Topic: How the music industry is changing

[Bart Elliott]

In your own personal experience (as a music consumer, performer, educator, composer, etc.), how have you seen or not seen the music industry change, for better or worse, over the last five, ten, twenty, etc., years?

[Bob Dias]

Interesting question. For me…
…while buying music has never been easier, I have only ever in the last 5-10 years been back filling my collection with older music that is now in digital format. I have yet to actually purchase a CD from ANY modern artist. Which leads me to…
…Music has never been easier to make or distribute. That means that there is a lot of crap to wade through. Seems like the modern music industry is even more focused on immediate profitability like never before, with little to no artist development. This leads to music produced for the lowest common denominator listener. It’s hard to say if the music has become more cliquish or more homogenized.
…Live music? I have not gone to see a big, prime act in more than 30 years. I stick to small venues/clubs. Just cannot justify the cost of the tickets. As for local music, my band stopped playing bars several years ago and now we only play private, community and corporate events. We play a bar only on some random Saturday/Sunday afternoon from 3-6 so our friends can come out and have a nice time.
…or maybe I’m just getting old.

[Nick Cesarz]

In your own personal experience (as a music consumer, performer, educator, composer, etc.), how have you seen or not seen the music industry change, for better or worse, over the last five, ten, twenty, etc., years?

If we're talking bands and artists, it seems to me that the album is absolutely dead. With the way Spotify and other streaming outlets work, they actively promote the single. Not to say that labels haven't been solely pushing singles for the last twenty-five years, but it seems now more than ever that the album is six feet under.

I read an interesting piece that does make a case for it, however: https://keyboardkraze.com/spotify-isnt-bad-for-artists-despite-what-you-might-hear/

I don't think it's all bad, considering in the past when a band or artist sold an album, they only received payment for that sale one time. With streaming, the artist gets money every time it's played (albeit a small amount). It's nice that there really isn't much upfront cost with uploading a song to Spotify. Physical distribution is expensive, especially for vinyl which has made a gigantic comeback recently.