[Paul Sweedlepipe]

Here's an interesting article about the changing music industry by David Byrne.

Who even buys CDs anymore? The last CD I bought was over a year ago in Australia. It was a compilation of Australian bird sounds and I was concerned that it wouldn't be available on iTunes. Plus, the purchase of it supported a park. Before that, it had been several years

I'm glad the CD industry is tanking. There are way too many scoundrels making money off them that have nothing to do with the artist. In addition, all that plastic that requires petroleum to manufacture. What a waste.

David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists and Megastars
By David Byrne

...What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists...

...First, a definition of terms. What is it we're talking about here? What exactly is being bought and sold? In the past, music was something you heard and experienced — it was as much a social event as a purely musical one. Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context. Epic songs and ballads, troubadours, courtly entertainments, church music, shamanic chants, pub sing-alongs, ceremonial music, military music, dance music — it was pretty much all tied to specific social functions. It was communal and often utilitarian. You couldn't take it home, copy it, sell it as a commodity (except as sheet music, but that's not music), or even hear it again. Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone - a memory...

Technology changed all that in the 20th century. Music — or its recorded artifact, at least — became a product, a thing that could be bought, sold, traded, and replayed endlessly in any context. This upended the economics of music, but our human instincts remained intact. I spend plenty of time with buds in my ears listening to recorded music, but I still get out to stand in a crowd with an audience. I sing to myself, and, yes, I play an instrument (not always well)…

This post has been edited by Paul Sweedlepipe: 19 December 2007 - 11:39 AM