The New Music Paradigm

Before tearing into the heart of today’s topic, I want to say that this is the first in a set of related essays. They do not follow a single topic, but they are built on one the other. This essay sets a foundation for the next.

The New Music Paradigm

What can we learn from the plight of the music industry?

First, let’s look at the past.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. I own an enormous quantity of vinyl. Well, I suppose it isn’t that much, but I do have several hundred LPs.

Back in those days a group put an album about once a year and an LP cost about $3-4. Most LPs had 8-10 songs. Out of those, a couple would be great (hits) and a couple more would be good and if you were lucky, the rest would be okay. 45s went out of vogue while I was in junior high. No one I know bought them. I bought 1 (for a B side).

This was the modus operandi of the music industry for decades. Most bands weren’t (and aren’t) good enough to produce an album with nothing but winners every year, for every Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) there were probably a dozen LPs with only a single really good song.

Now, the switch to digital music and the proliferation of file sharing, and through it music sharing, may have turned things down a different path, but the ultimate truth is that the path was taken and where we find ourselves today is vastly different from my youth, when we got our music on vinyl.

Today, we buy songs, not albums. And yes it is still an album, even when it comes on CD. An album is a collection. A collection of photos is an album, and so is a collection of songs. But, enough of that aside, back to the topic at hand.

Today, we listen to music on MP3 players, not record players. We buy songs, not albums. We use iTunes or Napster or Rhapsody and we don’t buy as many CDs. We won’t pay a band for the mediocre songs they write to fill out the album. We don’t hear them when we see the band live and we don’t want them on our MP3 players. We may never again see the sort of album sales that were common in the 70s and 80s. I am waiting for the first band that really gets it. I am waiting for the first true internet band.

No record deal. No CDs. Play live and sell your songs on your website. A few are starting that direction. Muse has at least a dozen songs that you can listen to, in their entirety, on their website. No need to hope that their album is good, or buy a song based on a 30 second clip. Listen to the whole song and then decide. This is a step in the right direction, but Muse is an established band. I think it will take a new, unknown band to break though. Maybe one already has and I just haven’t heard of them.

But, I think that this new paradigm may have an effect beyond music, but for that you will have to wait until I post again.