Old Music Is Killing New Music |
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Old Music Is Killing New Music |
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Jan 26 2022, 01:57 AM |
It’s not just the Boomers or the “Old Schoolers”, it’s evidently pretty much most of the music consuming population. They have largely met in agreement that “The older stuff is better”. Of course, this sounds like boomer talk from the outset. However, it comes also from the voices of the younger generation. They too seem to have realized that yes, the older stuff was, in fact, better.
A recent article by TED GIOIA published on THE ATLANTIC.com goes in to detail on this issue. A simple data point is that “old songs” represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. What’s worse, the “New Music” market is shrinking year over year. *Here is a link to the article in question https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2...w-music/621339/ Take a look at this graphic. It compares catalog (old music) versus consumption of new music. It illustrates a simple point. The “old stuff” is doing better than the new stuff. In fact, 200 of th most popular “new” tracks make up less than 5 percent of total streams. That means 95 percent of total streams are “old stuff”. Could it be that only old schoolers are listening to music on streaming? Put simply, NO. Most streaming is servicing a younger population. Things are even more severe in terms of downloaded tracks on itunes. The most downloaded tracks are from bands from the last century including CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL and THE POLICE. For the first time in the history of music, new music is having an entirely minimal impact on popular culture as a whole, while older music seems to be stronger than ever. In just one example, the Grammy Awards were recently postponed and nobody seemed to care. In fact the Grammy audience has been shrinking year over year and is smaller than ever. In 2012 40 million people watched the Grammy Awards, in 2021, it was under 9 million. There are several trends that bear out this information. Consider all of the catalogs of artists from years past that are now selling for hundreds of millions of dollars. Artists from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen are cashing out. The major labels are doing most of the buying so that they can have viable product to release. Also, the best selling physical format for music is currently VINLY. Yes, that’s right, a format 70 years old, once considered “dead” is now the most popular way for consumers to buy a physical copy of music. New music is becoming a commodity that functions mostly as background noise. People have a spotify playlist that they use at the gym or for the commute, but mostly they have little idea what the artists names are or what the songs are called. This is much different for “old music” that has a much deeper form of brand recognition, even among young listeners. It seems the industry has lost it’s ability to find and nurture new talent. It’s more often found via analytics and milked quickly for all it’s worth and allowed to expire. Gone are the days of working with an artist to create something enduring. It’s just about quick numbers and the next big thing as far as new music is concerned. These acts are disposable as there is an endless supply of them. If we do see a revival in the discovery of “new” music, it probably won’t be led by the music industry, but instead will be outsourced, or rather “crowdsourced” to the people doing the listening and making the purchasing decisions. QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU THINK? |
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Jan 26 2022, 04:22 PM |
I was pretty surprised (and disturbed) by the lack of interest and coverage of L2 as well. For anyone that wants to argue that "there's a lot going on right now to distract us", yeah, well there was a lot going on in the late 60s too when the Apollo program was happening and we ALL watched that. Even if you had to stand in front of a dept. store window.
As for the music well, in my opinion, if I'm being honest - it's all pretty much sucked since 1993. This is the only time I've actually just come out and written that down. I try to convince myself that there's new music that's good and that I like but no, it just ain't there. Whatever, there's plenty of stuff from the dawn of recording up through the early 90s that I've yet to discover. *The 'new' music that I do find passable is all just retro inspired stuff, and even that just eventually leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This post has been edited by klasaine: Jan 26 2022, 04:37 PM -------------------- - Ken Lasaine
https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/foolin-the-clouds https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/surfin-at-the-country-hop Soundcloud assorted ... https://soundcloud.com/klasaine3 New record ... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kenlasaine Solo Guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...5iIdO2tpgtj25Ke Stuff I'm on ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...b-dhb-4B0KgRY-d |
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