, and will work with labels and artists to ensure that. On the other hand, when CD sales fall below a certain level at a Wal-Mart, they'll just take the floor space currently devoted to music and put in more lawn mowers or hunting rifles. The Eagles, once again proving they're spawns of Satan, are killing music retail to sell their new CD. Thanks a lot, guys!

Of course, the compact disc and brick-and-mortar music retail were already on their last legs, if not using a motorized wheelchair, before The Eagles made their deal with the Wal-Devil. And New Yorkers can order the CD from the Eagles' website or download it, for a fee. And downloading is the future of the music business, right?

Wrong. Just ask Radiohead, whose noble "pay whatever you think it's worth" experiment with their new, (currently) download-only album, In Rainbows, seems to have backfired. Apparently, over 60 percent of those who downloaded the album paid nothing for it, with just 12 percent volunteering to pony up the traditional $8-12 cost of a CD or an album on iTunes. Which proves what Luddites and over-35s like me have been screaming for years -- music isn't just the sound coming out of your speakers, it's a tangible thing, with packaging and artwork and a booklet and pictures. If I'm paying money for music, I want a physical object, not just a file on my hard drive. And while I may sound old-fashioned, I'm obviously not alone -- people aren't listening to less music than before, but as the compact disc rides off into the sunset, they just aren't paying for it as much anymore.

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