Don't get me wrong. I love the internet. I like the online communities I've joined through social networks, I like the opportunity it's given me to write about what I want, talk about what I want and find out about what I want. I'm English and I can support an Italian team and follow US sports without any problems whatsoever, thanks to the internet.
However, when it comes to music, I've grown to detest it. Now, I discover a lot of new music through Youtube, that's fine - but the feeling of excitement and sheer exhilaration that comes with buying new music in hard copy is nearly a thing of the past.
Soon I will no longer be able to walk into a record shop, as my hometown recently lost the only outlet of it's kind when HMV slipped into administration recently. No longer will I be able to scroll through shelves myself, pick a CD having no idea what it sounds like and take it home. Obviously, there's always Amazon, but the magic of delivery nullifies the statement I'm trying to make.
Thanks to downloading and every song being available at the click of a not-quite-legitimate website, customers are no longer willing to buy whole albums, simply stealing the one song they like and leaving it at that. Album sales have dropped, Record Labels are struggling and live concerts are now nearly the only way that most bands make any money.
As a result, the only bands that get faith from labels now are dead certs to make money; X Factor winners and already established acts from a time when labels could take risks on an artist. Bands have to fund themselves, hoping to be the next big thing on bit torrent, rather than Top Of The Pops.
Youtube videos and advertisements have replaced EP sales and merchandising, and the traditional vision of a band hitting the road in the search of success has been replaced by Pro Tools experts hitting their computers and Twitter accounts looking for the next big retweet. Noone has to pay for anything, so noone will.
So now, when you hear a song on the radio, how many of you buy the album on Amazon? How many of you buy it all?
Unsigned music has both benefited and suffered thanks to the growth of the internet; The Arctic Monkey's Myspace ascendancy in 2006 was groundbreaking but is now completely unsurprising.
I've been in music for 6 years now and I've made about £5. I've done gigs, Albums, EP's and photo shoots since I was 14. But you can't sell something to someone they're used to getting for free.
When I hear a song, I still tend to buy the whole album, still addicted to the feeling I get when holding an album, opening the cover, reading the liner notes and debating which song I'm going to enjoy best.
That romance for many people is gone, and for a lot it never existed. Soon, music will just be another institution, bereft of the anecdotal quality and mystique that makes it so appealing and still warrants obsession from the hoards of adoring fans.
The romance has gone. How long before the music is too?
No comments:
Post a Comment