The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Digital Era

from the the-bigger-they-are-the-louder-they-bitch dept

Mon, Jun 20th 2011 7:10am — Tim Cushing

Welcome to the second half of our rather longwinded look at the attempted industriacide committed by various music formats over the years. Part two concerns itself with the Digital Era, an era that started with the introduction of the CD, which was hailed by the industry as the "savior of the music business," right up until someone had the bright idea of "releasing" CDs with nothing on them. Read on...

Compact Discs
If LPs and cassettes were the show ponies of the media race, the “CD” (or “See Dee”) was Manowar, Secretariat and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’s horses rolled into one.

Popular, cheap to produce and yet another format to gouge completists with, the CD had it all. Distribution cost? $0. Paid out of the artists’ royalties. Production costs? Studio time? Blow? Free. All paid for by the artists. Plastic, paper, ink – all cheap. Lots and lots and lots of profit.

The music industry responded to their incredible fortune the way any short-sighted leviathan would: by steadily increasing prices. Soon customers were paying $19 for one good song and 11 shitty ones. On top of that, the new format ran 20-25 minutes longer than the LP, leading many bands to pack their albums with filler their drummer wrote. Finally, after so many other formats repeatedly “killing the music industry,” they had found a savior in a nice, cheap plastic disc.

But there was trouble on the horizon. The twin specters of “used CDs” and “blank CDs” soon cast a shadow over the hookers and blow purchased with its ill-gotten gains.

The first, “used CDs,” was decried by artists as disparate and incredibly wealthy as Garth Brooks (68 million albums sold) and Chris Gaines (1.1 million albums traded in at used CD stores). They now demanded to be reimbursed every time the album changed hands, claiming that purchasing music in this format subjected you to a vague and ever-shifting contract, filled with more rule changes than a drinking game.

The other, “blank CDs,” when combined with affordable CD writers, shoved a slightly-battered industry towards the edge of a long flight of stairs. The industry responded with more built-in fees and cries of “Home burning is killing music.” This cry was misinterpreted by various local fire departments and indie-leaning arsonists, who both quickly sprung into counterproductive action.

MiniDisc
Having learned nothing from its “Betamax” experiment, Sony forged ahead with a boldly miscalculated attempt to corner a non-existent market with the MiniDisc. Like a CD, only smaller, more easily lost/damaged and handcuffed to Sony hardware, the MiniDisc never had a chance.

Sony once again walked away empty-handed from the R&D roulette table, having shown only that early adopters will buy anything as long as it’s shiny and prohibitively expensive. Its ability to record music onto the midget-sized discs threatened to destroy the music industry, or at least kick it a little when it was safely down. The music industry responded to this pint-sized miscreant with “Awwww. The little guy’s trying to say something” and slapped it with some punitive fees.

mp3
Not content to be merely a threat to the entire music industry, the mp3′s storage-friendly compression rate and ultra-portability did what no other medium had, and actually destroyed the music industry. The music industry was now truly “fuckt,” as Mozart had so aptly put it millions of years ago. Its Rasputin-like longevity was threatened as was its Rasputin-like propensity for evil behavior. Now every Tom, Dick and Harry with an eMachine could download and dump hundreds of pirated songs onto jump drives, mp3 players and CDs with absolutely no physical effort. And, thanks to the major labels and their years of price gouging, no one was troubled in the least to see them limping into port covered in pirate wounds.

Soon the good ship “Outdated Industry” was leaking money from a million tiny holes. So-called “experts”, in the guise of lawyers and yes-men, were consulted. They all agreed on two things:

1. Something should be done at some vague point in the future.
2. Someone should be sued.

It summoned Dark Elf Lars Ulrich to attack the face of international music piracy: a certain Shawn Fanning. Coming off their most successful album to date, Metallica forged ahead in (self-)righteous indignation, alienating an entire generation of potential fans. With Napster on the ropes, the recording industry went from barn to barn to verify that all the horses were indeed missing and methodically began slamming shut door after door.

