- Image by Shaun Dewberry via Flickr
Two interesting news articles I came across over the weekend show exactly which direction the music industry is turning, and it’s a direction that I think is good, and long-time-coming.
Firstly, Nielsen SoundScan is reporting an increase in Vinyl record sales, up around 100 000 units over last year. (Yes, digital sales are up too, but that’s no news). Having recently purchase my first LP, I can testify to the satisfaction that throwing on a 33RPM can give you.
Secondly, the Times Online has stats showing that artists are making more money than ever from live concerts, despite the fall in record sales. Record labels are the only people that are actually losing money due to piracy. I think this is a very necessary shift in the power-balance away from talentless overpaid money-grubbing record execs back to the artist. I hope the trend continues. The clincher is this quote which pretty much sums things up:
“when the BPI releases its annual report claiming how much ‘the music industry’ has suffered from the growth in illegal file-sharing, what it perhaps should be saying is how much the record labels have suffered”.