The Record Industry Hasn't Got A Clue

Today, The Register runs this story entitled "Music industry blames Net for all evil", which attempts to shed a more realistic light on the record companies' complaints that they've done everything right and it's the evil Internet that is causing their shrinking revenues.

As it happens, the record companies haven't got a clue. These statements are released by managers who don't understand anything other than numbers. Net download numbers go up, sales numbers go down -- obviously it must be the one that's causing the other. These people have no idea of demographics, no idea of the human mind, and, sadly, no idea of basic economics. So let's take a look at each of these:

Demographics: The key customer base for music is among the 16 to 30 year-olds. Consequently, the sales numbers went up considerably when the baby boomers reached that age and up again when the post-baby boomers, who were fewer, but earned more money reached that age. Since the mid-1970s, however, birth numbers have been shrinking constantly, and thus has the number of possible customers. The former customer base, now in their mid-30s to 50s, has different leisure priorities than they used to have when they were younger; plus they're neither interested in the 125th Rolling Stones release nor in some cloned, scantily-clad boy/girl/whatever sells group. What happens is they're losing their former customer base and can't get new customers at the same rate because there simply aren't enough of them.

Human mind: Are record company executives really that dumb that they honestly believe they can sell the same kind of low-quality ex-machina crap to generation after generation of listeners? The musical possibilities of popular music are limited, and with a back catalogue piling up now for about 50 years, all they can do now is re-heat and re-cycle stuff that's been done before or go out and search for new extraordinary talent. Problem is: Option number 2 takes a lot of time and effort and isn't guaranteed to work, so they just don't do it. Instead they go for number 1, apparently not realising that with 50 years of reference material existing, it's only all too easy for the customers to realize that what's coming on the market is no more than a lame rehash of something that's been there all the time. People are just bored out of their heads by what's being released at the moment.

Economy: These record company managers may be able to count numbers, but they don't seem to have any idea of the wider concepts of economics. Can anyone of them spell 'crisis' or 'slump' or 'recession' or 'unemployment'? Thanks to globalisation and profit-oriented politics, more and more people are losing their jobs. Thanks to September 11th, 2001, the bubble that created the illusion of a healthy economy burst. In many countries in Europe, taxes have been raised to record levels to ensure the stability of the Euro currency. It all adds up to the fact that people have less money to spend. If I have the choice to buy a week's supply of groceries or a CD, in times of economic crisis like this, I'd go for the former, especially as (see above) about 99.9% of what's released on CD is boring me stiff anyway, and my priorities in life have changed from owning a huge CD collection to things that are more worthwhile to me now.

My proof for all this? I don't have any except my own behaviour:

• I used to buy several CDs a month. Music was important to me. Now I buy one about every two or three months. Somewhere between the age of 30 and 35 my priorities have changed.
• I'm profoundly bored by most of the CDs that are released. I still go to record stores regularly (though not as often as I used to), grab a few CDs and listen to them at the shop. In 19 out of 20 cases I just put them back into the rack, because they're just not good. Maybe my expectations have risen, but I'm not willing to buy bad music for that much money.
• I have less money. Even though I have a regular income, tax levels in Austria are currently at a record 47%, and due to the conversion to the Euro many shops have taken advantage of the customers' confusion and raised their prices. I simply have less money to spend, so I spend it on things that are important.

So you wonder, what is my stance on downloading files from the Internet? It's quite simple, really: I have on several occasions downloaded MP3 files from the Internet. Sometimes I decided that the record was crap and deleted the file. Sometimes I decided that I liked it and went out and bought the CD. Never have I downloaded an entire CD. It always seemed too much of a bother. If anything, I have bought more CDs due to file downloads than I would have otherwise, because I became aware to a few good records this way that I wouldn't have considered otherwise.

The record companies haven't got a clue. They may be able to count numbers, but that's about all they're good at. Find some more talent, for God's sake, and get rid of those boring clones. Make music interesting again. Learn something about demographics, the human mind, and economics. It'll help.

The opinions expressed here are those of Horst Prillinger and his only. Please note that while he is taking great care to ensure that all the information displayed here is correct, he cannot be made responsible for any factual errors that may occur. Under no circumstances is his employer in any way responsible for anything published on this site. Links posted on this page are here for information purposes only. Under no circumstances can the owner of this web site, Horst Prillinger, be made responsible for any content on the linked pages.