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Is the simple act of buying music too difficult?
Raise your hand if you've ever walked into a record store looking for something that's not 100 percent mainstream and/or current only to walk out empty handed.
Shrinking CD sections and the difficult in buying music is what's been killing sales, says Peter Kafka of Media Memo. The music industry blog Coolfer, though, counters that "it depends" because record stores (and big box chains) are far from the only place you can buy music.
Methinks these stores drove serious music buyers online when they stopped stocking back catalog items and used the extra space for everything from video games to fashion accessories to shelves for candy. They sent the message that music wasn't really that important. And they ruined the instant gratification factor for buyers. Did they really think we like waiting four days for Amazon to deliver our stuff? We learned to like it more than a wasted trip to the mall, that's for sure.
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Naw, It's just that everything is better when it's free.
Haha.
The Kafka article lost me with the first two sentences: "Digital is the future, but analog is the present. Which is why CD sales remain the biggest revenue driver for the music business."
Um. Last time I checked, CDs were digital, too.
Also: Kafka points out that the recent reduction of cd inventory is dwindling, and infers, by the last sentence, that this is the reason music sales are dropping. But that's cause and effect reversed. It's not because retailers are pulling inventory that sales are dropping, but it's because sales are dropping that retailers are pulling inventory.
I'll be damned if a music store has been likely to carry anything that I'm interested in within the past 20+ years. I've usually had to special order at an inflated price. I know that they carry things that move, and that I'm not their target customer, but the major movers have been relocated to the internet because of convenience and price. My technologically inept parents use their iPods all the time now. My mom's not going to pay $17+ (really!) for the "A Rush of Blood to the Head" when she can get it for $8 and not have to deal with going anywhere.
Does anyone remember back when you could buy a new CD, open it, listen to it, then exchange it if you didn't like it? I was purchasing CDs like mad because there was zero risk. After music stores (quickly) dropped that policy, my CD purchases fell off.
Now the Internet has again removed the risk, due to their online song previews. And, since I'm already on the page, I might as well buy from them.
That's the heart of the issue, in my opinion.