Well I told myself I wouldn't get involved, and I was doing better than Jonathan in that regard. But I've cracked...
-----Original Message----- From: Nick King [mailto:nickwking@ntlworld.com] Sent: 20 November 2002 01:13 To: klf@mailman.xmission.com Subject: RE: [KLF] [ot] Kopy protection
Surely, the reason for the fall in CD sales is that there isn't that many new artists around nowadays, the charts are full of manufactured Pop Idol/Star/Rivals/etc, independent labels have been bought up by majors, etc?
CD sales across the board are dropping. This creates a vicious cycle of competition that means that major record labels are leapfrogging each other, always trying to push 'the next big thing' (because first albums tend to sell more than second and third albums). This breeds apathy in the buying public above 18 years old. However the 8- to 12-year-old buying public still lap it up.
I know that there are people out there who don't buy vinyl/CD's and *DO* just download MP3's, but don't go and blame a fairly large percentage fall in record sales on people with PC's downloading MP3's! I mean there's a whole load of people out there who still don't have the bandwidth/time/knowledge to download MP3's, so surely the whole percentage fall can't be attributed to people who download this stuff!
Not the whole percentage fall. But a significant portion of it is caused by the availability of bootlegs.
Ah well, we won't be able to dissuade these useless wankers that the reason the sales are going down is simply that there isn't that much good stuff being released nowadays (apart from, say, Royksopp, Bent, Orbital, Orb - latter two recently dropped by their record label, and the like)...
This is an opinion held by a lot of people who're into alternative music, and while it's an ideal way of looking at things, sadly it's just not backed up by facts. Ultimately the reason that bands like the Orb get dropped are because they aren't selling as many records as the record company need them to, and while there are various factors to that (publicity etc.) that comes down to the fact that they just aren't mainstream and popular enough. There doesn't have to be any correlation at all between music you or I find good and music that sells well to the general public. I should know, I've been working on Fame Academy...
...Or maybe I'm just getting too old!
Sadly, I've already had to come to terms with the fact that I'm now twice as old as a lot of the people who buy things in the UK singles chart. And (dare I say it?) I'm probably among the youngest people on this list- sorry! Stuart. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.404 / Virus Database: 228 - Release Date: 15/10/2002 ______________________________________________________________________ Any views or opinions expressed in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ENDEMOL UK plc unless specifically stated. This email and the information it contains are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify us immediately and delete the copy you have received from your system. You should not copy it for any purpose, re-transmit it, use it or disclose its contents to any other person. If you suspect the message may have been intercepted or amended please call the sender.