[opendtv] Re: News: The Album, a Commodity in Disfavor
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 18:00:44 -0700
Gee, that MIGHT be true, were online sales more than a mere trickle beside
CD sales, which are down.
John Willkie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Birkmaier" <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "OpenDTV Mail List" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 6:11 AM
Subject: [opendtv] News: The Album, a Commodity in Disfavor
> Could this be the REAL reason that CD sales are dropping like a rock?
>
> Craig
>
>
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/business/media/26music.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
>
>
> The Album, a Commodity in Disfavor
>
> By JEFF LEEDS
>
> Published: March 26, 2007
>
> LOS ANGELES, March 25 - Now that the three young women in Candy Hill,
> a glossy rap and R&B trio, have signed a record contract, they are
> hoping for stardom. On the schedule: shooting a music video and
> visiting radio stations to talk up their music.
>
> But the women do not have a CD to promote. Universal/Republic
> Records, their label, signed Candy Hill to record two songs, not a
> complete album.
>
> "If we get two songs out, we get a shot," said Vatana Shaw, 20, who
> formed the trio four years ago, "Only true fans are buying full
> albums. Most people don't really do that anymore."
>
> To the regret of music labels everywhere, she is right: fans are
> buying fewer and fewer full albums. In the shift from CDs to digital
> music, buyers can now pick the individual songs they like without
> having to pay upward of $10 for an album.
>
> Last year, digital singles outsold plastic CD's for the first time.
> So far this year, sales of digital songs have risen 54 percent, to
> roughly 189 million units, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.
> Digital album sales are rising at a slightly faster pace, but buyers
> of digital music are purchasing singles over albums by a margin of 19
> to 1.
>
> Because of this shift in listener preferences - a trend reflected
> everywhere from blogs posting select MP3s to reviews of singles in
> Rolling Stone - record labels are coming to grips with the loss of
> the album as their main product and chief moneymaker.
>
> In response, labels are re-examining everything from their marketing
> practices to their contracts. One result is that offers are cropping
> up for artists like Candy Hill to record only ring tones or a clutch
> of singles, according to talent managers and lawyers.
>
> At the same time, the industry is straining to shore up the album as
> long as possible, in part by prodding listeners who buy one song to
> purchase the rest of a collection. Apple, in consultation with
> several labels, has been planning to offer iTunes users credit for
> songs they have already purchased if they then choose to buy the
> associated album in a certain period of time, according to people
> involved in the negotiations. (Under Apple's current practice,
> customers who buy a song and then the related album effectively pay
> for the song twice).
>
> But some analysts say they doubt that such promotions can reverse the
trend.
>
> "I think the album is going to die," said Aram Sinnreich, managing
> partner at Radar Research, a media consulting firm based in Los
> Angeles. "Consumers are listening to play lists," or mixes of single
> songs from an assortment of different artists. "Consumers who have
> had iPods since they were in the single digits are going to
> increasingly gravitate toward artists who embrace that."
>
> All this comes as the industry's long sales slide has been
> accelerating. Sales of albums, in either disc or digital form, have
> dropped more than 16 percent so far this year, a slide that
> executives attribute to an unusually weak release schedule and
> shrinking retail floor space for music. Even though sales of
> individual songs - sold principally through iTunes - are rising, it
> has not been nearly enough to compensate.
>
> Many music executives dispute the idea that the album will disappear.
> In particular, they say, fans of jazz, classical, opera and certain
> rock (bands like Radiohead and Tool) will demand album-length
> listening experiences for many years to come. But for other genres -
> including some strains of pop music, rap, R&B and much of country -
> where sales success is seen as closely tied to radio air play of
> singles, the album may be entering its twilight.
>
> "For some genres and some artists, having an album-centric plan will
> be a thing of the past," said Jeff Kempler, chief operating officer
> of EMI's Capitol Music Group. While the traditional album provides
> value to fans, he said, "perpetuating a business model that fixates
> on a particular packaged product configuration is inimical to what
> the Internet enables, and it's inimical to what many consumers have
> clearly voted for."
>
> Another solution being debated in the industry would transform
> record labels into de facto fan clubs. Companies including the Warner
> Music Group and the EMI Group have been considering a system in which
> fans would pay a fee, perhaps monthly, to "subscribe" to their
> favorite artists and receive a series of recordings, videos and other
> products spaced over time.
>
> Executives maintain that they must establish more lasting connections
> with fans who may well lose interest if forced to wait two years or
> more before their favorite artist releases new music.
>
> A decade ago, the music industry had all but stopped selling music in
> individual units. But now, four years after Apple introduced its
> iTunes service - selling singles for 99 cents apiece and full albums
> typically for $9.99 - individual songs account for roughly two-thirds
> of all music sales volume in the United States. And that does not
> count purchases of music in other, bite-size forms like ring tones,
> which have sold more than 54 million units so far this year,
> according to Nielsen data.
>
> One of the biggest reasons for the shift, analysts say, is that
> consumers - empowered to cherry-pick - are forgoing album purchases
> after years of paying for complete CD's with too few songs they like.
> There are still cases where full albums succeed - the Red Hot Chili
> Peppers' double-CD "Stadium Arcadium," with a weighty 28 tracks, has
> sold almost two million copies. But the overall pie is shrinking.
>
> In some ways, the current climate recalls the 1950s and to some
> extent, the 60s, when many popular acts sold more singles than
> albums. It took greatly influential works like The Beatles' "Sgt.
> Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" to
> turn the album into pop music's medium of choice.
>
> But the music industry's cost structure is far higher than it was
> when Bob Dylan picked up an electric guitar. Today's costs - from
> television ads and music videos to hefty executive salaries - are
> still built on blockbuster albums.
>
> Hence the emergence of scaled-back deals with acts like Candy Hill.
> Labels have signed new performers to singles deals before, typically
> to release what they viewed as ephemeral or novelty hits. Now,
> executives at Universal say, such arrangements will become more
> common for even quality acts because the single itself is the end
> product.
>
> With Candy Hill, Universal paid a relatively small advance -
> described as being in "five figures" - to cover recording expenses.
> Ms. Shaw, who formed the group with Casha Darjean and Ociris Gomez,
> said the members had kept their day jobs working at an insurance
> company and doing other vocal work to be able to pay the rent at the
> house where they live together.
>
> If one of their songs turns into a big hit, they hope to release a
> full album, and to tap other income sources, like touring and
> merchandise sales.
>
> But turning a song into a hit does not appear to be getting any easier.
>
> Ron Shapiro, an artist manager and former president of Atlantic
> Records, asked, "What are the Las Vegas odds of constantly having a
> 'Bad Day?' " - referring to a tune by the singer Daniel Powter that
> sold more than two million copies after it was used on "American
> Idol."
>
> While music labels labor to build careers for artists that are suited
> for albums, he added, "You have to create an almost hysterical pace
> to find hits to sell as digital downloads and ring tones that
> everybody's going to want. It's scary."
>
>
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