Steaming Heap is an understatement. I'm not even sure the latest garbage coming out is worth being called crap.

We bought several tracks on iTunes this year, however. The James Brown album featured after he died, a few tracks from The Time before they played at the state fair, and a single here or there. The only real CD we bought was from 1980, and it was Billy Squier Remastered.

I'm doing my best to keep CD and online sales up - but I'm finding that most tracks I buy in a year are from 'older' releases.

Could just be me becomming and old git - or a sad comment on the absolute cr@p that the mainstream music industry pumps out these days.

There appear to be only a handful of talented musicians, in a sea of overproduced, overhyped, lip-synced, cloned sound blah.

We desperately need another sea-change in music, to shake things up and clear out the dead-wood.

In the same way that Punk turned everything on it's head.

Personally I'm sick of the DJ bud-drinking car drivin ho' pimping big @ss girls on my chrome 20's cr@p...

It's been done - hopefuly to death.

Maybe it has nothing to do with pirating and the fact that because there are now music stores, people are buying their music a la carte.

Let me explain.

I did the (rough) math, and the number of hard-copy albums dropped by about 31 million from last year.

I assume that a CD has an average of 12 tracks, which means in digital downloads there was an increase of 19 million albums.

The digital downloads clearly do not make up for the deficit of the hard-copy albums. However, most people really only like one or two songs per album, so instead of going out and purchasing the entire album, they just purchase the two songs they want.

So while more people may be buying more music that they like, they are also getting less music that they don't like, and of course, which hurts the bottom line, apparently.

I too find that all my recent acquisitions are all pre-1990. It may be that I'm an "old git" as well even though my music tastes have actually become MORE varied as I've gotten older. But instead of the new stuff it's always the older stuff that grabs my attention. Country? Johnny Cash and Garth Brooks (although this is one genre that I feel still has some actual musicians in their current mix.) Rap? For some reason I gravitate towards NWA, EasyE and the like. The new stuff all "sounds" better, has better arrangements and production values...but it all sounds the same. Rock? Gotta go Stones, Beatles, Who, etc. Even my Heavy Metal is limited to Def Leppard, Metallica, GnR (OLD GnR that is), and their contemporaries. I can't find anything recent that appears decent not to mention the fact that I DEFINITELY haven't found an album with more than one freakin' song worth a damn in over a decade.

jcase is probably right. The net allows the public to actually choose the "good" stuff rather than rewarding the artist and producer for stupid "filler" because there are only a handful of non "one hit wonders" out there. Madonna, Beatles, etc. It's a wake-up call to the industry as a whole that "hey, we'll pay only if you're good, not because you're well-branded!" Personally I think the Grunge movement kinda' killed the 80's "life is good"-sounds pretty hard with it's "kill me now"-songs so we'll see what the next musical revolution will be. Until then we're "blessed" with a decade+ of "filler".

Anyone who says that the only music out there is garbage just isn't looking. There are plenty of talented bands out there...if you say that everything is crap well then you're part of the problem.

Quit asking radio and the mainstream media to tell you what to listen to - use the technology you have to reach out and find new music worth buying.

I hope they finally learn.
That's what you get with DRM.
I want to rip or download and play the darn file in what ever device I own.
Coitus DRM

Internet killing the video star?
I still purchase vinyl a lot more then CD; but when buying music this day and age, you can't beat a mouse click.

Well with any luck they'll get their 1.6 trillion bucks from allofmp3, and then finally they won't be hurting so much! Poor, poor lawyers!!

The music industry has failed the consumer. They keep pumping out no talent one hit wonders. Why would I want to buy a complete album for the average cost of 15 bux thats including tax. So people go out and download one or two songs from the album at around a couple of bux. There is a big difference. I remember when I was growing up that when an artists album came out, ALL the songs had better be great where you are pulling more than one number 1 hit. This is not the case these days. I too have found myself downloading older songs and not anything from new artists. There are a couple of newer bands that I enjoy their work, but after sampling the album, only one or two are worth the purchase. I refuse to play 13-15 bucks for an album when I only like maybe two out of the whole mix.

to quote Axtell " Quit asking radio and the mainstream media to tell you what to listen to - use the technology you have to reach out and find new music worth buying."

this is so true. To be honest with you. My music collection has gotten bigger with the no named bands, the ones that the radio stations are not playing. Remember how the industry works? The radio stations get PAID to play the music they are TOLD to play for the record execs.

