Capturing The Downfall Of The Music Biz In One Article

It’s been hard for everyone in this post-“In Rainbows” world we now live in. Record stores are ordering their “Closing Our Doors Forever” banners, the publishers of Spin are trying to develop a new “direct to brain” distribution system to keep up with the times, Bob Lefetsz is doing whatever he does with his spare time. It’s a strange time, and it will take a moment for the music business to collectively catch its breath. In the meantime, British band Fightstar is going to go ahead and release their new album in a format that makes no sense whatsoever.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the cutout bin of history, the “vinyl disc”.

CD sales are falling. Vinyl sales are rising but not for a mass market. So the music industry has come up with a new format in the fight against dwindling revenues. Rock band Fightstar is releasing its next single on a disc that is vinyl on one side and a CD on the other. Its record company Gut admits the vinyl-disc is a gimmick but hopes it will capture fans’ imagination… The two-in-one disc, which can hold around three minutes of music on the vinyl side and 70 minutes on the CD side, was created by Germany’s Optimal Media Production. Mr Holmes – who is credited with revitalising Tom Jones’s career, discovering Right Said Fred and popularising Crazy Frog – says that if the format proves popular his company could use it for other bands. “The music business desperately, desperately needs to invent new formats; the CD is an antique, it’s 20 years old.” Gut plans to put all its singles out on memory sticks (USBs) from next year as it joins other record labels in developing new ways to release both singles and albums.

While its admirable that Fightstar is thinking outside of the box, one might wonder why their record label doesn’t just take their money and throw it directly in the trashbin, or whatever those Brits call the garbage can. The problem with the music business wasn’t ever primarily about the format in which the music was presented (although that’s certainly part of it), but that music consumers were sick of having garbage like the new band from a former member of Busted shoved down their throats. You could put their music on a disc made of gold (has someone tried that yet?) and hand it out with porn and candy, and people would still feel cheated. Why? Because the music on the crazy new gimmick of a format was made by a former member of Busted, and released on a label owned by the guy who discovered Right Said Fred. Bands have certainly tried the all-digital release before, but the reason that anyone cared about last week’s “new media” event was because it involved a band people actually like.

Then again, you do you trust at the end of the day: some temp blogger, or the guy who invented Crazy Frog?

Is this the future of music? [the Guardian]