MP3s -- the new 45s
Category: Internet

Yesterday I went to the music store and actually bought music. I couldn't remember the last time I did this. Over the past few years my music purchases have been few and far between, and the albums that I have added to my collection have been through either gifts or online stores.

I walked into the store and walked out with 5 albums which after sales tax came to a grand total of $82.63.

Grateful Dawg	16.99
Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction	13.99
Bad Religion - Generator	16.99
Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl	11.99
Sum41 - Does This Look Infected	15.99

That seemed like a lot of money to me and it got me thinking about MP3s, the Internet, and file sharing. Could it be that MP3s were the cause of the declining music sales? The answer I came to was yes. Well, it was partially yes, but not in the way that you might think.

Before I start this, I would like to acknowledge that no research was done, and I don't plan to add research. The following are just my thoughts on the matter.

In my view, 4 factors lead to the decline in the music industry: 1) MP3s combined with 2) a genre shift 3) DVD collections and 4) The Internet as a pastime.

MP3s and the shift of tastes

When I was kid I made mix tapes. I would use my ghetto-looking red boombox with its dual cassette player to make the perfect mix. This was a long and laborious process that I would usually tackle once a month. This rite of passage aside, most of my music enjoyment came from either a) listening to albums in their entirety or b) the radio. The radio was, of course, free, and albums were designed to be 60 minutes of good music.

I knew that when I handed over my $8 to the clerk and he, in return, gave me Van Halen's 1984, I would get some good listening out of it. I bought a whole album.

Then came the CD player with its random access. I could easily jump to the "good song" and I didn't have to listen to the "filler." Mix tapes were easier to make and, because of that, I would make them more often. "They don't even listen to the filler," thought the record companies, "We don't have to try on that stuff." And it worked; sales continued, and the record companies profited.

Meanwhile, the Nineties were happening and rock was doing well. We started to see a resurgence of good groups like U2, and we got some great albums like Joshua Tree. Unlike pop, rock lends itself to a "like the sound of the group" mentality. After all, they write the music. They play the music. They have musical talent. It is not surprising that there is a higher hit rate.

Then came the music industry's worst nightmare, pop music coupled with MP3s. All of a sudden technology made it possible to view an artist as his or her one (maybe two) hit song/s. The "filler" became blatantly obvious by its absence. People no longer had to pay for the bit perfect quality of a CD and they were being hit over the head with the fact that they were only buying one song. "Why pay for $17 for a complete album? Heck I can buy a DVD for less than that."

DVD Collections

I owned a total of one commercially-produced VHS tape. It was a copy of Top Gun. It cost me $15 dollars in late fees plus the "I lost the tape" cost of $79.99. It is true that tapes did see some sales growth after that. However, VHS tapes are big and bulky. They wear out, and they aren't filled with "extras."

On the other hand, I have spent hundreds of dollars on DVDs. My complete Sopranos collection alone probably set me back by $250. There is no doubt that DVD collecting is one hot thing to do. For about the same price as a Brittany Spears album you can purchase Gladiator or Star Wars. Would you rather a) watch Gladiator three times or b) listen to "Oops, I did it again." 120 times. To be clear, that is 120 times *after* the 832 times that you hear it on the radio.

For me the choice is clear, and sales would seem to indicate it. DVD sales have gone through the roof. People only have so many discretionary dollars to spend, and music is not the answer. People also have only so many entertainment hours to be spend and they are spending them elsewhere.

The Internet

People *do* use the Internet for things besides files sharing. Actually they use it a lot. Studies have shown that people are both a) surfing more AND b) watching TV more. What's down? uhhh. Listening to music. The RIAA seems to believe that music dollars are like an annuity to which they are entitled. It doesn't seem to matter that they are producing a lesser product that people don't spend as much time using. They want their money.

Did MP3s destroy the industry? No, but they didn't make it easier for us to see what we were actually buying, and that's bad news for the record companies.

(If you thought that this post was interesting, why not read another? Perhaps a random link? Or you could just read about me.)