Who loses out: The Musicians and the Consumer.

These are the reasons for the last 7 years the sales have slipped. Not from people that are downloading the music for free, but the execs running the show putting out no talent bands and not really promoting the ones that do have talent. Corporate America is killing the scene. They have done it to themselves and it shows. They find a great band and pump them out, people love them, then they find all the clones out that that may come close to sounding like them and we all just get tired of it. Its been going on for years. Remember this: There is a 10 year rule on music. It has always cycled after a decade..... th time has come for the new vamp of music. Maybe we can find another handful of bands that are worth our money. At this point; The consumers have said... stick it......then we have RIAA...... but thats another story....... this is what has killed the music scene and industry.

I find music on peer to peer groups that are not available on CD or on legit buy and download sites.
If the music industry would actually offer it and offer it at an affordable price, I would probably buy it.
Consider the following: To download a track from PtoP from my country probably costs a lot less than a buck while the CD with the track on, will cost around 130 bucks, given that the eschange rate is what it is.

They just need to be patient until Michael Jackson releases his new album...it'll save the whole industry.

bwahaha...

Enigmaz13 is right. The execs are forcing no-talent bands on us while the really good stuff is Indie.

When I want to find new music, I listen to creamyradio.com. The local scene artists and Indie artists have a lock on the talent.

I'm mainly just getting indie releases and experimental music anymore... though most of those are free or cheap downloads anyway. I doubt I could name anyone in the top ten on the pop charts anymore.

Content people, content sells everything. Lack of it sells nothing. Calling todays "music" a steamy heap does a grave disservice to steaming heaps everywhere.

Axtell - that's exactly what I do find myself doing.

I use Web based 'radio' to expand my horizons, then either buy the CD or download the tracks I like from iTunes.

Almost none of this content is reflected in any current music charts.

I never said eveything was cr@p, just today's mainstream stuff is cr@p!

If I hadn't been listening to SomaFM for the last few years, I don't think I'd have bought more than a dozen CDs.

Because of SomaFM, I bought more CD's and iTunes tracks last year than at any time in my life.

The entire distribution chain is sewn up tightly, and the ones to blame for bad record sales are the record companies - and the US government gets a big helping of the blame, too. They removed radio regulation a few years back. Before that, any owner could own only so many stations in so large a geographic area. With no regulations, small radio stations were bought up, resulting in everything being owned by one party, Clear channel. When everything is owned by Clear channel, they can (and do) extort record companies through their go-betweens, the laughably monikered "independent promotors" or indies - pay or no play. Record companies thus "have" to go for the apparent "sure thing", which is another word for rehashed crap.

Who gets rich? The record companies, the middlemen and Clear channel. Who gets shafted? Artists (innocative artists can't get on major labels and even if they do, they'll probably wind up in debt rather than rich due to super-abusive major label contracts) and consumers (who gets only rehashed crap on the radio.) Yay. And then they have the nerve to complain about declining sales... yikes.

I think Axtell has a great point. But let's make it past tense.

There has been an explosion of availability to recently "obscure" or indie bands with the net. Niche web stations, blogs, and podcasts really help people get what they want without being at the mercy of the local radio stations competing for (mass) market share.

Check out KEXP from Seattle for new music. They have a "CD Quality" 1.4MB stream that is good for exercising your broadband. When you listen to more stuff outside the mainstream (I also like XPN out of Philly) you start finding that eMusic is an incredible bargain for downloading music. I see more and more stuff there that I want all the time and at $20/mo. for 90 non-DRM MP3 downloads (grandfathered old rate) you can't beat it (questionable Russian sites notwithstanding).

I'm a big fan of San Diego's 94.9. I don't know their call letters, but they broadcast from on the southern side of the US/Mexico border, and can somehow reach signal all the way up to L.A.

