BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

Digital Downloads Fail to Save the Music Industry (Editorial)

The NYtimes just published yet another article on the “death” of the music industry.

It would seem that iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and the like were unable to guarantee  the continued health of the commercial structures (labels, studios, PR firms, “record deals,” and the like) that were built around the LP and 8-track tape. And the artificial scarcity of the era.

Duh. Really?

And the villain of the story? Internet piracy, of course.

Well, the RIAA and its cohorts got it wrong again IMO. I think that the internet has merely exposed the obvious: that good music and good musicians are everywhere. They are not that scarce. And now the means to record and distribute it aren’t scarce either. Nor are the means to learn about it.

The gatekeepers are being denuded. Welcome to the new millennium.

What the internet hasn’t changed in music, it will. Just like everything else.

And the winners will be the specialists. We’ll meet one later this week.

Bob

[These opinions are my own, and do not represent the position of BAAS our its members.]