February 6, 2006
News bits
Posted by Stacy Chandler at February 6, 2006 8:40 AMThis article from The Associated Press was an interesting read giving the flip side to the music industry's hand-wringing about their declining revenues. Maybe, just maybe, illegal downloading didn't kill the radio star. Maybe it was the industry itself, with its $18-per-CD price tags and its penchant for signing crappy artists like Ashlee Simpson and Nickelback. Shocking, I know! No HickoryWind reader saw that one coming, I'm sure.
The poll this story references, conducted for the AP and Rolling Stone, had some interesting findings, among them that 80 percent of people polled consider downloading music for free, without the artist or label's permission, to be stealing. Eighty percent. Three-quarters said CDs are too expensive, and 58 percent said they think music in general is getting worse in quality. Of course, that last statistic may have something to do with this next one: More than half of the people polled said they usually buy their music from places like Wal-Mart (shudder) and Best Buy (puke). Sigh. Connect the dots and I think we can see what the problem is.
Of course, Best Buy (which I'll always hate no matter what, so don't think my now four-year boycott is gonna be broken now), after years of being part of the problem, is now making an attempt at being part of the solution. Maybe. NPR reports that Best Buy is pairing up with CDBaby to sell indie CDs in its vortexes of evil stores. I'm not clear yet on how this is going to work -- and I have my own opinion on whether it will work -- but I have to grudgingly applaud Best Buy for giving this a go. While I'm sure it'll fatten up the pockets of the Best Buy board of directors somehow, it might also help some decent musicians buy the good brand of mac and cheese, and I'm all for that.
And that's today's news rant. Good night, and good luck.
Ah, the beauty of enlightened self interest.
Posted by: James at February 6, 2006 9:23 AMI used to buy most of my music from Best Buy, but that's when I didn't know any better. I believe I stopped buying music there about a year ago when I realized their collection of anything but rock/pop/rap pretty much sucks. Looking for another Townes Van Zandt album? Don't even think about finding it at Best Buy. And that collection of Mississippi John Hurt? Nope. Sorry. But they can offer me System of the Down's latest cock rock expedition.
Posted by: Chris at February 6, 2006 9:40 PMOverpriced music that sucks is bad for business? Since when??
By the way, anything on CD Baby is also in the Tower Records catalog, so if you don't see it on the shelf there, ASK.
Posted by: Jim Pipkin at February 7, 2006 12:10 AMThat's exactly why I stopped shopping at BB, Chris. Specifically, it was the day Steve Earle's "Jersusalem" was released and featured in their weekly newspaper ad, and I walked in to buy it and it wasn't there. That wouldn't have been so bad, except none of the CD area's workers or managers knew when/if it was coming in. They hadn't even heard of it. Or of Steve. And that wouldn't have been so bad, except on that same trip I was looking for four other CDs released that day (some kind of obscure, but at least one or two somewhat well-known), and same story -- none were there and no one had ever heard of ANY of them.
Not that I'm bitter. Oh, no.
Posted by: stacy at February 7, 2006 12:12 AMI still find Wal-Mart to be far more offensive. Tragically of the three independant Record stores here in my hometown one has closed, and one has...er changed alot. The selection at your Best Buys and what not are so horrible because that is what people buy. God Only Knows why that is. Do people only buy it because that is all they have , or do they only have dung because that is all people buy?
Posted by: Patrick Hayes at February 7, 2006 4:33 AMIt is a fine line. People dumb enough to spend good money (at full retail) on something as ephemeral as music, yet smart enough to be judicious in what they purchase. Hmmmm.
Posted by: Jim Pipkin at February 7, 2006 8:38 PM
