Forrester attributes the 15 per cent slump in music sales to a number of other factors. The economy is in a slump, there's much more competition from games, from DVDs - which saw an 80 per cent rise in sales - and most interestingly - from the "limited playlists" rotated by commercial US radio stations.Forrester notes that one company, ClearChannel controls 60 per cent of radio, so new artists don't get the opportunity to be heard.
"Playlists are very short," it notes.
(via The Register)
I'm still a little wary of these surveys. How many people actually really know why they bought each CD they've bought in the last month? Because they heard it on MP3? Because they liked the bands last CD? Because they heard it on the radio? Friend recomendation? Do people reply to surveys on what they actually do or what they believe they do?
Wrap up of the recent "copyright" news items of the past few days. RIAA plans to sue individual file-sharers using the "No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act". Interestingly this act actually sets limits, such as the copyright infringed must be worth over US$1000. So in theory I could still share the entire The Sharp catalog and not get in trouble. But is that $30 per CD downloaded? Or is it a total of the files shared no matter how may times downloaded? Anyway, they're arguing another part of the Act makes the $1000 limit irrelevant in that if you were deliberately sharing content you are automatically in trouble.
Theatres are concidering running anti-pirate ads before the movie starts. I'm sure they'll be as useful as the anti-pirate ads on video tapes and DVD. How many people go the cinema with a video camera are likely to see this message and go "what? it's wrong to video tape the screen? Dang!" and put the camera down?
Heard about Listen4Ever.com? Too late.. missed it.
So... nothing really new then on the music front.
Two years ago tomorrow Dave and I were in San Francisco. Since then Dave has been to Singapore, Japan and is now in the UK. I've been to Sydney...
Found a new place to rent. Signed the lease yesterday. Move in end of September. It's in MET Zone 1 so travel will be cheaper. I suspect the time saved travelling to and from work is probably only about 10 minutes or so... oh well. Travel to the city will be 20 minutes quicker, and there is a ton of parking at the station if I feel lazy. And it'll be our place and no-one elses...
Dad : "Welcome to the real world."
No Walken gigs this week. We jammed new stuff out on Sunday and have had this week "off". This weekend we're preparing for the Wednesday gig at the ArtHouse and the support gig at the 9th Ward on the 30th. The 9th Ward gig is a Friday night. Absolutely no excuse not to be there.