Koleman Strumpf's argument is very intriguing. I think he hits a very important point in the article '
The Effect of File Sharing On Record Sales.' By relating the fall in sales of the music industry to the disco bust of the 80's, Strumpf does not make this an issue of illegal downloading, but the music industry falling its audience. Strumpf states that maybe the decline in record sales is because people are less interested in 'teen pop' just like people grew tired of Disco in the 80's. As we discussed in class, the files that are most frequently downloaded illegally are pop. Increasingly, people want to have pop singles for party/dance scenarios, but not for personal listening pleasure. Taste is moving more and more in the direction of alternative rock/pop and electronic. Yet, the music industry is not observing this trend. They continue to throw us Justin Biebers and Hannah Montanas. Maybe if they caught the trend and started to cater toward their audience's needs things would be different.
Good post, Grant. You're right that taste seems to be moving away from the highly processed, highly packaged "product" that the music industry insists on bombarding us with. But I do think there is an audience for the Biebers and Montanas of this world: the tweens, who as we have learned this term have an increasingly large chunk of disposable income to spend on downloads of Bieber's "Baby, Baby, Baby" and other such tripe.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to note if tweens are more prone to purchase or illegally download...
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