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Originally Posted by sage691  And who are you people on here proclaiming that the album model is dead ? The real problem, as far as I can see, is that hardly anything of any real quality is being released today in this format. You know, an album of 10-15 songs that, strung together, are like one cohesive piece of profound art. If people really felt like they were getting something of great quality, they WILL buy it and feel good about it.
Get out in the field and talk to the young, middle aged, and older folks (ages 18-65) out there about the current state of music. Just simply ask over 1000 people on the street (me and a friend have actually done this) and you will find a startling common denominator in basically all of their replies. People are not buying albums today because the stuff labels are putting out is worthless cookie-cutter garbage with no soul or originality, and they are tired of being scammed. People are literally sick of the endless barage of untalented copy-cat artists who can't even play their instruments well, and they have basically boycotted the industry by no longer paying for the garbage. |
Really? Then how do you explain 20 million sold for each of the 2 Spice Girls albums? 20 million for each of 2 Britney Spears albums (whereas none of her recent albums are anywhere near that)? 23 million for Ace of Base? 20 million for Billy Ray Cyrus? Isn't that stuff the examples of the 'worthless cookie-cutter garbage' you're referring to? So why did that worthless cookie-cutter garbage sell 20 million apiece in the '90s, but today's worthless cookie-cutter garbage doesn't?
Sorry, but the talent portion isn't the reason. If it was, none of the above albums would have sold 20 million+ apiece. People could have just as easily boycotted buying those albums back then as they could today. No, that's not the answer.
The fact of the matter is that people are not buying music in quantities the way they used to, simply because the way they consume it and the way they value it has fundamentally changed.
The closest anyone has gotten to those magic sales numbers in the last 5 years have been Nickelback, Carrie Underwood, and Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana. Do you consider any of those to be "profound art" or of "great quality"?
