South Korean Music Stores Going Out Of Business

from the this-is-a-good-thing... dept

While it's likely that the recording industry in the US will use the story of how the vast majority of record stores in South Korea have been shut down as a "warning" of what will happen in the US, they'll probably be learning the wrong lesson. Makers of horse-drawn carriages had problems, too, when the automobile caught on. In fact, as some have been saying, the real problem with the industry isn't the record labels, but the record stores who have made it impossible for labels to change. If the record labels really started pushing music online, it would lead to incredible channel conflict with the retailers and the distribution chain they've built up over the years. However, as those retail stores start going out of business, then perhaps the record labels will be a lot more willing to innovate. At the same time, it looks like some of the more long-term thinking retail outlets in Korea are adjusting. The store profiled in the article is now selling more consumer electronics and MP3 players than CDs, realizing the times are changing, and if more people have MP3 files, they might as well be selling the equipment to play those files.
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  • identicon
    dorpus, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:21am

    Music and Public Health

    The older people get, the less they listen to music -- whether because they feel nobody makes good music anymore, or they do not relate to teenage pop stars, or because they are hard of hearing.

    In advanced economies throughout the world, populations are growing older. For this reason alone, music (at least in the developed world) will have a shrinking audience in the future.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      euman, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:26am

      Re: Music and Public Health

      Typical dorpus rubbish. As I get older I listen to more and more music and of a much wider variety. I also play more different sorts of music too. It is true of most people I know. The audience for music will always be everybody.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:31am

        Re: Music and Public Health

        How old is "older", though? College kids may listen to more music than middle school kids, but do we see people in their 40s/50s/60s rushing to buy the latest fads in music? Are nursing homes hotbeds of P2P activism, do grannies with quadracanes go on hunger strikes at RIAA headquarters?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          TV Freak, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:38am

          Re: Music and Public Health

          It doesn't matter how you define "older". Even assuming your assertion that the "older" population buys less music is correct, unless the "younger" population actually declines, the market won't get smaller.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      TV Freak, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:30am

      Re: Music and Public Health

      You're kidding, right? The percentage of elderly may well be increasing in the developed world, but how many developed countries have ZPG? As long as the birth rate doesn't decline, the market size will stay the same or grow in terms of the absolute number of consumers.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:40am

        Re: Music and Public Health

        Plenty of developed countries have zero or negative population growth. The USA and Japan would have negative growth if it weren't for immigration.

        The more developed countries in Europe and North America, as well as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, are growing by less than 1 percent annually. Population growth rates are negative in many European countries, including Russia (-0.6%), Estonia (-0.5%), Hungary (-0.4%), and Ukraine (-0.4%). Europe's population is expected to decrease from 728 million now to 658 million by 2050, due to declining birth rates.

        Due to increasing development and selective abortions of female babies in China, India, and several other countries, population growth rates are also expected to fall dramatically.

        A large portion of population growth is taking place in Islamic countries, where music is considered sinful.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          jeremiah, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:09pm

          Re: Music and Public Health

          Hah hah! You baited the dorpus. That'll learn ya!
          The dorpus cannot be wrong. See that fact right there? That obscure nugget of near-useless minutiae? How can you possibly dispute the dorpus when this obvious fact has now been presented before you? Can you not see the fallacy of your logic? Do you not see the dorpus has proven your cognition insipid and hallow?
          I'm sure if you just search the internets (don't forget Poland!) you'll find more of dorpus' thoughtful contributions to the ether.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dorpus, 11 Oct 2004 @ 2:27am

    Unless

    Unless Mike has some sort of pathological obsession with teen idols, I suspect he will talk about the music industry less in coming years. ;-)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RJD, 12 Oct 2004 @ 8:27am

    Signs of a business model that no longer works

    This is also happening in the US as well. The dedicated music store is fading or going broke (Tower Records). It's non working business model when your primary product (Music/Media) is also sold at the local discount store (Walmart, Target) and just about any other place (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, etc) you walk into.

    The two small music stores I know in two separate parts of the US (KY & CT) stay in business by being able to find very rare discs that the major retailers, including your amazon.com's and deepdiscountcd.com don't have and probably won't. They only survive because their overhead is low and they are run by the owners.

    All industries consolidate and in many cases different industries consolidate under one roof (Think wholesale clubs where you can get tires, food, movies, CDs, toys, books,etc cheaper than you can at any speciality store). This is just another one business model that's being eaten up by the size of the competitors entering the business.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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