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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Music and Public Health
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.
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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.
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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.
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Unless
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Signs of a business model that no longer works
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.
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