WHY CORPORATE MUSIC HAS TAKEN A DIVE

CHRIS ANDERSON, WIRED - Music itself hasn't gone out of favor – just
the opposite. There has never been a better time to be an artist or a
fan, and there has never been more music made or listened to. But the
traditional model of marketing and selling music no longer works. The
big players in the distribution system – major record labels, retail
giants – depend on huge, platinum hits. These days, though, there are
not nearly enough of those to support the industry in the style to which
it has become accustomed. We are witnessing the end of an era.

What caused a generation of the industry's best customers – fans in
their teens and twenties – to abandon the record store? The labels cried
piracy: Napster and other online file-sharing networks, along with CD
burning and trading, had given rise to an underground economy of stolen
music. Of course, there's something to that. Despite countless
record-industry lawsuits, traffic on the peer-to-peer file-trading
networks has continued to grow, and about 10 million users now share
music files each day.

But technology didn't just allow fans to sidestep the cash register. It
also offered massive, unprecedented choice in terms of what they could
hear. The average file-trading network has more songs than any music
store – by a factor of more than 100. Music fans had the opportunity for
limitless choice, and they took it. Today, listeners have not only
stopped buying as many CDs, they're also losing their taste for the
blockbuster hits that used to bring throngs into record stores on
release day. If they have to choose between a packaged act and something
new, more and more people are opting for exploration.

Technology also gave consumers a new way to buy music. Rather than
having to purchase an entire album to get a couple of good tracks, they
can buy songs à la carte for 99 cents each. The online music industry is
primarily a singles business, which depresses album sales further.
Meanwhile, the music marketing machine has lost its power. . .

When it comes to lost marketing power, nothing compares to the decline
of rock radio. In 1993, Americans spent an average of 23 hours and 15
minutes per week tuned to a local station. As of summer 2005, that
figure had dropped to 19 hours and 15 minutes. Time spent listening to
the radio is now at a 12-year low, and rock music is among the formats
suffering the most. . .

Then came the cell phone, which gave people something else to do during
their commutes. And finally, the iPod, the ultimate personal radio. With
10,000 of your favorite songs on tap, who needs FM?

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