Here’s a topic outside my usual comfort zone of industry analysis and trend-watching: art. I’ve been spending the last couple weeks trying to put together my take on the use of BDSM in modern popular music, particularly by female artists, coupled with some historical reference, citing Madonna, Janet Jackson, Marlene Dietrich and illustrating all this by tying to a recent video by Lady Gaga.
Read moreOver the last year, members of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers have been able to join together, despite being competitors, to lobby “the powers that be” for legislation to prevent egregious credit card transaction fees from negatively impacting business, and have recently begun a program of advocay asking Internet service providers to take action against online piracy…
Read moreRecently, music industry blogs have been active in discussions about ticket prices this season. Seems advance sales are just awful, especially in larger markets, and I’ve read stories of Lilith Fair tickets being offered for just $10 (initially around $100) and a recent Sting show in Colorado where they were offering day-of-show tickets for under a dollar!
Read moreSummer is officially here and while I’m sick of the rain (didn’t we have this same problem last year?), I’m here to report on the best summer new releases schedule in years. So get ready to party.
For the last decade, it seems, music retailers have had a ton of quality new releases to offer music fans from late April to early June, followed by almost nothing of merit to offer until very late August/early September.
Seems crazy that with kids out of school, adults partying on the patio and all the outdoor activity that we would have nothing substantial during the summer season…
Read moreI wonder whether Twitter is just a fad. I also have some doubts about its long-term viability. Look at MySpace. Just two years agao it was the thing on the Web and now it’s losing members by the ship-load. Visits are decling so rapidly that Murdoch’s investment is worth a quarter of what he paid for it two years ago.
Read moreNot a year goes by where I don’t have an “aha” moment – when you think to yourself, “This feeling right now – it’s all worth it.” Because you don’t get rich working in music retail. For most indie record store owners and managers, it’s a labor of love. But with some of the best perks on the planet. I was in Chicago last week for the annual NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Convention, where physical and digital music merchants and suppliers meet to do business.
Read moreA recent study from the UK indicated that serendipity plays as large a role in music searches as any recommendation from a friend or blog. This data indicates there is still much potential to reach and influence music fans online or through mobile apps even though media pundits believe the digital era has moved society and media from a push mentality to a pull process. Meaning, users now make the choice compared to being force-fed as the medium of radio and television did for decades.
Read moreI stumbled across a blog entry from comedian-writer Phil Perrier on Huffington Post last week where he was lamenting the demise of rock and roll. His piece entitled “The Day the Music Died” posited that there hasn’t been a great new rock band to emerge in the past 18 years. He dismissed artists like the Dave Matthews Band and Coldplay claiming they were pop music and not real rock, yet just a few sentences later he asks, “where are the next Rolling Stones, U2 or Van Morrison?”…
Read moreThe war between digital and physical is over. And nobody won.
Legal, paid downloads actually decreased in the first quarter of 2010 after showing signs of losing upward momentum in the last two quarters of 2009. Even with continued decline in physical sales this year, down about 15 percent, physical still dominates digital in total sales by a few percentage points, about 55 percent to 45 percent. Digital is the realm of single songs, and CDs and LPs are the choice when a music fan desires the entire album.
Read moreCommunity is important. And sometimes you do good deeds even when there is no pay-off.
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