A precipitous drop in CD sales

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CD sale and less money

"Let's not pretend, however, that less revenue won't affect the number of musicians. That's basic demand curve economics."

First most musicians make thier money performing. It's the fat cat corporations making money off CD sales and Downloads. For a musician a recorded song on a legit CD or illegal download is something that brings people to thier concerts. So to say less revenue from CD sales will affect the number of musicians is kind of silly. Less revenue doesn't mean no revenue. As long as an artist can make enough money to support themselve and what they love to do means they will do it. Sure more money is nice and that loss will be missed, assuming the musicians ever saw a penny from CD sales, but in the end how much money do they need to keep creating and doing the thing they love.

What you will hear is the big corporations screaming as they lose money. But really are they needed? Can music survive with out them? I'm quite confident that music will survive if there is a demise of Big Labels.

Now lets address the drop in sales of CDs. Why's that happening? I don't think it's illegal downloads. Those people wouldn't be buying CDs if they suddenly couldn't illegally download. Remember most of these people don't have the money for buying CDs. Back 20 years ago these same types existed. The recorded music off radio and copie tapes and CDs to tape. They belonged to music trading clubs where tapes of music and later CDs of music were traded via mail and at meetings. Nothing has changed really except that with the internet this practice was a lot more noticable by the big corporations. The whole grunge movement in music came from tape trading back in the mid to late 80s and it took the big corporate Labels almost a decade to clue in and start profiting off it. Point is these people don't pay for music very often. Sure they buy the odd CD here and there.

So who's left? Collectors like me. I used to buy CDs and during Napster day my CD collection when from 30 CD to 300 CDs. Now though things have changed. There is just too much competition for that entertainment dollar. Used to be CDs were the only content you could buy. VHS tape were too expensive till the late 90s and now we have DVDs that can be had for cheaper than a music CD. Add to that video games. Used to be video games were targeted at little kids but now they are targeting the 24-35 age range. This is traditionally the age group that buys the most music as they aren't in schooling of some sort and are in the work forces with money to blow.

So I look at myself. I used to buy CDs and now I don't buy them at all. I spend my entertainment budget on books, DVDs, video games, TV, concerts, sporting events, and if there is anything left over I might buy a CD if something appeals to me. Lately nothing has appealed to me and there has been so much other things to spend my money one. I remember a time when there was a lot of other options and I'd buy a CD just to buy a CD; to anymore though. I think this why there is such a drop in CDs. Just think the PS3 was just released, the Xbox 360 last year that's nothing but competition for the money that used to be spent on CDs.

Posted by: voska   Posted on: 03/28/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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