A nation of tweens and octogenarians were summoned to court and threatened with usurious fines for downloading/uploading “Happy Birthday” and other such top 40 songs. Kazaa watched in horror as its user base (which numbered in the dozens) was swept into lawsuit after lawsuit. Meanwhile, malware creators watched in horror as their remaining victims lost their internet privileges and a great deal of money, both being very key components of their continued success.

Other high-dollar performers got into the act. Madonna seeded file sharers with mp3s of her asking, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Most pirates found this immensely preferable to her second-rate electronica and occasional British accent. Alicia Silverstone hastened her irrelevance by appearing in magazine ads reminding people that stealing mp3s was exactly like stealing cars, a move that upped the “cool” factor of file sharing to the Nth degree. The youth of the world, properly chastened, switched from P2P to torrents, in essence moving from joyriding to Gone in 60 Seconds.

As the industry bled out, it summoned its archangel, Bono, to appear in the “paper of record,” flatly stating that America needed to follow the lead of Communist China and track every piece of information travelling the internet. This was met with sneers of derision and cries of “Fuck you, Bono! Find some other way to finance your malfunctioning electro-lemons!”

Panicked lawsuits filled countless courtrooms and lined countless corporate lawyers’ pockets. Bills for "lost revenue" were presented to anyone who acknowledged that “music” existed. Everyone and anyone was asked to “give until it hurts,” in order to prop up a sagging multi-billion dollar industry. No one was spared. YouTube, bloggers, Girl Scouts, mom & pop stores, animal shelters, cop shops, hotels, bars and nightclubs all became notches on rent-seeking industry’s bedpost.

Nothing stopped the bleeding. The mighty mp3, victorious over King Music(k), waved its variable bit rate triumphantly, zipped itself into a compacted file and hid itself amongst the overstuffed shelves of Mediafire, RapidShare and Megaupload.

The "Cloud"
The industry wasn't done being killed yet, despite the best efforts of a new compression format. The latest and greatest thing to change the music scene was something referred to euphemistically as "the cloud." Now this "the cloud" wasn't so much "little" and "fluffy" like the clouds Rickie Lee Jones sued about so many years ago, but rather an unpicturesque rack of redundant servers. With Amazon taking the lead and Google following shortly thereafter, music fans now had a new and ultra-portable way to enjoy their music.

The labels and various rights groups were none too pleased as these new "clouds" rolled out. The performance rights groups indicated that it was really only interested in one kind of "streaming": that of money into their pockets. The major labels declared this to be a violation of its unwritten end-user agreement, which didn't allow for music that could be accessed anywhere at any time. "Music wasn't meant to be portable," it bitched. "After all, it never has been before," it said as it looked back fondly on the heady days of cassettes, CDs, 8-tracks and MiniDiscs.

While no lawsuits have been filed yet, it can only be a matter of time before the shambling, corpse-like music industry attempts to sue Amazon, Google, et al into the Stone Age, musically speaking. Its only hope now is to return to the days before music could be carried around like so many photos on an SD card, a golden era when listening to music meant purchasing an ultra-expensive, hand-cranked phonograph, whose incredible heft required a team of child laborers to install.

So, as Big Music limps into the future, cursing the whole way, unsteadily clutching its Congressional life support system, music lovers can be sure of one thing: behind every technological step forward, there's an irate record exec dying (not literally, of course) to take everyone two steps back.

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Filed Under: history, music industry

54 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:18am

You are like the gift that keeps giving, too bad it's that horrible christmas fruit cake. Really, don't give up your day job.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:21am

Re:
Seriously??? Why must you be such an ass??
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E. Zachary Knight (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:30am

Re:
Really, don't give up your day job.

I agree. He seems to be doing quite well for himself doing what he is doing and making money from it. I enjoy his day job quite well.
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AJ, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:31am

Re: Re:
Why must you be such an ass??"

I'll take a shot at this one....

