Last week I was talking to former manager about the new Brian Setzer album (released in October with his orchestra) and the conversation evolved into technology killing traditional music sales v. radio’s consolidation being the root cause. Obviously, I’m in the latter camp because if technology were the primary culprit, then Sony’s Walkman (turned 30 this year) would’ve done as much damage as the iPod has allegedly inflicted. All, I will say further is that devices are harmless and ineffective without tastemakers. Chew on this for a moment. How will people know about new content without tastemakers such as FM radio, friends, podcasts, etc? People around my age (and older) may be able to fill up an iPod with their oldies but I highly doubt college students, teenagers and tweeners will or could. Plus the minority of real music fans I belong to: those of us who want to continue moving forward by following our beloved favorites (Duran Duran never went away) and keep an open mind toward many of the newer acts appearing yet one could never know this in today’s Clear Channel-Emmis-Viacom drudgescape courtesy of Lee Abrams.
My original point was this…I think On the Media must’ve read my mind last week by giving NPR music reporter Rick Karr the whole hour to discuss several aspects about the future of the music business as we know (or knew) it: recorded, concerts, copyright and bands. Too bad Rick was limited to an hour. This is something which could be covered in several hours, in a multi-part series. I wish he also covered some other aspects as the dedicated retailers.
This reminds me to get my podcast prepped for next year with my friend Mark (M) covering our favorite releases for 2009. Maybe we can get some friends trapped in the dinosaur rock mindset to check out other things so they’ll stop repeating the erroneous mantras of “things were better in the past” or “there isn’t anything new nowadays.”