Music Industry Says It's Dying Way Back in 1980

[nsane.forums]

20/20 report from 1980 shows how the music industry has falsely complained over the years that it's dying, back then blaming FM radio, home taping, and physical piracy for massive job layoffs and declining profits.

There's nothing more refreshing in the morning than a good laugh, and that's exactly what I got this morning thanks to a video unearthed from the depths of 1980. It's a 20/20 report on the state of the music industry nearly three decades ago and in it we see Joe Smith, President of Elektra-Asylum records, ironically lamenting the mounting profit losses and subsequent massive job layoffs.

It's obviously a familiar refrain we've heard for more than a decade now, though the threats and perceived bogeyman have changed.

Smith says:

Records, you don't have to buy really to hear music. There's sensational equipment out there. There's great FM radio. There's an enormous amounts of music available without having to buy a record. Counterfeiting, home-taping, and the failure of major artists to deliver records on some kind of regular basis.

I like how he even blames the musicians themselves for record label woes, but the really important thing to note here is how even back then the music industry had obstacles to face, and yet managed to fix its business model and enjoy nearly two decades-worth of rising profits. Certainly it has the ability to figure it out, just as every other business is forced to, devoid of the luxury of pressing the govt to fix it for them.

In the video the music industry hails the introduction of "new technology" to save it – the video disc – in an attempt to lure music fans back to record stores. We all know how that turned out, but at least they tried, and that's the point. Back then it seemed to at least try. The same can't be said today.

In the end the co-host sums it up best, saying the "future of music is music." He's right.

"The musician industry has been around as long as humans have, but recorded music is, relatively, a very new invention," observed freelance pianist David J.Hahn last August. "Mozart never sold a record. Beethoven never released an album. Yet they made careers as musicians."

Record labels may be struggling, but that's a distinct entity from the artists whose work they help produce, market, and distribute. It's a business that will at times face challenges to its business model which is bringing music to market. If a better way is found to do that then obviously it becomes irrelevant. The challenge for record labels is to stay relevant in an age where artists can pretty much produce, market, and distribute music on their own.

There's two parts to the 20/20 story, but apparently the latter has been blocked in the US by Universal Music on copyright grounds. I did set up a proxy link, however, that you can use to watch via a UK proxy.

Here's part #1

…and a link to Part #2 that for US visitors needs to be plugged into a foreign proxy to view.

View: Original Article

[Night Owl]

Video disc? :wtf:

Anyway, two years later Sony and Philips came out with the Compact Disc and the rest is history. :rolleyes: