The Breaking Point

I am an avid blog reader of the music industry. Before I even thought I was reading blogs, I was enjoying them. The original blogs are reviews. Thats what blogging is right? A review of a certain point, a product, or even a review of how people dress. Well I loved reading music reviews, editorial reviews in magazines, and even reviews in the comment section of what people thought of that review. All that was what blogging was back in the day. Now its a market, with an industry, with people making a job out of it. I don't know the exact figures, but I'm pretty sure its competitive with newspapers and magazines going out of business. Which brings me to my point, I'm here to review a collection of blogs I've read over the past 2 years that have a similar topic, but is missing something. They all say that the record industry is failing miserably losing 20 some million dollars every year. They are all missing the breaking point.

When a business loses money, they look to find a way to keep their doors open and if they can't find it they close the doors. I wonder if people finally realize they can make their own coffee (or cawfee, however you pronounce it), would Starbucks close their doors? They closed 600 of them, but if people stopped giving them money, then what would their breaking point be? Would Starbucks close all of their doors? Or would they finally go back to their roots and make coffee thats actually coffee? Will KFC ever make non genetically mutated chickens if people learned how to genetically mutate chickens themselves? I mean people already know how to make music on their own, how to get it for free, how to burn and bootleg it, and even how to get free promotions from fans. What is this breaking point that will come of this industry? I said it before, I'll say it again, downsize to Indie labels or DIY if you want to work business and music, which is difficult as hell. Now when I say "downsizing" I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean there are people who do one thing then retire, and they should not be getting more than a quarter of a percent of royalties. Thats why I like Indies, because from what I've seen everybody is a family working together. The majors pay a lot of people and here is some stats I got from Coolfer.com, from their Tuesday Business link section, and their other blogs.

"Digital distributor The Orchard reported a loss of $800,000″

"Napster has an accumulated deficit of $199 million."

Thats just this week on their Q3 earnings. Every week though, they state who was the #1 artist this week on Billboard and compare sales to this time last year. Sales are almost always lower than the previous year. At this trend will their be a year it just stops? Nobody buys music anymore and people who go to shows have been hindered by the rise of gas and ticket prices. I can go on about this forever, about how the major industry's are failing, if their going to collapse, how Indies are increasingly becoming a much better option, how even though Michael Jackson looks like an ugly woman he still does better music than most people, and how this recession is messing everything up (I won't get into politics because I get enough of it in life), but I'll just say that every business has a breaking point. Ex, Tower Records and Simon Delivers. WHAT IS THE RECORD BUSINESS' BREAKING POINT?

From the mind of Keveeno

The Breaking Point

Are Majors Becoming Obsolete?

With the rise of the indies being years in the making, and the fall of the majors being decades in the making, is it time to call majors obsolete yet? The majors still monopolize the billboards, with a few indies breaking into the boards, but sales are down. Top of the lows is what the majors control now, and indies making record sales because of the rise of talent through cheaper recording practices. Who needs that "Major" deal anyways? Everybody knows its a scam. They pay you money, and your happy. You do a lot of drugs, and now your broke. You think, oh, I'll just keep making music and I'll get money. No. You owe the label all the money they gave you that you sniffed away.

Who didn't see this coming? With the internet age, just about anybody except your grandmother can be posting music online. While your grandmother is still trying to download MP3's on a typewriter, the next "next" big indie label is going to step up and possible outsell the majors. Artists are wising up and working with indies since it is more of an incentive deal, you do good you get paid and you don't… you don't. Simple. You do better next time. Majors are still on the, you get paid, you do good, they bleed you dry till they find another. You do bad, they drop the artist and they never touch music again unless its on mixtapes, reunion tours, or a reality show.

In Conclusion, majors are not close to being obsolete though since they own TV, radio, venues, stadiums, and you. They have investors, and people who believe it can change, and little do they know record sales are a bubble that started a few decades ago, and when that internet needle came and popped it, indies jumped on life rafts that were significantly smaller but they are making some waves. The last major waves from the majors get smaller everyday, while the indies grow from their small ships. So Indies haven't taken over yet, they just haven't hit their bubble yet.

Inspired by HypeBots prank, Major Labels are Obsolete

From the mind of
Keveeno

Are Majors Becoming Obsolete?