Do you think the music industry is going downhill?

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Permalink Reply by ksawyer on January 5, 2009 at 9:00am

I absolutely disagree. This decade was far more exciting as a music fan -- and of every genre -- than just about any other. Whereas other decades highlighted new subgenres or movements, this decade destroyed the idea that any one person can be shunted into a single category. It also dismantled the generic mainstream distribution system, which opened up the floodgates for smaller bands to make a living. There are fewer behemoth bands out there, but this is ultimately for the better. I would much rather have multiple releases by Modest Mouse, the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Wolf Parade, TV On The Radio, Sigur Ros, The Roots, The White Stripes, and throngs of others over some singular movement like The Clash or Nirvana or Elvis.

What's happened is that the exciting stuff has become slightly more difficult to find. With mainstream radio and storefronts still believing that Nickelback is the band of the millenium, it's been left to blogs, satellite and internet radio to push the good stuff. Epic Fu itself has been a great resource for new and exciting music, and there are thousands of prolific and influential music blogs (there's my own www.radioexile.com, of course).

The people who used to hold our hand (yes, these are the same people who brought us the new genres in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s) isn't doing the job properly anymore, and this has caused a schism. What the first decade of the 2000s will ultimately be remembered for the splitting of music listeners between those who still hold that hand and those who don't.

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Permalink Reply by tubejay on January 5, 2009 at 10:26am

while i agree more with what ksawyer said in general, you specified "the industry," and i think that in the sense of the industry from the earliest time of vinyl to a time where the industry has experimented with distribution by microsd, the industry has suffered under its own crushing weight and ridiculous obsession with control.

but then again you didn't ask if it's gone downhill, but if it is going there. and i don't think the industry will just "go away." it's a nice thought, i see the medical industry going away as an opportunity for doctors to do their job again (if the supply industry is viewed separately) and similarly, i see the record industry going away as an opportunity for artists to create music again! (and as we've already seen, they can still get recognition and payment. besides, even the big names make more through live shows than recordings.)

through the vigilance of tired, insulted consumers and organizations like the electronic frontier foundation, and ingenuity from intellectuals and pioneers like lawrence lessig and magnatune, the world of music distribution is still not as strangled by misregulation as the world of medicine, and you can still create an indie label if you want to.

ultimately the industry will not go away. if anything, it will eventually and over time be shocked into evolving into something a little less barbaric, something that openly recognizes the consumer or even the prosumer as its lifeblood.

and it will have to change, or it will be crushed under the weight of the alternatives. but either way, i see the alternatives as here to stay, and good thing, too, in the 80's the two alternatives were folk music and piracy. by creating a wealth of unquestionably ethical alternatives, we've done everything we know so far towards an existence where the industry will have to play more fairly. that i believe, is its fate, rather than what some may count on as its demise. but i wouldn't miss it either. and as far as distinguishing between the record industry and the music industry, i think the music industry is slightly larger than the recording industry, but it's the recording industry that needs to change the most to stay relevant.

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Permalink Reply by Dale on January 7, 2009 at 2:10am

I think you left out the pretty major influence House Music has had on both culture and music. Hell it has acid house and rave culture that pretty much ended Thatcherism. Add in the fact that pretty much every single Madonna has released since 1990 has been a house record and I think it's influence has been more than semented.

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