Tag: 09.09.03

File trading is only one of the recording companies’ problems. “Among the problems they cited were the consolidation of radio stations, making it harder to expose new bands and records, and the lack of a widely popular musical trend like teen-pop, which relied on stars like Britney Spears and `N Sync to drive young people to record stores. They also blamed a poor economy and competition for the limited time and money of teenagers and young adults, their main customers, who often find that they prefer buying DVD’s, video games, sneakers and more. Indeed, thousands of music retail stores have closed recently, and the ones that are still open have given shelf space to competing products, like DVD’s and video games.”

Prosecuting file traders isn’t likely to win recording companies many fans. “Some music industry analysts and file-trading fans question whether the strategy will do much to further the RIAA’s goal of boosting legitimate music sales. If you’re trying to instill fear, you may have success. But if you’re trying to increase CD sales by getting people to stop sharing music, I don’t think it will have any effect at all.”

The Mercury Prize was “conceived in the early 1990s by Jon Webster, then MD of Virgin Records, who envisaged it as ‘the Booker Prize of the music industry’. It would be independent of both the record companies and the music retailers, but endorsed by both. Its serious image would encourage ageing music fans to explore new albums as well as buying CD copies of their old vinyl favourites. And it would promote modern music as ‘art’. But it’s the sheer unpredictability of the Mercury that makes it so charming. Don’t ever believe anyone who says they know who is or isn’t going to win. And has it achieved its original objectives?”

Players of the Charlotte Symphony have gone on strike. “The talks have gone on in the wake of a $650,000 deficit that the orchestra generated last season – the first red ink in seven years. When the group’s management announced the deficits in July, it cited a drop in donations, a decline in income from its endowment fund and a surge in health-insurance costs as prime causes.”

Not hard to figure out why Universal is cutting CD prices. “After years of gouging customers, the recording industry is desperate. Sparked by Napster, and continued through such file-swapping services as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster, the free-music revolution has left the major labels reeling and hemorrhaging. And CD prices, which despite promises to the contrary have steadily increased through the years, turned off even those who weren’t inclined to sit at their computers downloading their favorite tracks. Now, with CD sales already down almost 16 percent this year – after a 9 percent decline in 2002 – the industry is so rattled it has had to resort to something it has arrogantly avoided for years: a move that will benefit, instead of undermine, music consumers.”

The new orchestra season begins. But “don’t be surprised if you see orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, reopening labor contracts, well before expiration dates, in search of budget savings. Such measures, once unthinkable, may soon be common as organizations struggle to get their houses on solid ground. And all the usual things, like cut-backs in performances and costly repertoire, will continue, too. But let’s not get overly gloomy. At least not yet.” There are some bright spots…