[Dixielandjazz] Re:POP RECORD SALES

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/8/03 7:34:58 AM Pacific Standard Time, DWSI at aol.com 
writes:

> Don't know if I can start a new thread this way, but here goes. Has anyone 
> noticed the news on pop record sales falling? USA Today and WSJ both had 
> long 
> articles. The "problem" named is the free swapping services as Napster once 
> was 
> (and is coming back in PA now). Supposedly they're stealing sales from the 
> record companies. But I wonder. 

No question at all Dan they are indeed doing exactly that, and the Major 
record companies are screaming rape these days instead of the artists.  What goes 
around comes around.

Let us real musicians and drummers too, encourage them to do so, and once the 
major record labels find they cannot make any money off of that noise, 
perhaps they will return to making real music and playing it on the radio and 
marketing it again.

Long ago the major record companies were taken over by the Lawyers and CPAs, 
and most of the real creative musical folks were thrown out with the 
dishwater, or resigned to go back to being independent producers and start their own 
record labels etc. 

I just recently sat in on a re-mix recording session with a Major 
producer/engineer who is paid six figure checks to produce Hip Hop and pop records for 
several major labels, he is known as one of the HOT producers in the business 
these days and is far more important to the major records labels than any 
artists they have signed.

Case in point,  he had spent about $250,000.00 producing a recording for a 
major label for an up and coming hopeful singer, with horns, keyboards, strings, 
and some really nice musical content,  the label A& R called him on the phone 
while I was sitting there and told him to dump all that shit out of the mix, 
and just give them the electronic drums and bass tracks and boost up the 
vocals to IN YOUR FACE LEVELS, we don't want anything else, that's the new sound we 
want for Radio and this is going to be a big hit.

There is a definite movement amongst many young people to use their easily 
attained technology to record their own CDs and most wanted music from each 
other and from the download sites.

The major record labels have always tried to control the market which in 
their opinion of what the record buying public is, is ages 13-25, and they have 
managed to do so for many years, however their market has definitely turned on 
them deciding that they are tired of getting ripped off at the retail records 
stores for CDs that cost the record labels about $.50 each to crank out.

These kids are smarter today than the record companies think they are, and 
they have proven it with Napster, even if they did force Napster to go sort of 
legitimate in a takeover situation.  The major labels did not want Napster to 
stop, they just wanted to own and control it and all other such operations.   
The simple truth is that the major record companies got caught with their pants 
down on this one, and the youngsters took advantage of the technology and 
perfected it while the record label boards were sitting around snorting cocaine 
and trying to figure out if this new download thing  was really going to work 
or not and should they or should they not invest in the technology to join the 
game or just sue the kids and take it away from them.

This has opened up a great many opportunities for independent artists of all 
genres to go on the Internet and market their own music successfully, and it 
is especially viable for many of us on this list if we go after the market.  It 
is simply a numbers game folks, just look at how many computers are now in 
the homes around the world, that we can communicate with directly without a 
distributor or retailer.

  We can finally give the consumer something at a reasonable price eliminate 
the rip off of our royalties by those collecting them for us, and the 
nonpayment of distributors and or retailers sell them via mail or download and get 
paid up front via credit card or pay pal, pay a small service fee and retain all 
those profits the major record labels have been making for years.

The older folks sales seem to be still growing due to endless "oldie but 
goodie" collections. Is there another message here? 

Yes, Dan there is: Good music will always find a market.  Unfortunately so 
will BAD music if you spend enough money to control the market.

A HIT IS A HIT IS A HIT IS A HIT, and always will be just looking for a new 
audience that has not heard it yet.   INDEED "WHAT A WONDERFUL AND VERY LARGE 
WORLD"


How far out can you go with noise and chanting (called rap) before its appeal 

collapses from lack of creativity?

Probably about as far as Rock & Roll, it will take different paths to find a 
new voice and audience of youngsters looking for their own music, whatever it 
is, and who knows, it might actually go back one day to include real 
instruments and music as we know it if more of us get back into the schools and teach 
those kids what it is and more importantly what you can do with it.
 
 Perhaps some of the knowledgeable out there on the list would like to 
comment.

Well that's my first immediate take on the subject, hope its somewhat useful 
to somebody, 

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

"A Scratching Turntable ruining a perfectly good phonograph record is not a 
musical instrument, and the 'Musicians' who do it should be banished to a 
rubber room with nothing in it but them and the turntable set up with no musical 
accompaniment whatsoever, not even drums and bass."