Because Tim's view does not support the old school business model that's kept a dying industry propped up over so many years. What your seeing, in the Anonymous Coward posting, is actually the death throes of the music industry. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion... lol
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:36am

Re:
mmm fruitcake.

I'll take 10, Tim.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:36am

I missed articles like this.

you're awesome Mike!
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John Doe, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:38am

This is exactly my point on your last post
Soon customers were paying $19 for one good song and 11 shitty ones.

There is less money spent on music (songs) today because people no longer have to buy 10 songs to get one good one. Now they can buy the one good one. Add to it that they aren't going to pay "full price" for a digital copy and you can easily see why music sales are shrinking.
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Chargone (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:41am

while i wouldn't call these the most...errr... high class? posts to show up on techdirt, they're certainly entertaining. quite like 'em, so long as they stay a small part of the over-all whole.

the mental images are amusing. and, in a demented sort of way, it fits.
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Pixelation, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:41am

I think we need to do everything we can to save the music industry. Think of the hookers!
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:45am

Re:
But didn't you know that Tim's day job is a child porn producer...so you are for child porn? You sick jackass! =]
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DannyB (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:49am

Re:
It says Tim, not Mike.

And yes, it was very funny.
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chuck, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:54am

Re:
Mike didn't write this, although he could of, its an easy mistake to make. Either way a fun read.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 7:57am

Re:
I agree with one point. It should stay a small part. I'm just not very keen on Tim's posts. He seems like an alright guy and is relatively funny, just not my cup of tea.
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Kevin (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:00am

*checks address bar*
Ok, phew, not on Cracked.com. Just checking.
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John Doe, 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:01am

Re:
What I would like to see is a serious history of recorded music (sheet & otherwise) compiled like this along with the industries response and the actual end results. It has all been here in bits and pieces, but a timeline would be great. That kind of article should then be sent to anyone and everyone who is contemplating passing protectionist laws.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:04am

Re: Re: Re:
I find it more annoying that it is the statement of opinion as fact. Leaving out a ton of things, including only evidence that supports the cause, and so on.

It's revisionist history. That only getting written by the winners, and Tim just isn't a winner.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:10am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
And you're sounding like a sore loser. Worse, you sound like a sore loser who completely missed the point of the exercise: reports of the death of music(k) have been greatly exaggerated.

Repeatedly.
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Smon, 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:11am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Tim is writing.
Only "winners" are writing.
But Tim is not a "winner".
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The eejit (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:19am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You mean revisionist in the same sense that trying to completely rewrite the way copyright law works in the US?
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Call me Al, 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:26am

Thanks Tim. This was an amusing and informative read. You must have spent ages digging out all those other articles to reference.

I've been trying to explain all this to a friend of mine for ages but he always demands that I provide some form of proof... which seems harsh considering we discuss it in a pub while drinking beer and so I am unlikely to have reams of supporting documentation available.. At least with ths he can follow all the links he wants to.
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charliebrown (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:27am

I liked the ultra-dramatic prose used in this part much better than in part one (and I enjoyed part one) - I know a few places to repost this (with a written by attribution of course - this is nothing like my own writings)

=D
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Nina Paley (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:39am

Bravo!
Bravo, sir.
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dcee (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:48am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Eh, just write your rebuttal and we'll be glad to read it. If not, just STFU. Thanks.
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Chris Rhodes (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 8:56am

Great Post
You display a great deal of wit in your writings, sir, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
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AJ, 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:10am

Re: Re: Re:
Correction..... Not music industry, recording/distribution industry... sry
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Nuwri456 (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:27am

The Digital Record Industry
I love your insight throughout your article, but what are we to do as Indie Artist if the old industry is dead or dying, and we don't fully utilize the new digital one to it's full Social Media power? musicians, songwriters, producers STRIKE! in these times What?
Remember who loves you,
The Silver Conductor @ www.thesilverconductor, Facebook,Youtube,Twitter & itunes
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Jay (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:45am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Real winners don't use drugs.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:49am

