English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By N.D. Murphy

The past several years have been tough for companies like Warner Brothers Records, Atlantic Records, and Columbia Records. With the advent of home recording, a “Do it yourself” mentality, and with most Americans denying the thought to spend close to twenty dollars on CDs, a once profitable business is in flames.

Newbury Comics is considered one of the best places to get a wide variety of new and used music. Over the last few years, however, their numbers have dwindled.

“I remember coming in here as a kid” store employee John recalls, “ it was usually very busy, specially on Tuesdays.”

Tuesdays is new release day in the music industry; most to all of albums, EP,s singles, an re-issues come out on Tuesdays. Now, John mentions how things have changed.

“That was ten years ago though, kids aren’t so interested in buying music anymore I suppose. Not full albums or actually CD’s anyway” John says while pricing a mountain of CD’s. John isn’t that old, around twenty eight, but he talks of ten years ago like it was the Hay Day of music. Maybe it was.

The record industry originally never sold recorded music as we know it today; instead, the industry sold sheet music for piano players to play popular songs at home with friends in family. However, with the development of the phonograph, the music industry shifted form sheet music to vinyl albums. This is the industry, as we knew as of ten years ago. But one thing changed all that. The Internet.

First it was Napster then it was iTunes. Either way this has shaped and molded the fabric of the music industry like soft clay. When people began to figure out how to use the Internet as a peer-to-peer trading facility. While some embraced the free file sharing services (Dave Matthews Band, Dispatch, Phish, etc), bands such as Metallica wanted reparations for their “stolen music.” While this is a valid argument, the reproductions from this were astronomical. People now found that instead of paying a few dollars to actually buy the CD they could, instead just download only the songs that they wanted to listen to. And even though sites like Napster began to shut down and come under flack, new site sprang up like weeds, all boasting that they were the best.

Apple soon jumped on the computerized record industry. Apple may not have invented the MP3 player, but they certainly popularized it. The iPod is one of the foremost and best selling MP3 device on the market; even now the iPod has expanded into a multimedia player more than just an MP3 player. Apple’s online music service, iTunes, was launched in January of 2001. At the time, anyone could buy a song for ninety-nine cents.  Now, iTunes has grown, like the iPod into a multimedia juggernaut; one can buy movies, TV show episodes, games and even more music than ever through iTunes. This new system has had a negative affect, however, on the record industry.

At one time if we wanted to listen to a song, it was hard to just get a hold of a single of the song, especially for only a dollar. Most singles cost a bit more (two to three dollars at least) and would occasionally contain other songs. Wit iTunes, the consumer can simply log on from the comfort of their own home and download single songs. This sort of thing also has lead to a new revelation to the music industry.

The majority of people who go to this school, do not buy CD’s anymore and are considered crazy if they do.

“Why would I buy a whole album when I can just get online for nothing” one freshman named Anthony mentioned to me.

Anthony is right. There seems to be no reason to buy these records anymore, especially for college students who are on a budget. But then who is buying them and why?

Nate Brown is the Warehouse manager for Pepsi in Worcester, MA. Nate, in his early thirties, wakes up everyday and manages the routes and the products for each driver at Pepsi. Nate, usually wired on energy drinks all day, has one passion and that is music.

“I got into the Grateful Dead when I was very young, around thirteen. From there, I was totally absorbed in music.”
When asked how he purchases his music, Nate’s response is not typical of music lover now.

“I buy CD’s almost every Tuesday. It’s expensive, I know but there is just something about having the CD. I love the music don’t get me wrong, but I’ve almost become a collector over the years.”

Nate’s obsession has lead him with an astounding record collection. When asked how many CD’s he has, Nate response is staggering.

“I won’t tell you how much, I’ll just let you visualize. Do you see that wall over there? Imagine that wall being full, floor to ceiling.”

Nate points to a wall about five feet long and about ten feet high.

Since most music is bought in single songs, the record companies are pushing singles more than ever now. It is now more cost efficient to produce a 3 song EP with three potential hits on it, rather than put out a whole album. These singles can last the whole year often, and reduces the cost on the record company for having to spend the money on a whole album. The concept of a whole album is quickly fleeting. If this was the case years ago, we wouldn’t have Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pet Sounds, Kind of Blue, A Love Supreme, Nevermind, or countless other albums that should only be listened to as albums.

The RIAA is trying very hard to push music fans even further away from the thing that they love. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is the company that throws the many lawsuits around that stem form illegal downloading. These lawsuits can be up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to a seven year old girl or a 54 year-old housewife who wanted to listen to a few Bon Jovi songs. Recently, the RIAA has come out to say that even loading or “ripping” songs onto the consumer’s computer is a case of copyright infringement (Bangeman). According to the RIAA, even if the product has been legally purchased it is illegall to even put it on the consumers computer stating that ripping it onto the computer is just a nice way of “[stealing] just one copy” (Bangeman).

Many consumers often see the RIAA as the opposition. What is the sole purpose of music? Many have figured out it is a great market to make money because there will always be music and people will always be listening. But is this the true meaning behind music making?

In 2001 Chicago based band, Wilco, went into the studio to record their follow up to 1999’s Summerteeth. Upon giving their final copy to Reprise Records, a subsidiary of the Warner group’s record company, they were told to record it again. Jeff Tweedy, Wilco’s primary writer and singer, in politer terms told the company that what they had given them was the record and they were unflinching about changing it. As a result the band was dropped from the label, but later picked up but another subsidiary of Warner, Nonesuch Records. Tweedy and co. saw the album they made as an artistic statement rather than a money-making device. Many of those around the band at the time stated that if the only copies ever made belonged to the band, they would have been totally satisfied with the outcome. Their struggle for artistic freedom was covered in the documentary by Sam Jones, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. This documentary started to show how the record industry was working and showed those how poorly labels were treating their breadwinners.

But what is happening to the industry itself? The underlying factor is that music sales have dropped considerably in the past few years especially with, as mentioned before, the advent of online music stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and so on and so forth. Instead of going out and buying the plastic discs, people would much rather stay at home and download everything; it is more convenient for them and more costly.

Radiohead’s album In Rainbows came out on October 10, 2007. It included ten tracks, nothing out of the normal for this band. The songs are ambient, textured and moving with a lot of color, something you come accustomed to if you know Radiohead at all. But the one thing this band from Oxford, London did that was a bit different on this go around was … they did it completely without any help of record label. Instead, they offered fans to buy it directly from them and not only that, they told their fans to pick the price.  What an absurd notion. This means some different things for the record industry though.

Since the music hasn’t been selling, record labels are laying off many of their employees and even going out of business. Most artists do not want to be on a label that is so restricting so they will, instead go to much smaller labels where they can have the attention and care they need to grow as a band. Some bands, as mentioned before, are going the “do-it-yourself” approach. Instead of going through a record company to put out a record, the bands are skipping the middleman and are putting out the record by themselves. Again this is not possible without the advent of the Internet. Bands can announce things to more of the masses by e-mailing people and posting on message boards about their band. This spreads the word, rather than have a PR department do it for them.

The record industry is in tough shape. How long will it be before there aren’t any more CD’s and the music world goes completely digital? When will bands be released form the shackles of record labels? Only time can tell but it will be sooner rather than later.