It has been overdue for a long time: the music industry finally starts to face the truth that their old business models are to blame for the decline in revenu, more than piracy.
MusicTank is a business development network for the UK music industry, owned and operated by the University of Westminster - it's purpose; to engage with industry, innovation and change across the music business. Their latest editorial is eloquent and to the point, it would be shame to try to say this in my own words. Therefore a long quote, but do read the original!
The problem that the music industry now faces is that the usual convenient bogey man, the music pirate, has for once a fairly decent alibi. Whilst music piracy has no doubt eaten into those album sales over the years, what we're seeing here is the result of a long-held belief by much of the public (and industry too) that albums are simply a waste of money; often three or four good tracks packaged with a load of old rubbish.
Much as the everything-is-available-all-the-time model can propel an 18 year old Rage Against the Machine track to the top of the charts, it also allows the public to pick and choose from an album, cherrypicking the quality whilst wisely steering clear of the filler.
Sadly for the music industry, the albums most likely to find themselves picked apart are also the biggest selling pop releases. I'm not sure if you've ever sat through an entire Destiny's Child album, but if you ever want to truly experience dissapointment then it's worth putting yourself through it.
Take the band's multi-million selling Survivor, toploaded with the admittedly great singles; the drop-off into simpering mediocre ballad territory is steep and deep enough to give the listener vertigo. I'd imagine that if you could poll the estimated 13 million people worldwide who handed over £10-15 for the CD if they'd have preferred to spend a fraction of that on a handful of the album's songs there would be a refund queue stretching as far as the eye could see.
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The sad truth is that the album, arguably a fairly recent and artificial construct anyway and a good wheeze whilst it lasted, is surely destined for niche status.
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