So the industry is loosing money...
...meanwhile Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. gets a $16.8 million "golden parachute". As long as this continues to happen the industry has no right to bitch about ANYTHING!
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:51am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
you are somewhere between denial and anger in the 5 step greiving process.
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:53am

Re:
its okay.. i got your joke :)
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AG Wright (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:55am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
I keep having this discussion with people. The music business has little to do with the recording industry. The product can be the same but there are many millions of people involved in the music industry, teachers, salesmen, students, manufacturers and just players that are not involved in recording or only occasionally if they are.
Even then the involvement in recording is in recording their own performances not in the "recording industry".
It's only in the last 75 to 100 or so years that if a person is involved in making music the dream was to make recordings. Before that people were happy to play have fun and maybe make a living.
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senshikaze (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:57am

On the "cloud"...
"but rather an unpicturesque rack of redundant servers."

Hey! I take offence at that! A well done rack of servers (or room of racks) can be downright sexy.
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DH's Love Child (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 10:45am

Re: On the "cloud"...
I agree. I love a nice rack!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2011 @ 10:47am

Both articles have a striking similarity. New technology kills off the existing model. it does this buy striping away outdated forms of pay walls and adding accessibility. connecting the consumer one step closer to the artist. Musicks true value is in the live performance. What would you be willing to pay for a live concert of you favorite, but long dead artist. Beatles reunion anyone. The musick lives forever the artists don't.
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Boomhouser, 20 Jun 2011 @ 10:55am

Re: On the "cloud"...
Server racks are HOT!

Good job Tim! I rolled on the floor laughing my ass off.
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Jay (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 11:24am

*Adding up*
Hmmm...

Combine this with Lessig's books and Mozart's piracy...

Add "Moral Panics" and "Remix Manifesto"...

That's a LOT of history. Might need to define which aspect to look into. Namely, case law vs cultural impact. Both have a lot of impact on how musicians have expressed themselves, and you would have a LOT of research into jazz music (which is dying) and new fusions of music.

If anything, you would also need to look into Mike's post about the 1970s scare with the laser disc (can't remember how to find it.) or even how ASCAP came into being and what it means now with the patchwork quilt that is copyright.
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 12:32pm

I honestly laughed my ass off! 10/10 to this article, funny as hell!

Hopefully the dying corpse will go away and die already and something new and better will take it's place. Unfortunately, MAFIAA posts record profits year after year so I think we have some powerful sort of Highlander out there waiting to have its head cut. MP3 wounded it, P2P did some nasty damage, streaming is simply rocking but all those couldn't cut the last string that keeps the head connected to the body.
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 1:28pm

Well done!
Just make my steak medium rare and we're all good!

Thanks for a thought provoking and whimsical version of the history of recorded music. Looking forward to your next article as always!
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 3:42pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
I find it more annoying that it is the statement of opinion as fact. Leaving out a ton of things, including only evidence that supports the cause, and so on.

I find it to be a statement of fact as farce. I've got my links. Go get some of yours.

You are like the gift that keeps giving, too bad it's that horrible christmas fruit cake. Really, don't give up your day job.

Come on. Let's not do the day job thing again. Give me something with teeth. That's amateur heckling night weakness.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 3:44pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
You both make a good point. The recording industry has set itself up as the "music industry," however. The terms have become almost interchangeable. If they'd just quit pretending they're making all this legal ruckus to help out the "poor artists" and "little indie bands," then we'd all be able to sort this whole music/recording industry thing out faster.
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Quasimoetoe, 20 Jun 2011 @ 3:50pm

Fuck em!
Evolve or Die.

Well written, could not have said it better myself, but we have all said this before.

Will refresher courses help bring the end sooner? I HOPE SO!
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 3:59pm

Re: Re:
I appreciate honest criticism, and I'm cool with this. If I was everyone's cup of tea, I'd probably be worried.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:05pm

Re:
Thanks, Al.

My aim is to inform at least half as much as I entertain (your mileage may vary on both). This way, pub arguments can be settled in a gentlemanly fashion rather than by raised words or fisticuffs.