They stream live over teh intartubes, and I highly recommend "the big sonic chill"

RIAA burn in Timberlake hell.

This is payback for Britney Spears.

I'll chime in with a recommendation for satellite radio. No, it's not free (I pay $12.99/month for my portable receiver that I use at work, and then another $6.99 each for the ones in my living room and car), but there's a lot of fantastic music on there, including some shows dedicated solely to unsigned artists who have sent demos in. Like I said, not free, but a great value.

I distinctly remember a time when buying albums was fun and it seemed like the quality of music coming out was pretty good. Now, the only radio I listen to is NPR. I don't buy albums *physically* anymore either. At this point when I run across good music it's almost by chance. The only time I hear the polished turds being put out by big labels is when I'm waiting for a movie to begin in a theater...and it makes my skin crawl. I'm glad the sales are down on corporate record labels. They have pimped snake oil long enough. Crash and burn!

i've pirated every piece of music i have since back in the napster days. pay for music?!? HA! there are a few new things out there worth listening to (i.e. Deftones) but you gotta dig and scrape just to find it. ever since joe Strummer passed away and the Pixies broke up, music has been on the downslide. even the new Who album sucked (thats right, SUCKED!). record companies force bands to demote pirating songs but the bands themselves hardly make anything off album sales. bands mostly make money by touring and performong live. all record execs should be hung and beaten like pinatas. then set on fire. just remember to cut off the head so it doesnt come back to life...

The record industry was never about music. Never. It has always been a distribution business. The big reason why this is important is in the music business you have to have quality music to produce a profit; in the distribution business you just have to have a product that people generally want and a cost effective manufacturing/delivery chain. therefore the filler wasn't because they don't care; the filler is intentional. If the latest pop 'sensation' only has one good song in her per year, I could a) sell you a really good single annually for a buck, b) wait a decade to get an album's worth of decent material and sell it to you for 15 bucks, c)hire really talented people to help her produce quality music faster thereby increasing my production costs, or d) put the one really good song on a disc with 10 tracks of her breathing heavy and crank out a couple of sexy videos and make my $15 now, and keep doing that every year until people get sick of her (at which point, hopefully she starts "accidentally" flashing her cooch in public to shore up sales). Which do you think the underboss, excuse me, ambitous CEO of the music entertainment division of a global comglomerate is going to go for? And add to that, that up until very recently I had a monopoly on the distribution chain and still have a decent lock on mass market advertising. When art and commerce collide, art gets punched in the ballz.

If a song even has a hint that they are connected to the RIAA I make it a point to download a pirated version. Yes I just hate those fuckers that much, I don't even have to like the song. Come catch me ya fucks!

123 RIAA Sucks Ass Cir.
Planet, Earth 300000

Oh and pick up the mail before you bust in please... I am expecting a package from my dealer.

I haven't bought a CD in years... its all my fault.

And in related news, Clear Channel is going down the toilet. Maybe their idea of the 50-song playlist wasn't what the people wanted after all. We can only hope Infinity will be next!

Well I think what happened with ClearChannel is their business model of buying as many stations as possible, expanding the number of stations under their umbrella, and playing the same music on every single one of them.

What I think will happen is you'll see them start selling off chunks of stations and hopefully this will bring some diversification back to music (though I won't hold my breath).

I think with the multitude of ways that new music can break now to a wide audience will further diminish traditional FM even further.

youtube making stars out of the band 'ok go', blogs spreading the word of bands that would ordinarily be ignored by big media, xm and sirius satellite radio, etc. etc. people are getting their new music fix.

I disagree with most of the posters here; I don't think pop music today is any better/worse than pop 10 or 20 years ago. The reason you think otherwise is because the good songs from the past are replayed, and the crap isn't. Anyone remember Mili Vanilli? Or Mr. Big? Some of that stuff was terrible.

I think what the music industry fears is true - people are still more likely to download music from bittorrent or limewire, and I don't think this will change anytime soon. They have adapted well by providing alternatives like itunes, but they've also left a bad taste in everyone's mouth with the lawsuits (I vow to NEVER buy a Metallica CD after Lars sued his fans).

