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SG:
Retail Sales for CDs have been shifting to the Internet for
nearly 5 years now. The figures involved were even abused by the RIAA in
the construction of their "case" against Napster - they only used the numbers
for CD Singles, which lose out to LP Singles any day (Part of this is DJs I
suspect). CDs in general though have been bought more and more online, and
less in retail outlets, which traditionally have been the most difficult places
for "new music" to get placed, let alone sold. The only exception are
stores like PooBah's which have a huge used selection, and this model has also
been growing. Such stores are quite open to individuals as opposed to big
distributors, if they personally like your stuff.
** acutally, poobah is small potatoes when compared to
amoeba , in terms of the new music
bins. there are tower records outlets that have some pretty
good "new music" sections (also better
than poobah) , but this is almost always up to the buyer of any
particular store.
SG:
Despite all that MCA/Vivendi is doing to encroach upon our
right to post original material without paying for it, there are a ton of online
venues to place material for nothing but a CD sent to them, or even just the
time spent posting the MP3s in question.
** but here's the rub for
me. yeah, all of this stuff has awesome POTENTIAL for distributing "product" to people. my
question is HOW are you going to get people INTERESTED in what you DO. to my
mind, this is the real crux of the issue. i used to believe that building a
better mousetrap would necessarily bring people to you - - they would want it. i
don't think that happens. HOW are we going to get someone who is not, AT THIS
MOMENT, interested in so-called new music looking for YOUR stuff on the
internet? before one has people buying your music, they have to find it - - and
that means that they have to WANT to look for it. this is where my optimism
fails me and i don't see the rosy picture people are painting.
so . . . please show me how this is going to happen.
miko said he wasn't necessarily looking for new converts, but that's exactly
what i think is needed before the 'net become the "saviour" that many foresee it
being. otherwise we have the same small audience.
SG:
I still insist that if we allow behemoths like MCA/Vivendi
to monopolize the distribution business for music on the Internet, it's our own
fault for not doing something about it. I would still like to discuss the
idea of a mass exodus and boycott in the future .
** most of the
people who do cds on this list are on small
labels or are
self-published. it strikes me that
they are NOT waiting for the bigwigs to do
anything.
stig |