Remind your friend that challenging someone with "citation, please" while having a few beers is what we in the "lively debate" field call "bullshit."
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:07pm

Re:
Thanks for the repost(s)! (Or as the trolls call it, "infringement.") And let everyone you share this with know that they're welcome to do the same thing.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:08pm

Re: Bravo!
Thanks, Nina! Sadly (sort of), this post may not need the infamous troll badge. (Perhaps some other day...)
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:14pm

Re: Great Post
Thanks very much, Chris. I appreciate the compliments.

My profile link sort has a newsletter feel to it. I also have this newsletter, which is more sporadically published.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:17pm

Re: Re: On the "cloud"...
That's why the pros use expensive cooling systems.

(Thanks, BH! I'm glad you enjoyed it.)
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charliebrown (profile), 20 Jun 2011 @ 4:35pm

Re: This is exactly my point on your last post
Music sales aren't shrinking, the amount of money per sale is shrinking
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Mr Big Content, 20 Jun 2011 @ 9:38pm

Re: :eR
This is the kind of astute commentary that is so sadly-lacking in these one-sided freetardist debates. Notice how this commenter carefully refrains from quoting any part of the posting in question, so there�s no way you can accuse them of �piracy� of this posting. This is someone who practises what they preach�no stealing content for them. Not even a teentsy bit. Because, as you know, you can�t be a little bit criminal, just as you can�t be a little bit pregnant.

If more discussions were conducted in this way, the world would be a much better, and more legal, place.
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Ed C., 20 Jun 2011 @ 10:29pm

Re: Re:
Arstechnica did some articles on that.
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 21 Jun 2011 @ 5:22am

Get off my grave
I propose the new phrase to be "Get off my grave" instead of "Get off my lawn", when talking about the music/recording industry dinosaurs.
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Andrew Norton (profile), 21 Jun 2011 @ 7:23am

minidiscs say what???
Sony forged ahead with a boldly miscalculated attempt to corner a non-existent market with the MiniDisc. Like a CD, only smaller, more easily lost/damaged and handcuffed to Sony hardware, the MiniDisc never had a chance.

Where to start? Pretty much EVERYTHING in this paragraph is wrong.

Non-existent market? A portable robust easy-to-record format? Sounds like a digital replacement for cassette tape to me.
Not quite like a CD either, they're magneto-optical, not just optical. It actually has more in common with 8-track than CD.

The more easily lost/damaged - OH BOY. it's as 'easy to lose' as any cassette tape, or a CD and a SD card is FAR easier to lose. It's a LOT harder to damage them though. I've a bunch of minidiscs from the late 90s that have gone around the world with me, still play perfectly. I've a DVD of my wedding a friend burnt for me 8 years ago, it's starting to 'rot'. MDs are in mostly-sealed, very shock-resistant plastic cases, they are more robust than cassette tapes, certainly more so than CDs/DVDs and have a 2yo bite on an SD card and see what happens, nothing with an MD

Handcuffed to Sony hardware? Crap, someone better tell Sharp then that they didn't make the MD-701 portable recorder I bought in 1998. Same with the company that made the 3MD&3CD hifi I bought in 99 (aiwa I think)

And 'Never had a chance' - yes, because it never ended up having widespread acceptance in many industries, like radio

Normally, I like your articles but on this one, there was just no effort made to research the topic, or at least the major aspects of it. But when a whole section is so patently wrong, it does throw the validity of the rest into question...
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 21 Jun 2011 @ 2:22pm

Re: minidiscs say what???
Andrew -

You don't have to justify your purchase of a MiniDisc player to me. After all, you didn't spend my money on it.

As for the "research"... there's 28 links in that post. And I kind of thought the hyperbolic tone would have indicated I wasn't writing a Wikipedia entry.
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Michael Gregoire, 25 Jun 2011 @ 3:57pm

Formats are only a small piece of the puzzle...
... what's REALLY killing the industry is nothing more than supply & demand. Read my take... http://wp.me/p1uCv9-l
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