Wow…last Thursday’s (2007-04-05) New York Time’s op-ed, Spinning Into Oblivion is a great high-level examination of the changes in the music industry over the past 15 or so years, and label’s persistently wrong-headed responses. The authors, who started an independent music store in NYC back in 1993, describe how technology changed the way their customers acted, and how music industry response to those changes burnt down the village in order to save it.

The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today it’s not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.

Great read. Thanks to Kevin Meyerson for posting the link to pho!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.