(TV) Re: Music industry collapse?

["Mark G. Ryan" <mgryan@cruzio.com>]

Maurice Rickard <maurice@mac.com> wrote:
> 'Course, some people are of the opinion that this particular industry 
> is facing imminent demise: 
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/dirge_pr.html

For me, the credibility of Wired magazine collapsed along with the 
".com"s that it championed.  This is a good article, but in typical 
fashion it confuses a long term problem (music downloading piracy) 
with an immediate one (CD sales and concert attendance are down).  
The latter is something of a crisis, if the numbers in the press are 
accurate.

So, if the recording industry is about to collapse (which I doubt), 
one doesn't have to think to hard to come up with alternative
explanations (such as what they have done to themselves by turning the 
product into a commodity).    More likely that we will just see further
consolodation in the music industry.

Of course industry spokesmen are going to say that music downloading 
is killing the industry, because they are trying to get the American 
Congress to place even more restrictions on the free exchange of 
information.  If Wired's style of journalism had been around back when 
the cassette recorder was introduced, Congress probably would have been
pursuaded to outlaw it.  The Internet did not invent illicit copying or 
bootlegging, and frankly a Chinese knock-off CD is a much bigger threat
because it is a real substitute for the orginal product (cover art,
liner notes and all).

Sorry, but when I hear the music industry whining about its situation
it has got itself into, I think of Evita Peron.  Don't cry for me, 
Argentina...

Mark
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