The Decline of Music Download Sites…

The Decline of Legal Music Download Sites

by Jerry Del Colliano

(When it’s 100 degrees plus all summer in the Arizona desert, a man’s thoughts turn to ice hockey).

Nielsen is reporting trouble for the music industry, which has been losing CD sales almost exponentially for a decade and now faces a significant decline in legal digital downloads.

Revenue is flat at the halfway point of this year (+0.3%).

Ringtones are down 24% since they peaked in 2007 according to Business Week.

There are arguments being tossed about that consumers have completed building their digital libraries for iPods and other mobile devices, but how does an active music buyer ever complete adding new music?

The uncertain economy is a factor.

But I’m not sure you can blame this on the economy.

All this and news that total music sales – estimated to be down to $7 billion in 2012 for all kinds of recorded music speaks to a much greater problem.

There are several considerations that come to mind:

1. Pandora and sites like Pandora allow consumers to have their music and eat it too for no fee or a voluntary fee (to exclude commercial interruptions). Keep an eye on this. Apple is. I think Steve Jobs will offer a streaming music service (among other things) using the Lala technology that it recently acquired to do what may constitute as Apple’s version of Pandora (minus the genome) tied into iTunes.

2. YouTube and other sites allow consumers to satisfy their passion for music at no cost – and remember, the recession is a factor not an excuse. Proof? Lady Gaga gives more music away for free than John Scherer’s Video Professor gives free learning CDs for computer programs. Yet, Gaga sells more music and more entire albums than any other artist.

3. Apps are competing for the time consumers used to spend on just iPod-delivered music. Even several years ago my college students told me they were bored with their iPods but didn’t want to give them up. I said, “what about radio?” They laughed. But today’s apps compete for time. Not the entire answer, but a nuance that is worth factoring in. Keep in mind the one thing that never declines – text messaging – and you have another.

4. Filesharing is alive and well and will go on. In spite of what record labels have tried to stop it, illegal filesharing proliferates. Listening to music you don’t own or that nobody ever paid for is still as easy and relatively safe from wrath of the RIAA than ever. I don’t think this explains the decline in legal downloads, but peer-to-peer filesharing certainly has not declined to create a demand for paid music.

5. Record industry solutions like Rhapsody, Vevo, Rdio and other emerging platforms in which the labels make more money are not popular with consumers. Translated that means: no growth factor there.

The labels have cooperated by supplying their music to initiatives with which they feel comfortable and that is a problem. What record execs are comfortable with is a wrongheaded solution. Their solution should pay greater attention to that which the consumer is comfortable. This disconnect has never been patched in the entire 10 plus years that the music industry has been in decline.

The Big Four record labels – or as I like to call them The Last Four Standing – are, believe it or not, still calling for negotiating a voluntary deal with ISPs so that they can charge their customers each month for any use of music.

A recent letter circulated by Universal’s Jim Urie seeking support expressed outrage that “Governments outside the U.S. are legislating, regulating and playing a prominent role in discussions with ISPs (Internet Service Providers)”.

It isn’t going to happen here and the labels seem to be betting the ranch on their call for action that is destined to fail.

The Bloomberg Business Week article said the bottom line is “As digital downloads slow, the music industry is scrambling for a strategy to keep revenues rolling in”.

And therein lies the problem.

The labels don’t know.

Haven’t known.

And have no clue what the consumer is telling them.

To young consumers, filesharing and free plays are their generations replacement for music radio.

Peers have more credibility to Gen Y than corporate radio which has virtually eliminated music experts and music loving live, local djs.

Apple devices and cool cell phones are not a radio – not a “CD” player but a gateway to on-demand entertainment.

A Ford Sync or an iPad should be the template from which to salvage the record industry from its doldrums and yet there is no major game plan in the music industry to understand how powerful these new portals are. And yet the labels are reportedly resisting Apple’s bid to use its Lala technology to offer a music stream available anywhere. They just don’t get it. The labels don’t get to decide. Times have changed.

And, I’ve saved the best for last.

Forgive me if you think it’s naïve but if the labels spent more time, money and effort to discover new artists and genres, they might be helping themselves a whole lot more than trying to cram a relative handful of existing artists into the devices of their choosing on their terms rather than the consumers.

