How The Music Industry Has Changed Over Time!

Here’s how I see the music industry’s vehicles of profit (with no time lines to speak of):

For starters, the vinyl record was the medium of choice for a very long time! Even today, as I write this, they continue to be manufactured and sold, especially to the niche market composed of audiophiles, collectors, and D.J.s. Old, out of print recordings remain in high demand by collectors who know what real music is supposed to sound like. In spite of their apparent flaws (such as being freaking huge) many popular new albums are being released on vinyl, and older albums are also being reissued as well (Pretty cool … right, old people?).

Then came the 8-track (which you can thank the automobile industry for that crap pot). Now, despite its problems (of which it had many) this odd-shaped format gained steady popularity because of its convenience and portability (comparative of the time, of course). Now, this is why their sales went downhill (avalanche-style): they were too bulky; rewinding capability was tremendously horrible (it cut off your song in the middle, which was a constant pain-in-the-a@#) and they hosted a whole stream of developmental issues. Plus, they were too expensive for the quality that they delivered (which wasn’t that much).

Next up: the cassette! This format currently remains more widely used than many of its “replacements” (anyone remember mini tapes? LOL). However, the cassette has taken a backseat to the lower-quality phenomenon: the CD. Because of its high demand, the cassette remained influential on design for over a decade after its decline as a media mainstay, and as the CD grew in popularity, cassette-shaped adapters were developed to provide an economical way to obtain CD functionality in vehicles only equipped with cassette decks. I still have one of these adapters in my car … if you really need to know the truth!

Crappy sounding CDs then took the world by storm! In their early days, however, records were still being prized by audiophiles because of their better analog reproduction abilities (seems the young kids during those days forgot this fact, and loved the s@#t out of their disgusting sounding CDs anyways). Now, in my opinion, analog sound will always be better than digital, as you just can’t compare the sound of a CD to the one coming off of a turntable (I’m not even a D.J. and I know this … imagine what a D.J. knows) or out a tape deck. Maybe there are some other slight advantages with digital, but in terms of sound quality analog is a clear cut winner — hands down!

Here comes the fun years: the Internet screws the music industry royally in 1999 (and millions of poor kids rejoice … thank you, Napster). Sure, the ease of creating and sharing music freely may have resulted in widespread copyright infringement, but haven’t we been ripped off over the last decade and a half by having to pay for the garbage they’re now calling music (truth: there is no good music today … just samplings of the old stuff mixed in with the new crap). The major record companies are arguing that this is piracy … I argue back: f@#k off, we have found a way to listen to music at a much fairer price: free (you’re still getting ticket sales aren’t you? So stick with that … I’m sure you’re not hurting!). And this brings us to the present day — man, it was a great ride, wasn’t it!

My friend, music has progressed from something that each new generation did for kicks, to a greed-drenched industry that doesn’t know it’s a@# from a hole in the ground, which is quickly starting to cave in on itself. Today, talentless people are now earning millions off of their “music”, which was digitally manufactured to hide how badly their voices really are (think Brooke Hogan for starters, and then move down the s@#t pile). Now, here comes the good news: along with this change for the worse, the American public has changed as well. More of us are asking ourselves, “Why am I paying for this noisome music?” and “When is this ever going to turn around for the better?” These questions will have to be answered eventually!

Who knows what’s over the horizon for the music industry? I sure in the hell don’t, but at least I can honestly tell you this: someone in the corporate world will be trying to make money off of it (no matter how horrible it is) and it’s up to all of us to change that very bleak future scenario! Seriously … how much more of this can we collectively take?