Quoting Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>:
> And no
> one has ever heard of those bands, because most people resources devoted to
> music (money and time) are finite and they are being absorbed, for the most
> part, by the Britney-like crap. In other words, the supply side of music
> business is doing fine - but it is the demand side that is getting, uhm,
> more and more monochromatic.
Incorrect. If you actually look at facts (like sales figures) or actually knew something about music consumers (instead of pontificating amongst the post-music set) you would see an increase in the skew toward Britney et al. (music is still a club good for most preteens) but at the same time you would also see a great fattening of the sales for most of the rest of the market. The absolute number of artists releasing material for sale continues to grow and while there are increasing numbers of the "unheard" (particularly if you allow for free swaps/downloads instead of sales) the "middle" is getting fatter. The major label strategy (started over 20 years ago) of concern only for the "club good" market has paid off. It's just that you have not noticed there are an increasing number and variety of alternatives to the "winner take all/club good" market that has increased total music sales dramatically (despite the increase in piracy--which by the way makes your off-the-cuff opinion even less valuable).
Jim
"Come on, come on Put your hands into the fire Explain, explain As I turn and meet the power This time, This time Turning white and sense dire Pull up, pull up
From one extreme to another"
--13 Senses, "Into the Fire" (get the Cicada remix if you can)
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