Th3 Core

*Highly commercialized sales of music is dying.

;-)

What Dras said.  I don't think music can actually ever die, it might get better without as much mass marketing.

>mass marketing

Remember me telling about my daughter having to go get print toy flyers from walmart & target last year because the kids watch netflix rather than cable channels and didn't know about new/hot toys? I think the same thing is playing out here ...without PUSH media pushing then the mass marketing system is hobbled.  Add to that the ability to have very individualized control over your personal device and the public's exposure to new songs or groups is limited, too.  You used to hear plenty of new music in public ...now, not so much.

What Dras said and Fing Concert Prices are CRAZY

Piracy,  Independent musician distribution

Seth Godin has been ranting about this for years. Short version: the music industry was an industry in which for many years, an idiot could make money
 - major format changes every few years forced everyone to rebuy music they already owned.
 - major publications devoted themselves to publishing reviews of your product for free. Yes Rolling Stone still exists, but circulation of print journals has cratered and, everyone I know that still reads Rolling Stone does so because it has great political coverage, but crappy music coverage these days.
 - an entire media was devoted to advertising your product by broadcasting samples 24/7 but in a way that made it fricken impossible to get what you really wanted

In this climate, concerts were loss leaders. They were meant to lose money which would be recouped by driving album sales.

Seth points out this is turned on its head. People are outraged that they would have to *pay*, yes actualy *pay* for recorded music, but at $250/ticket, Springsteen sold out the Montreal Colliseum for three nights within a matter of minutes.

So concerts are a profit center, not a loss leader and they may be the only profit center.

Also, as Dras, RC and everyone said, push media is dead. I think that "music" is becoming a niche market. Basically old farts sit around listening to the same crap they listened to in their teens and 20s, and a tiny number of true fans are out exploring and finding new music.

For myself, I find I rarely even listen to music anymore. Most of the time I'm listening to talk radio or a podcast. 25 years ago "public radio" was "classical and jazz radio" now it's "talk news radio" and dropping music programs all over the place.

And isn't it soo much better this way? 

For me musicians are artists, some right, play,perform and sing... performing is a part of what they do. Listening to live music is so much better than listing to recorded. 

Round the camp fire, in the pub, or in a big concert Hall/stadium....    The atmosphere is always great I think .

In the 90's in the UK I felt music lost its way, but there are great songs out now.  The singles pull me to want to go to the venues. The Fratellis are playing at our local Town concert this year...  hoping to go.

Wee just made a suit for this guy:
https://twitter.com/ChrisKingRMusic
750,000 twitter fans...
http://www.chriskingrobinson.com/

good luck too him.

And as for the old Guys, honestly?  Time to hang up the tools boys and girls. I saw Elton John when he was 50... and he was loosing his voice.  Count sing Benny and the Jets. Mick Jagger is amazing for his age... but not exactly sexy.
Give me a cover band any day. These Guys were awsome at our local pub.  Loads more Energy:
http://www.rollinstoned.com/

"I think that "music" is becoming a niche market. Basically old farts sit around listening to the same crap they listened to in their teens and 20s, and a tiny number of true fans are out exploring and finding new music."

I think they are still out exploring and finding new music in numbers, just not through the old channels. Rather than hear it on the radio, friend's cd or typical avenues, it's being found via streaming options and other digital sharing.

"And the young farts -now being given ipads and iphones at age 2- have many other options to PULL on demand, tailored to THEIR tastes, rather than being taught indoctrinated into becoming a consumer"

Exactly. New, hot and hip (non mainstream) music is only in digital format in many circles. You can't just stroll into walmart and pick up the latest flosstrodamus' cd. Maybe a VA compilation with a song or two if you're lucky. The smart artists know this and offer free songs, and try to sell you others. Heck, it seems half of this music you can't even find in .flac.

Another thing I've noticed is music is often taking a back seat to other media being consumed concurrently. I think young people today are more likely to listen while playing a video game, reading a book and even watching tv. I remember as a teenager, one of my high school buds picked up Pink Floyd's Animals on CD, and several of us sat around his den, mostly silent, as we listened to every single track. If a kid does that today, something is probably wrong with them.

Disclaimer: I don't listen to music, never did.  Even playing it in background is an annoyance.  I just don't need it to fill my time.  I've tried many times over the years but always end up shelving it.  (Bluetooth headphones were a godsend ...I buy them for everyone around me. hhh)

>recommender systems being employed are so dumb.

But I *DO* like playing with algorithms and spent some time *forcing* Pandora to get its sh## together.  To do so using the free account, I had to crack the limit on skips or it was going to take far too long. HP's WebOS does that.  Secondly, rather than picking a popular song I found that starting with the most obscure song in the genre worked pretty well.  And you're going to have to use zero tolerance when rejecting or the lines blur pretty quickly.  Other songs you like -but are only marginally related to the genre you're seeking- will be hard to nuke but you have to do it.