The point about singles vs. CDs is dead on - labels depended on people to buy an album based on 1 or 2 singles that they hear on the radio. This no longer happens, so I actually predict pop artists will stop producing albums in the future, but instead 2-3 singles at a time.

As for a new sound being needed... I'm in a band, so if anyone has ideas of what that new sound that will change the world will be, I'd be all ears...

95% of the hundreds of CDs I bought last year were either compilations or reissues of 60s to 90s music. Today's music stinks, and 2006 releases were especially smelly!

Here's my most recent personal experience on buying musics...

I went to HMV to buy some CDs after I got paid.

Eh, how do I put this...

Right, the songs is over charged, in my view. And most of the rythem or lyrics are mostly the same through out most of the artists. (Especially Hip Hop)

Most of the songs are kinda lame, you could clearly tell the artist is either really shallow, or he/she has been smoking crack for 1 week straight before entering the studio.

Really, the lyrics are so CHEESEY, it gave me the quivers... (Goose Bumps all over)

Now? Oh, they are just eating dusts at my desk.

Eh, I support downloading music freely, and yeah, I support Piracy for my own means.

In fact, I think Piracy, in controary, has help the music industry for a positive meaning.

Like it or not. Right now, the market is filled with Songs that follows the "Hit Formula", it's all followed in a blue-printed structure. From Rythems to Lyrics.

Of course, there's self-inspire/original artists out there.

Unfortunately, once it becomes a hit, there are tons and tons of "Micic Artists" that'll use the same style.

In the end. We have another "Hit Formula". Except this time, instead created by famous producers/ song writers, it's being produced by an artist.

Thus, I support PIRACY. I support it because I believe it is a way of enforcing competition of quality from us, the customers.

In a way, we, the mass public, are no longer the "RECEIVING END". We no longer having to listen to stuffs we hate, yet having no choices but follow, because that's the only music out there.

I believe Piracy is closing the Monoply of Entertainment Industry.

Of course, nothing should be over done. What I really support is not pure piracy.

My kind of Piracy is downloading the songs for free first. If I love the music, I'll go to the music store to buy them.

If I don't like them, I'll delete the songs.

This is how I got most of my CDs...

However regretably, certain artists do certainly disappointed me with their "Formula Songs" when I went to HMV... I thought I could trust them from their previous works, and I was wrong.

That being said, I can never understand why the entertainers can earn such huge amount of money?

Yes, they work hard, most of them. And Yes, it's pretty much the only skill they have to earn a living.

I can certainly understand if they earn 3 times the salaries from average people.

But, Muti million, 25million-club from hollywood?

This is absurd. I've seen people work harder than they are and still starve every night.

Thus, I don't mind paying money for genuine stuff when I know the money will be "EQUALLY DISTRUBUTED" to the workers in the industry.

However, paying the money just mostly for the profit of certain indiviuals? (ex. Artists, Producers, Company CEOs)

I don't think so. ="=#

Please let me add something here.

I personally support Piracy, because I know I have the will to control not to spread it around to make profit, and the will to delete the files that I dislike, and of course, the will to buy my favorite medias.

Piracy, by defination to me, is solely to on-line sharing.

I don't buy the pirated-burnt CDs from people.

Also, I don't, like most of you do, download musics from the net.

for 3 reasons.

1. I mostly listen to foreign songs, which they don't offer here, and I can't understand those languages.

2. I like CD Quality better. Even if most of the songs aren't my favorite, as long as over 50% of the content is my favorite, I'd buy the CD... and hopfully learn to appriciate the rest of the songs.

3. My family motto. Don't use Credit Cards too often, especially on-line. =_=+

I hope this clears up a few point from the previous posts. I guess not to many people would care anyways, but I'm just lazy for a potential internet debate. (Got a few from other places before.)

Since my methods is based on my self-honourary system, and I know I can pull it off, I don't really think it's practical for others.

So, if you found my methods absurd or un-practical, just remember. I'm merely sharing my experiences here, not spreading them. =_=