The Music Industry May Go Die After All

Idolator reports this morning:

Reports are surfacing that that the three stores that make up the bulk of CD sales right now--Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target--are planning to dramatically scale back their music sections after the holiday season, thanks to executives believing that the CD market is in "permanent decline" and that sales will drop even faster next year than they did in 2007. Cutbacks are expected to be in the 20% to 40% range.

Did I call it, or did I call it? Here's a small part of what I wrote back in July, in response to some articles blaming illegal downloads for the death of the industry:

The music industry’s lack of distinction between [Wal-Mart, Best Buy et al.] and Tower or Musicland had far more to do with their closing than illegal downloads ever could. Tower couldn’t compete with a store that doesn’t mind taking a loss on Avril Lavigne if it means you’ll buy your groceries while you’re there.... The industry is actively discouraging you from patronizing an actual record store.

...Tower’s demise signified one thing and one thing only—the music industry turned its back on music lovers long ago. They only care about Wal-Mart. But does Wal-Mart care about the music industry? No. They’re not interested in competing with iTunes and mp3s. When the plastic disc dies, it will fill its shelves with more deodorants and foot cream. Wal-Mart will roll on without so much as flinching. Just desserts for the music industry; the people who lose their jobs at Sony can go get work at Proctor & Gamble.

If you care to read more--among other things, about how Wal-Mart kept the music industry from making a deal with Napster years ago, thereby creating the filesharing environment we're currently in--read on:

• Dear Music Industry: Go Die, Part I: Cleanup on Aisle 7
• Dear Music Industry: Go Die, Part II: How Does it Feel to be Sam Walton's Bitch?

Comments

[Scraps]

The only part you didn't nail is that Walmart is struggling too.

The collapse of the music industry has been like watching an ice sheet crack. The last stage happens startlingly quickly. And there they are, still standing on the ice, throwing money at suing downloaders while their whole business model falls to pieces around them.

[Cara dB]

You did call it. But I think that music distribution channels will just change, maybe getting narrower - the golden age for the music industry might have passed - but it'll stick around online (assuming DRM and the storefropnts who sell music in their own proprietary formats (like iTunes) don't all die.) Indies and places like Amazon will die slower death than Tower, I think, partly because they're less cluttered with middle management and partly because the indie brock and mortars are able to focus on a single vertical - music - rather than a huge one - retail sales.

... uh. I don't know that I've got a coherent thesis there at all, but it's what I think.

Plus you gave me a whole bunch of really awesome album recommendations which I keep meaning to blog about and not getting to - especially Fiest and the New Pornographers - so, belated thank you.

[scott pgwp]

Cara, you're welcome! Glad to know my recommendations are rubbing off.

>>But I think that music distribution channels will just change, maybe getting narrower - the golden age for the music industry might have passed

I think the first part of what you said is true, but re the second part, perhaps naively I think a new golden age for music is still to come. The collapse of the "industry," as helped along by the demise of grocery stores' cd sections, is a good thing. The nature of what is happening to music (i.e. that it is moving online and distribution is changing) is a wake-up call to the industry--they must return to catering to the fans, not to the coffers. They must support the artform if they want sell a product worth buying. I'll be thrilled if the corporate labels collapse like dying stars - the result will be a million new tiny labels, all supporting artists they believe in.

[Cara dB]

Yah, I meant that the industry's days of sitting back and raking in the dough are over - I don't think music is going anywhere. With cheap software and the internet, DIY music is WAY more possible than it's ever been before, which is so cool.