Just sayin’.

written  By Jerry Del Colliano

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Comments

  1. Business Week disagrees:

    http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-15/music-sales-to-rise-after-turning-point-in-2013-report-says.html

    and remember, it dont matter to them as long as they determine who will be popular. UMG is only 14% of Vivendi and Sony Music is only 6% of Sony Corp. sales…

    • I’ll take Jerry’s take on this waaay before I take business week… His assessment mirrors almost what everyone I know who works in the industry is saying and how thats reflected in the continued layoffs and downsizing…. This is further underscored by the huge hit in concerts and revenues generated around that..

      The biggest glare is how the Business week and others assessed radio assets around companies like Cox who were bragging about how they had billions in assets and were gonna purchase other radio chains..Jerry unearthed the real deal behind that and let us know they had zero..

      The fact that Jerry’s also knee deep into the tech game as well as being an OG in the traditional music game further makes me trust his write up..From what I breiefly read in the Biz week piece seems more like an elaborate press release designed to raise stock prices.

      And yes UMG will determine whats popular in the form of smoke and mirrors …

      I think the industry is continuing banking on this policy of forcing everyone to one watering hole and then we’ll buy by default.. or they will somehow find a way to monetize your presence in the arena even if you don’t actually purchase..

      For example, lets say they get the ISPs to charge extra for a monthly music listening license.. They’ll somehow count that as an asset..

      They are counting on new anti-piracy laws and I’ll go out on the limb and say that behind the scenes deals are being cut to have the majors back AT&T and Verizon to dead Net Neutrality in exchange for the majors to first and quicker access to online consumers.. remember u heard that from me first..I’m sure you will see them use their influence to convince Hollywood crowd to go along..

      Key to this will be a point that I predicted which is starting to come to past..The industry is setting up this new online tier system.. People are already being purged from legal music download sites where folks got music for free to play on radio shows..They are shrinking that pool and leaving this for a elite squad of deejays and music tastemakers.. The move is now going to purging anyone who is not on a commercial radio station and I’m sure a set of conditions are soon to follow in order to keep access…

      I dont think any of this will work in terms of actual sales.. but they gonna count us as sales because your in the room.. .ie. jared lives in DC so we will count him as a fan of GoGo to our stock brokers even if you never buy a record.. It’s the pyramid scheme all over..someone will be left holding the bag..

      better yet its a page out the old trick where the industry had us running around talking about how white kids buy more rap than people of color.. That was a complete fabrication for sales.. with news week being the validation..

      In the words of PE.. Cant truss it..

  2. The Business Week article is reflecting global record sales and Mr. Del Colliano, I believe, is refering to North Ameican sales. In the article itself it says the global sales will increase by $1.5 billion in 2014 from last years sales (would be refering to 2009), which it also states, will still be 19% less than in 2005. BUT from GROWTH in Latin and Asia Pacific markets, they hope to make up from the North American DECLINE. It’s in the article. I don’t think it disagrees with Jerry’s assessment at all. It even hints at trying to create monopolies with service providers. Then speaks about the government colluding with big business to cut peoples internet access/ privledges for illegealy downloading. In other words creating a greater digital divide and peoples access to education online along class lines (did not state that cut access would be biased acording to economics in the Business Week article, but lets face it, who illegally downloads more? The person who can afford to buy it or the one who can’t?) That is what Jerry was speaking about in his article as well. Davey D is right, the Business Week article reads like a press release handed out to stock holders. But it agrees with Jerry Del Colliano’s article once you read past the propaganda. Just one article is from a North American standpoint and the other is from a global perspective. Peace

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  1. […] The Decline of Music Download Sites… (via Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner-(The Blog)) Posted on July 7, 2010 by Davey D The Decline of Legal Music Download Sites by Jerry Del Colliano (When it's 100 degrees plus all summer in the Arizona desert, a man's thoughts turn to ice hockey). Nielsen is reporting trouble for the music industry, which has been losing CD sales almost exponentially for a decade and now faces a significant decline in legal digital downloads. Revenue is flat at the halfway point of this year (+0.3%). Ringtones are down 24% since they peaked in 2 … Read More […]