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People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. If a company can provide that service, for a fee, that company

People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. If a company can provide that service, for a fee, that company will succeed. The older and slower to move companies, will not understand. Those old and slow to act companies will fail. People don't want to own music. People want to listen to music.

coldtea 12y ago
>People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. Actually music fans used to want to own their music -- and took pride in their collections. The current decline is a combination of two things: 1) for the younger generations music (pop/rock/whatever) is not as important as it was up until the eighties and slightly into the nineties. Pop/Rock music thrived in an era when it was a major escape into a fantasy world. Nowadays there are 100 other diversions, from video games, to YouTube, to 9gag, to anime, 200 tv series, etc etc. 2) the remaining (but not that culturally important anymore) music fans, can listen to anything they want in several different ways, none of which involves paying for the music ("radio" streaming, youtube, torrents, etc). (Btw, "concerts" and "merchandise" is not the answer for musicians. Band merchanidise is a non-musical gimmick for teenagers and immature 20-somethings, and concerts were traditionally a loss-leader for album sales, except for bigger bands. Plus concert attendance is even on the decline on the younger demographics). >If a company can provide that service, for a fee, that company will succeed. Bah,, it will just be a company with razor-thin margins in a declining market. They might make some profit, but they wont "succeed" the way music industry of the past had, especially when it starts charging a fee. With ads they might do better, but still not that great.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > > People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. > Actually music fans used to want to own their music -- and took pride in their collections. It used to be that owning your own music was the only way to listen to what you want, when you want, since if you didn't own it, you couldn't play it on demand. Now, those two things are separate, and the demand for ownership has dropped. That may be a change in desire for ownership or other priority changes of the type you suggest, but the simpler explanation is that the ownership wasn't desired as an end in itself, it was desired as a means to the end of listening to what you want, when you want, and when the available means to acheive that changed, the desire for ownership of music was reduced because there were now alternative means to the ends.
- nickonline 12y ago
  I think part of it is also portability. In the 80's, 90's and even into the early 00's it didn't matter whether you were listening to the music at home or on the move, you still needed your tape or CD, even into the 00's you carried around a limited MP3 collection. You were limited by the physical media that carried the albums. by around 2010 I had TB of music and it's just not practical to carry that around. However with 3G/4G I can access almost any song I want via Spotify without ads and without sacrificing any space on my device. Just for paying a small fee each month. I still pay for my music, but I don't own anything anymore.

coldtea 12y ago

>People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. Actually music fans used to want to own their music -- and took pride in their collections. The current decline is a combination of two things: 1) for the younger generations music (pop/rock/whatever) is not as important as it was up until the eighties and slightly into the nineties. Pop/Rock music thrived in an era when it was a major escape into a fantasy world. Nowadays there are 100 other diversions, from video games, to YouTube, to 9gag, to anime, 200 tv series, etc etc. 2) the remaining (but not that culturally important anymore) music fans, can listen to anything they want in several different ways, none of which involves paying for the music ("radio" streaming, youtube, torrents, etc). (Btw, "concerts" and "merchandise" is not the answer for musicians. Band merchanidise is a non-musical gimmick for teenagers and immature 20-somethings, and concerts were traditionally a loss-leader for album sales, except for bigger bands. Plus concert attendance is even on the decline on the younger demographics). >If a company can provide that service, for a fee, that company will succeed. Bah,, it will just be a company with razor-thin margins in a declining market. They might make some profit, but they wont "succeed" the way music industry of the past had, especially when it starts charging a fee. With ads they might do better, but still not that great.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> > People don't really want to own music. People want to listen to what they want, when they want. > Actually music fans used to want to own their music -- and took pride in their collections. It used to be that owning your own music was the only way to listen to what you want, when you want, since if you didn't own it, you couldn't play it on demand. Now, those two things are separate, and the demand for ownership has dropped. That may be a change in desire for ownership or other priority changes of the type you suggest, but the simpler explanation is that the ownership wasn't desired as an end in itself, it was desired as a means to the end of listening to what you want, when you want, and when the available means to acheive that changed, the desire for ownership of music was reduced because there were now alternative means to the ends.
nickonline 12y ago
I think part of it is also portability. In the 80's, 90's and even into the early 00's it didn't matter whether you were listening to the music at home or on the move, you still needed your tape or CD, even into the 00's you carried around a limited MP3 collection. You were limited by the physical media that carried the albums. by around 2010 I had TB of music and it's just not practical to carry that around. However with 3G/4G I can access almost any song I want via Spotify without ads and without sacrificing any space on my device. Just for paying a small fee each month. I still pay for my music, but I don't own anything anymore.