John Mayer said an interesting thing in a recent issue of RS, that the industry is becoming very single-dominated–not necessarily because of digital downloading, but because of people’s ability to shuffle hundreds of songs on their mp3 players or computers. Hardly anyone listens to one complete album from start to finish anymore; they just hear singles all mixed together. This might account in part for the drop in album sales–the entire idea of an album is becoming obsolete.

The previous poster summed it up. The record industry needs to promote the quality artists on their roster. I read an article recently about people who got sued by the RIAA. The songs that the people were illegally downloading were crappy songs that were at best guilty pleasures. The shame is that there have been great albums released this year. Very few if any got the attention from the media or the airplay it deserves. So, everybody is at fault for the declining record sales not just people who illegally download music.

I completely agree with this article…I’m glad that I wasn’t the only person noticing that album releases were starting to sound like movie releases/box office sales. Depending on first-week sales is exactly why there is a 70% drop in sales for artists in the next week. Who cares who is #1 when it is all crap? I agree with Oddjob-there WAS a time when albums worked their way UP a chart and stayed at the top or near the top for weeks. Now there is usually a #1–>#10 drop in one week’s time. When the industry actually starts putting out good music, the public will buy it. Plain and simple. Even if millions aren’t sold in month, the album will at least have “legs” so to speak. Despite the fact that it’s so easy to illegally download music, when an album is good and I’ve heard it in its entirely, I’ll buy it regardless. Strange how that works…good music=good sales. Hmmm.

Why would someone want to pay 12-17$ for a CD when you can get one for 2-5$ Gas is not cheap somebody has to suffer and almost everyone has cable almost!

Madonna’s album will rock! Watch out 2008! The industry has to counter piracy and illegal downloads!

music downloads suck…
artists that don’t do it for the music are lame…

what about chinese democracy… never forget, maybe with axl’s roof burned down by the malibu fires 2 days ago hell finally start working… lol nah its axl rose

Maybe artists are content with being mediocre. Putting out one or two albums every five to six year makes them financially sound. There are more business men (and women) than they are artists these days. The problem isn’t the artists–I mean, come on, we are always going to have pop stars and hacks that are present today (Nickelback)–it’s the record labels and media. When possibly one of the best albums released this year was free, then you know you might have a problem or two. Then, places of music discovery, like Rolling Stone, put people on covers that even further proves my point. So it is always about the money, but when you have people like Joe Levy arguing for artistic integrity and lack of sales, even for pop music stars, and even more for independent artists and the underground music scene, you feel somewhat of a contradiction.

I’m prepared to make the assertion that putting Radiohead on the cover of Rolling Stones would of been more remunerative than, say, Zach Efron. I know I’m not alone. But the people who picked up Rolling Stone just for the pop artist on the cover are very unlikely going to read the reviews and look into discovering music that is reviewed and discussed in here. After putting forth a few ideas, can’t you agree that Rolling Stone would be more befitted to put real artists on the cover as compared to just, for example, Zach Efron, Bono (not that I have any dislike towards U2–they have received their fair coverage. How about someone else) and pretty much the majority of the other covers that have been put out there this year.

I read in just for the reviews mostly; the articles are usually pretty interesting. However, the cover stories are lacking. And not in a journalistic sense.

what happened to the expected holiday album releases? Well…

A little band called Radiohead released a little album called ‘in Rainbows’, got more street cred than the pixies, more publicity than britney (for a couple weeks, anyway), and dozens of other artists wonder if they can do the same thing. After all, most artists get 15% of the sticker price of a CD. That means if - on average - people paid 15% of what they usually pay for a CD for In Rainbows, Radiohead made the same amount of money that they would have if they released it traditionally, but without having to deal with a slowly dying, money hungry record label. The future is here.

No Green Day for one more year that sucks,I hate record lables they rob everything from singers.

I think the labels need to go back to the way music used to be released- on a schedule. Four (non-album) singles a year. One album a year, or even two. If you don’t have the songs to fill an album, hunker down and WRITE ‘em, or throw some covers on there. The Beatles, The Stones, and Bob Dylan all worked this way, and their output in this period is better than 99% of what comes out today, because they had the talent and the work ethic to make it happen. Ryan Adams and Frank Black are modern examples.

And if that fast schedule is too much for you, and your music suffers, then we, the music-buying public, won’t buy your records. Everyone doesn’t have to “make it”, I’ll be happy if only the best bands are able to make records. The ultimate irony is that with modern technology, it is easier than ever to make a record, and bands come out with new material every 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years?

Back in the day, every album didn’t have to debut at #1 either. The good ones would work their way up there, and stay there for weeks or even months. What’s so bad about that?

Waa! Waa! WAAAAHHH!

I’m the Record Industry and I’m sad. Sad because the sales are so slow. Sad because we can’t do anything about song downloads. And REALLY sad because we screwed EVERYONE under for decades - the consumer, with high prices for crappy product; the artists, with pay-to-play & other lousy deals; and the middle man, which is why giants like Tower were forced to fold.

And we’re really sad that after all that screwing that WE’VE done, we still never learned about something called KARMA and forced a change in the way we do business. But we WON’T change! We won’t! We won’t! WE WON’T!