Rhymes with Cars

Those that know me, know that I've been pretty down on the music industry for the past couple of years. I think that, for me, a large part of it is that I am of the opinion that most of the best music ever to be released came out between 1991 & 1999. It was almost a decade of post-grunge, post-gangsta rap, post-R&B and a time for true experimentation. Bands like Small 23, Archers of Loaf, the Rugburns, Tribe, and of course Gorilla Biscuits put out Start Today which is still the best NYHC album ever to come out. Janes Addiction just put out their first self titled record. Black Sheep released Wolf in Sheeps Clothing and, with 3rd Bass, Das Efx & Pete Rock, you could be hip-hop, cool without killing whitey, slapping bitches and drinking Crystal. It was a good time to be an audiophile. Of course, I'll readily admit that a.) 1991 - 1999 was high school, college and my move to California, so it was a pretty formidable stage of my life; b.) I suspect that most people think that the music from this period in their own life is the best music ever created and c.) that I'm old and of the opinion that most music released today sucks, even though I'm totally out of touch with everything. Candidly, I haven't really thought about the music industry for a while since I've spent most of my time listening to Coverville, KSCU & NPR, however, I've neglected mass music on such a scale that a rant has been boiling up inside for a long time. Ian Rogers had a great link today to Consumerist and a long letter about musical piracy. Second, Michael Arrington had a good post today about music sales being down. Both of these posts are excellent and both led to this rant. Major record labels are as dead as American auto manufacturers. Like their Detroit counterparts, Warner Music, Sony, BMG, and the others are simply putting out a crappy product, making it difficult to get and making it too overtly expensive. At this point, rather than continuing to piss off the consumer with high prices & DRM, they should simply just hit the lights, lock the doors and hand the keys over the landlords. After all, how do you compete with GarageBand, ProTools, MySpace, YouTube & a Mac? They can't, so it is a land grab for the back catalog that they do have. This is why people are paying $18.99 for Aretha Franklin re-issues in Starbucks. This is why DRM only works on certain players but not on others. It is simply greed and ignorance by an industry too lazy to change. Isn't it interesting how music really seems to have become significantly more processed and cookie cutter after Napster was shut down? I understand all of the perils and concerns about Napster shanking the labels, but Napster also made it very easy for independent bands to get global distribution. It was a great time to be an indie band. Since most bands actually make their money on touring and not on CD sales, this was a boon for them. Get their product in the consumers hands, but still make dough on the tour and merch? A total winner. Today, music has become like software development in that record companies are just reusing components. Ticket prices have become insane and the desire to see a washed up Phil Collins just isn't there (just to be clear, there was never a desire to see a young, bald Phil Collins either). The record companies say that CD sales are declining and I say good. Good for them. You reap what you sow. The major labels have shafted consumers with over inflated CD (record, cassette) prices for far too long. Rather than jump on board and try to come up with ways to adopt the technology that will get them to succeed in a new century, they've opted to sue their users. Nothing makes me want to support an industry that is into suing me, my friends or my family. Thanks guys, thanks for suing grandma for downloading a Benny Goodman track that you discontinued 15 years ago. Sweet move. In a way, it is exciting. I believe that we are on a precipice of really, really amazing music being released by individuals. Arctic Monkeys were a start. MC Lars is starting to gain popularity and is the most original artist I've heard in years. Atom started out really well and now he has Armalite. There are tons of others. Scroll through MySpace Music to see what I mean. At the same time, it is a bit sad. Over the next 5 years, the consumer will get hosed. Perhaps it is punishment for listening to crappy music. Like if you really want Toby Keith's I love this Bar, you should be stuck having to listen to it on your Zune.