[lbo-talk] Re: Vinyl

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Feb 2 10:04:48 PST 2005


Jim Westrich
> 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).

And what are the numbers and sources of the facts that you are quoting?

What is more, your posting seem to confuse different kinds of facts, specifically titles (items sold) with consumers (people). Increased downloads do not necessarily translate into greater shares of population consuming a particular genre - they may simply indicate increased downloading capacity of a market niche that otherwise remains relatively constant as a share of the population. If you lecture others about ignorance of facts, it would be helpful to have your own facts straight, no?

Second, growing market shares of the Britney et al. variety - and I presume you are referring here to people rather than titles, since unlike downloads, multiple purchases of the same CD by one person are unlikely - invariably means that other genres lose their shares. Shares always ad to 100% last time I checked, so it is a zero sum game.

Third, and going beyond bean counting, all the examples of "innovative adaptations" that you et el. quoted are mere local adaptations of the stuff originally promoted by the US (or to lesser extent British) labels - techno, hip hop, punk etc. Is that your concept of diversity? It seems pretty narrow minded. Even someone with limited knowledge of music like myself knows about other musical traditions (Arabic, Chinese) not to mention individual countries (Italy, France, Slavic countries) and hundreds more.

If your concept of musical diversity is limited to local variations on Anglophone themes - you can keep your diversity, and your music with it, thank you.

Wojtek



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list